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16.
‘Athenians, I have a better right
to command than others—I must begin with this as Nicias has
attacked me—and at the same time I believe myself to be worthy of
it.
The things for which I am abused, bring fame to my ancestors and to myself,
and to the country profit besides.
[2]
The Hellenes, after expecting to see our city ruined by the war, concluded
it to be even greater than it really is, by reason of the magnificence with
which I represented it at the Olympic games, when I sent into the lists
seven chariots, a number never before entered by any private person, and won
the first prize, and was second and fourth, and took care to have everything
else in a style worthy of my victory.
Custom regards such displays as honourable, and they cannot be made without
leaving behind them an impression of power.
[3]
Again, any splendour that I may have exhibited at home in providing
choruses or otherwise, is naturally envied by my fellow-citizens, but in the
eyes of foreigners has an air of strength as in the other instance.
And this is no useless folly, when a man at his own private cost benefits
not himself only, but his city:
[4]
nor is it unfair that he who prides himself on his position should refuse
to be upon an equality with the rest.
He who is badly off has his misfortunes all to himself, and as we do not
see men courted in adversity, on the like principle a man ought to accept
the insolence of prosperity; or else, let him first mete out equal measure to all, and then demand to
have it meted out to him.
[5]
What I know is that persons of this kind and all others that have attained
to any distinction, although they may be unpopular in their lifetime in
their relations with their fellow-men and especially with their equals,
leave to posterity the desire of claiming connection with them even without
any ground, and are vaunted by the country to which they belonged, not as
strangers or ill-doers, but as fellow-countrymen and heroes.
[6]
Such are my aspirations, and however I am abused for them in private, the
question is whether any one manages public affairs better than I do.
Having united the most powerful states of Peloponnese, without great danger
or expense to you, I compelled the Lacedaemonians to stake their all upon
the issue of a single day at Mantinea; and although victorious in the battle, they have never since fully
recovered confidence.
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References (49 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(12):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 1225
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes, 1352
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.84
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.86
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XXVIII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER LX
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER LXXXVII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.16
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.49
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.50
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.57
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.89
- Cross-references to this page
(8):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, ADJECTIVES
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.5.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.5.3
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), OLY´MPIA
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), THEO´RI
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), THEO´RICON
- William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter II
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(29):
- LSJ, ἄχρησ-τος
- LSJ, ἀγων-ίζομαι
- LSJ, ἀνταξιόω
- LSJ, αὔχ-ησις
- LSJ, διαπρεπ-ής
- LSJ, ἐπιβό-ητος
- LSJ, ἐπιβο-άω
- LSJ, εὐπρα_γ-έω
- LSJ, φρον-έω
- LSJ, ἰσομοιρ-έω
- LSJ, καθάπτω
- LSJ, καθίημι
- LSJ, καταπολεμ-έω
- LSJ, λαμπρότης
- LSJ, λαμπρ-ύνω
- LSJ, λυ_π-ηρός
- LSJ, μεταχειρ-ίζω
- LSJ, νι_κάω
- LSJ, πολεμέω
- LSJ, πράσσω
- LSJ, προέχω
- LSJ, προσα^γορ-εύω
- LSJ, προσποί-ησις
- LSJ, θεωρ-ία
- LSJ, συνίστημι
- LSJ, τέλος
- LSJ, ὑπέρ
- LSJ, ὑπερφρον-έω
- LSJ, χορηγ-ία
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