[210] ἀνάσπαστοί γε γενόμενοι καθ´ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν Ἀθήνησι περὶ τῶν παρ´ ἑαυτοῖς (210) ὑφέξοντες λόγον, κληρούχων τε σφίσιν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν πεμπομένων καὶ παρὰ τοὺς φόρους ἀργυρολόγων, εἴ που χρεία κατάσχοι ἑτέρα· προσέτι τάς τε ἀκροπόλεις ἐλευθέρας ἔχειν οὐ δυνάμενοι καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς δημαγωγοῖς ὄντες τοῖς ἐκείνων, εὖ καὶ χεῖρον φρονοῦσιν ὁμοίως, στρατεύσασθαί τε ἀναγκαζόμενοι στρατείας οὐκ ἀναγκαίας ἐν ἱερομηνίαις καὶ ἑορταῖς πολλάκις, ὡς δ´ εἰπεῖν ἁπλῶς, οὐδὲν τηλικοῦτον τῆς προστασίας ἀπολαύοντες ἀνθ´ ὅτου ταῦτα ἄξιον ἦν ὑπομεῖναι. δυσχεραίνοντες δ´ ἐκ τούτων τοὺς Ἀθηναίους οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους πάλιν μεταστάντες τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ὅνπερ πρότερον ἀπ´ ἐκείνων πρὸς τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, ὑπ´ ἐκείνων πάλιν ἐξηπατήθησαν. προειπόντες γὰρ ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐλευθερίας πολεμήσειν Ἀθηναίοις καὶ τούτῳ προσαγόμενοι τοὺς πολλοὺς, ἐπειδὴ καθεῖλον ἐκεῖνοι τὰ τείχη καὶ κύριοι τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ τοῦ ταῦτα ποιεῖν ἐγένοντο, τοσοῦτον ὑπερεβάλλοντο ὥστε τυραννίδας ἐν πάσαις ταῖς Ἑλληνίσι πόλεσι κατέστησαν, ἃς προσεῖπον εὐφήμως δεκαρχίας· καὶ μίαν καθελόντες τὴν Ἀθηναίων δυναστείαν πολλὰς τὰς παρ´ αὑτῶν ἀντεισῆγον, αἳ οὐκ Ἀθήνησιν οὐδ´ ἐν Σπάρτῃ διὰ τέλους κακῶς ἐποίουν τοὺς ἀρχομένους, ἀλλ´ ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς σφετέροις ἑκάστου χωρίοις συνεχῶς ἱδρυμέναι καὶ οἷον συμπεπλεγμέναι. ὥστ´ εἰ ἀρχόμενοι τοῦ πολέμου προεῖπον τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ὅτι ὑπὲρ τούτου πολεμήσουσιν Ἀθηναίοις, ὅπως μείζω καὶ πλείω σφᾶς ἐκείνων κακὰ ἐργάσαιντο καὶ δείξαιεν ἐλευθερίαν αὐτοῖς ὄντα τὰ ἀπ´ ἐκείνων, μὴ ἂν αὐτοὺς ἄμεινον βεβαιῶσαι τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν. καὶ γὰρ οὖν ἡττῶντο μὲν εὐθέως ἑνὸς φυγάδος, κατελείποντο δὲ ὑπὸ Θηβαίων, ἐμισοῦντο δὲ ὑπὸ Κορινθίων, ἐπίμπλατο δὲ ἡ θάλαττα τῶν ἁρμοστῶν ἐκπιπτόντων, ἅτε ἀναρμόστων καὶ οὐ κατὰ τοὔνομα ἐγκατασταθέντων τε καὶ ἐχόντων τὰς πόλεις.

[210] They were dragged away every year to stand trial in Athens for their own internal afairs. They had landlords from Athens set over them; and besides the tribute, Athens would send out ships to forage for additional money, whenever needed. Furthermore, they were not allowed to keep their citadels in their own hands, and they were at the mercy of responsible and irresponsible Athenian politicians alike. They were forced, often during religious celebrations and festivals, to serve in campaigns that Athens had not been forced to undertake. To state it simply, they got nothing from her patronage important enough to warrant putting up with all this. Disgusted therefore with Athens, most of them went over once more to the Lacedaemonians, the same way as previously they had deserted the Lacedaemonians for the Athenians. And once more they were double-crossed the same way. The Lacedaemonians had proclaimed that they were going to war against Athens for the freedom of Greece. They thereby rallied most of the Greeks to their side. But once they had torn down the walls of Athens and made themselves all-powerful masters of the situation, they then went way beyond the Athenians. In all Greek cities, they set up dictatorships, which they innocuously labeled "Boards of Ten." They overthrew one despotism, the Athenian, and replaced it with a multitude of despotisms of their own, which mistreated their subjects from headquarters not in Athens or Sparta, but permanently established right on the spot — a net, so to speak, over each city. If at the beginning of the war the Lacedaemonians had proclaimed to the Greeks, "We will fight the Athenians in order to do you more and greater harm than they did, and to prove that what you got from them was freedom," they could not have kept their word any better. They were promptly defeated by a lone exile, deserted by the Thebans, hated by the Corinthians. The sea was full of Spartan governors driven out for misgovernment by the cities where they had been installed and had maintained a regime untrue to their title.