“If you say so, I must believe it. Rumour, then, has slandered you?”
“Slandered? Yes, certainly. You remember the scandal about the statues of Hermes. I did not mutilate them, but they have become my destruction.”
“Is that also a lie?”
“It is a lie.”
“But tell me something else. Do you think that it is now the will of the gods that Sparta should conquer Athens?”
“Certainly, as certainly as virtue will conquer vice. Sparta is the home of all the virtues, and Athens of all the vices.”
“Now I understand that you are not the man I took you for, and I will give you the command of the army. Shall we now march against Athens?”
“I am ready!”
“Have you no scruple in marching against your own city?”
“I am a Hellene, not an Athenian, Sparta is the chief city of Hellas.”