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143.
Even if they were to touch the moneys at
Olympia or Delphi, and try to seduce our foreign sailors by the temptation
of higher pay, that would only be a serious danger if we could not still be
a match for them, by embarking our own citizens and the aliens resident
among us.
But in fact by this means we are always a match for them; and, best of all, we have a larger and higher class of native coxswains and
sailors among our own citizens than all the rest of Hellas.
[2]
And to say nothing of the danger of such a step, none of our foreign
sailors would consent to become an outlaw from his country, and to take
service with them and their hopes, for the sake of a few days' high pay.
[3]
This, I think, is a tolerably fair account of
the position of the Peloponnesians; that of Athens is free from the defects that I have criticized in them, and
has other advantages of its own, which they can show nothing to equal.
[4]
If they march against our country we will sail against theirs, and it will
then be found that the desolation of the whole of Attica is not the same as
that of even a fraction of Peloponnese; for they will not be able to supply the deficiency except by a battle,
while we have plenty of land both on the islands and the continent.
[5]
The rule of the sea is indeed a great matter.
Consider for a moment.
Suppose that we were islanders: can you conceive a more impregnable
position?
Well, this in future should, as far as possible, be our conception of our
position.
Dismissing all thought of our land and houses, we must vigilantly guard the
sea and the city.
No irritation that we may feel for the former must provoke us to a battle
with the numerical superiority of the Peloponnesians.
A victory would only be succeeded by another battle against the same
superiority: a reverse involves the loss of our allies, the source of our
strength, who will not remain quiet a day after we become unable to march
against them.
We must cry not over the loss of houses and land but of men's lives; since houses and land do not gain men, but men them.
And if I had thought that I could persuade you, I would have bid you go out
and lay them waste with your own hands, and show the Peloponnesians that
this at any rate will not make you submit.
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.
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References (33 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(9):
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.3
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.44
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.40
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.1
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XXIX
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XC
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.74
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.89
- Gilbert A. Davies, Commentary on Demosthenes: Philippics I, II, III, 51
- Cross-references to this page
(5):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, SYNTAX OF THE COMPOUND SENTENCE
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.4.2
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), METOECUS
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(2):
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 3.16
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 6.34
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(17):
- LSJ, Ὀλυμπ-ία
- LSJ, Δελφοί
- LSJ, ἀμα^χ-εί
- LSJ, ἀντιλαμβάνω
- LSJ, δέχομαι
- LSJ, δόσις
- LSJ, ἰσχ-ύω
- LSJ, κι_νέω
- LSJ, κρα?́τιστ-ος
- LSJ, κράτος
- LSJ, μέμφομαι
- LSJ, ὀλόφυρ-σις
- LSJ, ὀργ-ίζω
- LSJ, πλέω
- LSJ, σκέπ-τομαι
- LSJ, συνα^γων-ίζομαι
- LSJ, ὑπηρεσ-ία
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