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86.
And for myself, I have come here not to hurt
but to free the Hellenes, witness the solemn oaths by which I have bound my
government that the allies that I may bring over shall be independent; and besides my object in coming is not by force or fraud to obtain your
alliance, but to offer you mine to help you against your Athenian masters.
[2]
I protest, therefore, against any suspicions of my intentions after the
guarantees which I offer, and equally so against doubts of my ability to
protect you, and I invite you to join me without hesitation.
[3]
Some of you may hang back because they have
private enemies, and fear that I may put the city into the hands of a party:
none need be more tranquil than they.
[4]
I am not come here to help this party or that; and I do not consider that I should be bringing you freedom in any real
sense, if I should disregard your constitution, and enslave the many to the
few or the few to the many.
[5]
This would be heavier than a foreign yoke; and we Lacedaemonians instead of being thanked for our pains, should get
neither honour nor glory, but contrariwise reproaches.
The charges which strengthen our hands in the war against the Athenians
would on our own showing be merited by ourselves, and more hateful in us
than in those who make no pretensions to honesty;
[6]
as it is more disgraceful for persons of character to take what they covet
by fair-seeming fraud than by open force; the one aggression having for its justification the might which fortune
gives, the other being simply a piece of clever roguery.
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References (35 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(7):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 637
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone, 1289
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone, 84
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.43
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.45
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.89
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Selections from the Attic Orators, 5
- Cross-references to this page (3):
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(1):
- Isocrates, To Philip, Isoc. 5 104
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(24):
- LSJ, ἄρα^
- LSJ, ἀξιόω
- LSJ, ἀπα?́τ-η
- LSJ, ἀπρό-θυ_μος
- LSJ, δέ
- LSJ, ἐμφαν-ής
- LSJ, ἐχθ-ίων
- LSJ, εὐπρεπ-ής
- LSJ, καθίστημι
- LSJ, κατακτάομαι
- LSJ, καταλαμβάνω
- LSJ, καταπολεμ-έω
- LSJ, μάλα
- LSJ, ὅρκος
- LSJ, πάτριος
- LSJ, πᾶς
- LSJ, παρέρχομαι
- LSJ, περι-πέμπω
- LSJ, πίστις
- LSJ, προστίθημι
- LSJ, συστα^σ-ιάζω
- LSJ, ὑποδείκ-νυ_μι
- LSJ, ὑποπτ-εύω
- LSJ, χάρις
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