[11,150] ἴσως ἂν οὖν εἴποι τις ἀνήκοος, Οὐκ ὀρθῶς Ἕλληνας καθαιρεῖς. ἀλλ´ οὐδὲν ἔστιν ἔτι τοιοῦτον, οὐδὲ ἔστι δέος μή ποτε ἐπιστρατεύσωνται ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα τῶν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας τινές· ἥ τε γὰρ Ἑλλὰς ὑφ´ ἑτέροις ἐστὶν ἥ τε Ἀσία. τὸ δὲ ἀληθὲς οὐκ ὀλίγου ἄξιον. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις, εἰ ᾔδειν ὅτι πείσω ταῦτα λέγων, ἴσως ἂν ἐβουλευσάμην εἰπεῖν. ὅμως δὲ μείζω καὶ δυσχερέστερα ὀνείδη φημὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀφελεῖν. (151) τὸ μὲν γὰρ μὴ ἑλεῖν τινα πόλιν οὐδὲν ἄτοπον, οὐδέ γε τὸ στρατεύσαντας ἐπὶ χώραν μηδὲν αὐτοῖς προσήκουσαν ἔπειτα εἰρήνην ποιησαμένους ἀπελθεῖν, οὐδέ γε ἄνδρα ἀγαθὸν ὄντα τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὸ ἀνδρὸς ὁμοίου τελευτῆσαι μαχόμενον, οὐδὲ τοῦτο ὄνειδος· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀποδέξαιτο ἄν τις μέλλων ἀποθνῄσκειν, ὥσπερ ὅ γε Ἀχιλλεὺς πεποίηται λέγων, ὥς μ´ ὄφελ´ Ἕκτωρ κτεῖναι, ὃς ἐνθάδε τέτραφ´ ἄριστος. (152) τὸν δὲ ἄριστον ὄντα τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὑπὸ τοῦ φαυλοτάτου τῶν πολεμίων ἀποθανεῖν τῷ ὄντι μέγα ὄνειδος· ὁμοίως δὲ τὸν νοῦν ἔχειν δοκοῦντα καὶ σωφρονέστατον εἶναι τῶν Ἑλλήνων πρῶτον μὲν τὰ πρόβατα καὶ τοὺς βοῦς ἀποσφάττειν, βουλόμενον ἀποκτεῖναι τοὺς βασιλέας, ὕστερον δὲ αὑτὸν ἀνελεῖν ὅπλων ἕνεκεν αἴσχιστον. (153) πρὸς δὲ τούτοις Ἀστυάνακτα μὲν ἀνδρὸς ἀγαθοῦ παῖδα οὕτως ὠμῶς ἀνελεῖν ῥίψαντας ἀπὸ τοῦ τείχους, καὶ ταῦτα κοινῇ δόξαν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ καὶ τοῖς βασιλεῦσι· Πολυξένην δὲ παρθένον ἀποσφάττειν ἐπὶ τάφῳ καὶ τοιαύτας χεῖσθαι χοὰς τῷ τῆς θεᾶς υἱεῖ· Κασσάνδραν δέ, παναγῆ κόρην, ἱέρειαν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος, ἐν τῷ τεμένει φθαρῆναι τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς, ἐχομένην τοῦ ἀγάλματος, καὶ τοῦτο πρᾶξαι μηδένα τῶν φαύλων μηδὲ τῶν ἀναξίων, ἀλλ´ ὅσπερ ἦν ἐν τοῖς ἀρίστοις· (154) Πρίαμον δὲ τὸν βασιλέα τῆς Ἀσίας ἐν ἐσχάτῳ γήρᾳ κατατρωθέντα παρὰ τὸν τοῦ Διὸς βωμόν, ἀφ´ οὗ τὸ γένος ἦν, ἐπ´ αὐτῷ σφαγῆναι, καὶ μηδὲ τοῦτο εἰργάσθαι μηδένα τῶν ἀφανῶν, ἀλλὰ τὸν τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως υἱόν, καὶ ταῦτα ἑστιαθέντα ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ σωθέντα ὑπ´ ἐκείνου πρότερον· Ἑκάβην δέ, δύστηνον τοσούτων μητέρα παίδων, Ὀδυσσεῖ δοθῆναι ἐπὶ ὕβρει, ὑπό τε τοῦ μεγέθους τῶν κακῶν πάνυ γελοίως κύνα γενέσθαι· τὸν δὲ βασιλέα τῶν Ἑλλήνων τὴν ἱερὰν κόρην τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος, ἣν οὐδεὶς ἐτόλμησε γῆμαι διὰ τὸν θεόν, αὐτὸν ἀγαγέσθαι γυναῖκα, ὅθεν ἔδοξε τεθνηκέναι δικαίως· πόσῳ κρείττω ταῦτα μὴ γενόμενα τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἢ Τροίαν ἁλῶναι;

[11,150] Perhaps, however, some uninformed person may say, " It is not right for you to disparage the Greeks in this way." Well, the situation has changed and there is no longer any fear of an Asiatic people ever marching against Greece. For Greece is subject to others and so is Asia. Besides, the truth is worth a great deal. And in addition to all this, had I known that my words would carry conviction, perhaps I should have decided not to speak at all. But nevertheless I maintain that I have freed the Greeks from reproaches greater and more distressing. That a man should fail in the capture of a city is nothing unusual, nor is it, either, to have made a campaign against a country which was no concern of theirs and then to have retreated after making peace ; and for a man of noble spirit to fall in battle by the hand of a worthy foe, that too is no reproach. Nay, a man who is on the point of death might well meet it as Achilles is represented to have done when he said, " Would that Hector, the most brave Of warriors reared upon the Trojan soil, Had slain me." (152) But for the bravest of the Greeks to be slain by the most contemptible man among the enemy, that indeed is a great reproach ; and likewise for one who was reputed to be a man of intelligence and the most temperate of the Greeks to begin by slaughtering the sheep and oxen when he meant to slay the kings and then to despatch himself, all for the sake of a suit of armour, is most shameful. Furthermore, when Astyanax, the son of a noble warrior, is so brutally slain by being hurled from the city walls, and indeed by the united decision of army and kings ; when the maiden Polyxena is sacrificed at the tomb and such libations are made to the son of a goddess ; when Cassandra, a consecrated maiden and priestess of Apollo, is outraged in the sanetuary of Athena while clinging to the goddess' statue, and this is done, not by some obscure or worthless man, but by one of the most prominent leaders ; when Priam, the king of Asia, in extreme old age is wounded beside the altar of Zeus, from whom he was descended, and is slaughtered upon it, and no obscure man perpetrates this deed either, but the very son of Achilles, in spite of the fact that Achilles, his father, had entertained Priam and spared his life on a former occasion ; when Hecuba, the sorrow-stricken mother of so many children, is given to Odysseus to her shame and under the weight of her miseries is changed to a dog — an utterly ridiculous idea; and when the lord of the Greeks takes as his bride that holy virgin of Apollo, whom no one had dared to marry for fear of the god—an act for which he is held to have met a deserved fate—how much better for the Greeks never to have committed these excesses than to have captured Troy!