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71.
Such is Athens, your antagonist.
And yet, Lacedaemonians, you still delay, and fail to see that peace stays
longest with those, who are not more careful to use their power justly than
to show their determination not to submit to injustice.
On the contrary, your ideal of fair dealing is based on the principle that
if you do not injure others, you need not risk your own fortunes in
preventing others from injuring you.
[2]
Now you could scarcely have succeeded in such a policy even with a neighbor
like yourselves; but in the present instance, as we have just shown, your habits are
old-fashioned as compared with theirs.
[3]
It is the law as in art, so in politics, that improvements ever prevail; and though fixed usages may be best for undisturbed communities, constant
necessities of action must be accompanied by the constant improvement of
methods.
Thus it happens that the vast experience of Athens has carried her further
than you on the path of innovation.
[4]
Here, at least, let your procrastination end.
For the present, assist your allies and Potidaea in particular, as you
promised, by a speedy invasion of Attica, and do not sacrifice friends and
kindred to their bitterest enemies, and drive the rest of us in despair to
some other alliance.
[5]
Such a step would not be condemned either by the gods who received our
oaths, or by the men who witnessed them.
The breach of a treaty cannot be laid to the people whom desertion compels
to seek new relations, but to the power that fails to assist its
confederate.
[6]
But if you will only act, we will stand by you; it would be unnatural for us to change, and never should we meet with such
a congenial ally.
[7]
For these reasons choose the right course, and endeavor not to let
Peloponnese under your supremacy degenerate from the prestige that it
enjoyed under that of your ancestors.’
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References (46 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(12):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra, 612
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.7
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.3
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.54
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER CXIV
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XLVIII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER LXXIII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER LXXXVII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XCII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XCVIII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.1
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.26
- Cross-references to this page
(8):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE CASES
- 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.pos=2.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.3
- William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter II
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Selections from the Attic Orators, 4.162
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(26):
- LSJ, δῆλος
- LSJ, ἀκίν-ητος
- LSJ, ἀντικαθίστημι
- LSJ, ἀρκέω
- LSJ, ἀρχαιό-τροπος
- LSJ, αἰσθ-άνομαι
- LSJ, βρα^δυτής
- LSJ, δεῖ
- LSJ, διαμέλλ-ω
- LSJ, διό
- LSJ, ἐπί
- LSJ, ἐπιγίγνομαι
- LSJ, ἐπιτέχν-ησις
- LSJ, ἐπιτρέπ-ω
- LSJ, ἐρημ-ία
- LSJ, εὖ
- LSJ, καινόω
- LSJ, μεταβάλλω
- LSJ, ὅρκ-ιος
- LSJ, ὁρίζω
- LSJ, οὐ
- LSJ, παροικ-έω
- LSJ, πολυ-πειρία
- LSJ, πρός
- LSJ, συνήθης
- LSJ, συνόμνυ_μι
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