20.
‘But for us both, if ever it were good to agree, it is surely so at this present and before any irreparable accident be interposed.
Whereby we should be compelled, besides the common, to bear you a particular eternal hatred, and you be deprived of the commodities we now offer you.
[2]
Let us be reconciled while matters stand undecided, and whilst you have gained reputation and our friendship, and we not suffered dishonour and but indifferent loss.
And we shall not only ourselves prefer peace before war, but also give a cessation of their miseries to all the rest of the Grecians, who will acknowledge it rather from you than us.
For they make war not knowing whether side begun;
but if an end be made, which is now for the most part in your own hands, the thanks will be yours.
[3]
And by decreeing the peace, you may make the Lacedaemonians your sure friends, inasmuch as they call you to it and are therein not forced but gratified.
[4]
Wherein consider how many commodities are like to ensue.
For if we and you go one way, you know the rest of Greece, being inferior to us, will honour us in the highest degree.’
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Thucydides. Thomas Hobbes. translator. London. Bohn. 1843.
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