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63.
Let this suffice to excuse us for our Medism.
We will now endeavor to show that you have injured the Hellenes more than
we, and are more deserving of condign punishment.
[2]
It was in defence against us, say you, that you became allies and citizens
of Athens.
If so, you ought only to have called in the Athenians against us, instead
of joining them in attacking others: it was open to you to do this if you
ever felt that they were leading you where you did not wish to follow, as
Lacedaemon was already your ally against the Mede, as you so much insist; and this was surely sufficient to keep us off, and above all to allow you
to deliberate in security.
Nevertheless, of your own choice and without compulsion you chose to throw
your lot in with Athens.
[3]
And you say that it had been base for you to betray your benefactors; but it was surely far baser and more iniquitous to sacrifice the whole body
of the Hellenes, your fellow-confederates, who were liberating Hellas, than
the Athenians only, who were enslaving it.
[4]
The return that you made them was therefore neither equal nor honorable,
since you called them in, as you say, because you were being oppressed
yourselves, and then became their accomplices in oppressing others; although baseness rather consists in not returning like for like than in
not returning what is justly due but must be unjustly paid.
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.
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References (30 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(13):
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.36
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.55
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.101
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.37
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.56
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.61
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.62
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.64
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.66
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.67
- Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.86
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER LV
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER LXI
- Cross-references to this page
(3):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PREPOSITIONS
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, NEGATIVE SENTENCES
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PLATAEA
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(1):
- Plutarch, Nicias, Plut. Nic. 6
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (13):
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