64.
'You must not be led away by the advice of such citizens as these, nor be angry with
me;1 for the resolution in favour of war was your own as much as mine.
What if the enemy has come and done what he was certain to do when you refused to
yield?
What too if the plague followed?
That was an unexpected blow, but we might have foreseen all the rest.
I am well aware that your hatred of me is aggravated by it.
But how unjustly, unless to me you also ascribe the credit of any extraordinary success which may befall you2!
[2]
The visitations of heaven should be borne with resignation, the sufferings inflicted by
an enemy with manliness.
This has always been the spirit of Athens, and should not die out in you.
[3]
Know that our city has the greatest name in all the world because she has never yielded
to misfortunes, but has sacrificed more lives and endured severer hardships in war than
any other; wherefore also she has the greatest power of any state up to this day; and
the memory of her glory will always survive.
Even if we should be compelled at last to abate somewhat of our greatness (for all
things have their times of growth and decay), yet will the recollection live, that, of
all Hellenes, we ruled over the greatest number of Hellenic subjects;
[4]
that we withstood our enemies, whether single or united, in the most terrible wars, and
that we were the inhabitants of a city endowed with every sort of wealth and greatness.
[5]
The indolent may indeed find fault, but3 the man of
action4 will seek to rival us, and he who is less fortunate will envy us.
To be hateful and offensive has ever been at the time the fate of those who have
aspired to empire.
But he judges well who accepts unpopularity in a great cause.
Hatred does not last long, and, besides the immediate splendour of great actions, the
renown of them endures for ever in men's memories.
[6]
Looking forward to such future glory and present avoidance of dishonour, make an effort
now and secure both.
Let no herald be sent to the Lacedaemonians, and do not let them know that you are
depressed by your sufferings.
For those are the greatest states and the greatest men, who, when misfortunes come, are
the least depressed in spirit and the most resolute in action.'
1 Nothing has happened except the plague but what we all anticipated when we agreed on war. Do not lose the spirit which has made Athens great and, even though she fall, will render her glorious for all time.
2 Cp. 1.400 init.
3 Or, taking καὶ αὐτὸς with βουλόμενος: 'he who is ambitious like ourselves.'
4 Or, taking καὶ αὐτὸς with βουλόμενος: 'he who is ambitious like ourselves.'
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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