De gloria Atheniensium

Thus rightly spoke the great Themistocles to the generals who succeeded him, for whom he had opened a way for their subsequent exploits by driving out the barbarian host and making Greece free. And rightly will it be spoken also to those who pride themselves on their writings; for if you take away the men of action, you will have no men of letters. Take away Pericles’ statesmanship, and Phormio’s trophies for his naval victories at Rhium, and Nicias’s valiant deeds at Cythera and Megara and Corinth, Demosthenes’ Pylos, and Cleon’s four hundred captives, Tolmides’ circumnavigation of the Peloponnesus, and Myronides’ victory over the Boeotians at Oenophyta-take these away and Thucydides is stricken from your list of writers. Take away Alcibiades ’ spirited exploits in the Hellespontine region, and those of Thrasyllus by Lesbos, and the overthrow by Theramenes of the oligarchy, Thrasybulus and Archinus and the uprising of the Seventy from Phyle against the Spartan hegemony, and Conon’s restoration of Athens to her power on the sea - take these away and Cratippus is no more.