The greatest terror with which fortune afflicted Greece is supposed to have been the crossing of Xerxes to Europe.
For then we all were in danger but very few came to grief; first and foremost the Athenians, who, intelligently foreseeing what would happen, abandoned their city, taking their wives and children with them.
Of course at the time they suffered severe damage, for the barbarians became masters of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Athens&groupId=379&placeId=715">Athens</a> and destroyed the town pitilessly. They did not, however, incur any reproach or shame but on the contrary their action was universally regarded as being most glorious, in that, regardless of what might happen to themselves, they decided to throw in their fortunes with the rest of Greece.
And in consequence, by this brave resolve, not only did they at once recover their fatherland and their country, but were soon disputing with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> the hegemony of Greece.
And subsequently, when they were crushed in the war with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, they were actually forced to pull down the walls of their own city;
but it must be said that the fault here lay not with the Athenians but with the Lacedaemonians, who made an oppressive use of the power that Fortune had placed in their hands.
The Spartans again in their turn when defeated by the Thebans lost the hegemony of Greece, and afterwards renouncing all projects of foreign conquest were confined to the limits of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Laconia&groupId=662&placeId=1211">Laconia</a>.
And what disgrace was there in this, if after struggling for the highest prize they so far failed that they had to retire once more to their ancestral dominions?
So all these events may be described as misfortunes but not by any means as disasters.
The Mantineans again were compelled to abandon their city when the Spartans dispersed them and broke them up and to live in villages.
But every one in this case blamed the Spartans, and not the Mantineans for their unwisdom.
The Thebans some time afterwards witnessed the utter destruction of their city when Alexander, intending to cross to Asia, thought that by chastising the Thebans he would frighten the other cities into subjection to him while he was otherwise occupied.
But then every one pitied the Thebans for the cruel and unjust treatment they suffered, and no one attempted to justify this act of Alexander.
Walbank Commentary