city, and did not seize it by force.  In the next place, I accepted it, when the city was in league with Philip, not in alliance with you.  Then the consideration of the time acquits me, inasmuch as when I was in actual possession of Argos, the alliance was entered into between you and me, and you stipulated that I should send you aid against Philip, not that I should withdraw my garrison from that city.  In this dispute, therefore, so far as it relates to Argos, I have unquestionably the advantage, both from the equity of the proceeding, as I gained possession of a city which belonged not to you, but to your enemy; and as I gained it by its own voluntary act, and not by forcible compulsion; and also from your own acknowledgment; since, in the articles of our alliance, you left Argos to me.  But then, the name of tyrant, and my conduct, are strong objections against me:  that I call forth slaves to a state of freedom; that I carry out the indigent part of the populace, and give them settlements in lands.  With respect to the title by which I am styled, I can answer thus:  That, let me be what I may, I am the same now that I was at the time when you yourself, Titus Quinctius, concluded an alliance with me.  I remember, that I was then styled king by you; now, I see, I am called tyrant.  If, therefore, I had since altered the style of my office, I might have an account to render of my fickleness:  as you choose to alter it, that account should be rendered by you.  As to what relates to the augmenting the number of the populace, by giving liberty to slaves, and the distribution of lands to the needy; on this head, too, I might defend myself by a reference to time:  These measures, of what complexion soever they are, I had practised before you formed friendship with me, and received my aid in the war against Philip.  But, if I did these same things, at this moment, I would not say to you, how did I thereby injure you, or violate the friendship subsisting between us? but that, in so doing, I acted agreeably to the practice and institutions of my ancestors.  Do not estimate what is done at Lacedaemon by the standard of your own laws and constitution.  There is no necessity for comparing particular institutions:  you are guided in your choice of a horseman, by the quantity of his property; in your choice of a foot soldier, by the quantity of his property; and your plan is, that a few should abound in wealth, and that the body of the people should be in subjection to them.  Our lawgiver did not choose that the administration of government should be in the hands of a few, such as you call a senate; or that this or that order of citizens should have a superiority over the rest:  but he considered that, by equalizing the property and dignity of all, he should multiply the number of those who were to bear arms for their country.  I acknowledge that I have enlarged on these matters, beyond what consists with the conciseness customary with my countrymen, and that the sum of the whole might be comprised in few words:  that, since I first commenced a friendship with you, I have given you no just cause to repent it.”