previous next
36. If any man now think thus that what we have spoken is indeed profitable, but fears, if it were admitted, the league were thereby broken, let that man consider that his fear joined with strength will make his enemies fear, and his confidence, having (if he reject us) so much the less strength, will so much the less be feared. Let him also remember that he is now in consultation no less concerning Athens than Corcyra, wherein he forecasteth none of the best (considering the present state of affairs) that makes a question whether against a war at hand and only not already on foot he should join unto it or not that city which with most important advantages or disadvantages will be friend or enemy. [2] For it lieth so conveniently for sailing into Italy and Sicily that it can both prohibit any fleet to come to Peloponnesus from thence and convoy any coming from Peloponnesus thither, and is also for divers other uses most commodious. [3] And to comprehend all in brief, consider whether we be to be abandoned or not by this. For Greece having but three navies of any account, yours, ours, and that of Corinth, if you suffer the other two to join in one by letting the Corinthians first seize us, you shall have to fight by sea at one time both against the Corcyraeans and the Peloponnesians; whereas by making league with us, you shall, with your fleet augmented, have to deal against the Peloponnesians alone. [4]

Thus spake the Corcyraeans, and after them the Corinthians, thus:

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Notes (Charles D. Morris)
load focus Notes (E.C. Marchant)
load focus English (Benjamin Jowett, 1881)
load focus English (1910)
load focus Greek (1942)
hide References (47 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (22):
    • Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 267
    • Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes, 674
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.3
    • T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.57
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER CVIII
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XVIII
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XX
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER LXIX
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.9
    • W. Walter Merry, James Riddell, D. B. Monro, Commentary on the Odyssey (1886), 5.105
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.142
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.22
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.44
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.57
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.90
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.59
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.66
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, SPEECH OF BRASIDAS TO HIS TROOPS.
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.98
    • Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7, 7.43
    • Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7, 7.68
    • Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7, 7.69
  • Cross-references to this page (8):
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.4.2
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.1
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.2.3
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.6.1
    • William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter VI
    • Basil L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, The Particle ἄν
    • Basil L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, Forms of the subject.
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
    • Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, Introduction
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (16):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: