91.
Ath. 'The fall of our empire, if it should fall, is not an event to which we look forward1 with dismay; for ruling states such as Lacedaemon are not cruel to their vanquished enemies.2 With the Lacedaemonians, however, we are not now contending; the real danger is from our many subject states, who may of their own motion rise up and overcome their masters3. But this is a danger which you may leave to us.
[2]
And we will now endeavour to show that we have come in the interests of our empire, and that in what we are about to say we are only seeking the preservation of your city. For we want to make you ours with the least trouble to ourselves, and it is for the interests of us both that you should not be destroyed.'
1 For ourselves we have no fears. It is you who have to learn the lesson of wheat is expedient both for us and you.
2 Taking ἔστ δὲ . . .ὁ ἀγών as a parenthesis and giving a different sense to πονand αὐτοί. Or, 'And we are fighting not so much against the Lacedaemonians, as against our own subjects who may some day rise up and overcome their former masters.'
3 Taking ἔστ δὲ . . . ὁ ἀγών as a parenthesis and giving a different sense to πονand αὐτοί. Or, 'And we are fighting not so much against the Lacedaemonians, as against our own subjects who may some day rise up and overcome their former masters.'
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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