8
At times, you know, they attempt to maintain that they have subjected us to this treatment because we were unwilling to be members of their federation.That is, to join the Boeotian Confederation, of which Thebes held the hegemony, and thus to be tributary (συντελεῖν) to the Thebans. But I ask you to consider, first, if on such grounds it is just to inflict penalties so contrary to justice and so cruel; next, if it seems to you consistent with the dignity of the city of the Plataeans, without their consent but under compulsion, to accept such dependence under the Thebans. For my part, I consider that there exists no people more overbearing than those who blot out the cities of each of us and compel us, when we have no use for it, to participate in their form of polity.
9
Besides this, they are clearly inconsistent in their dealings with others and with us. For when they were unable to gain our consent, they should have gone no farther than to compel us to submit to the hegemony of Thebes as they compelled Thespiae and Tanagra; for in that case we should not have suffered irremediable misfortunes. But as it is, they have made it clear that it was not their intention to give us that status; on the contrary, it was our territory they coveted.
