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83.
We, therefore, deserve to rule because we
placed the largest fleet and an unflinching patriotism at the service of the
Hellenes, and because these, our subjects, did us mischief by their ready
subservience to the Medes; and, desert apart, we seek to strengthen ourselves against the
Peloponnesians.
[2]
We make no fine professions of having a right to rule because we overthrew
the barbarian single-handed, or because we risked what we did risk for the
freedom of the subjects in question any more than for that of all, and for
our own: no one can be quarrelled with for providing for his proper safety.
If we are now here in Sicily, it is equally in the interest of our
security, with which we perceive that your interest also coincides.
[3]
We prove this from the conduct which the Syracusans cast against us and
which you somewhat too timorously suspect; knowing that those whom fear has made suspicious, may be carried away by
the charm of eloquence for the moment, but when they come to act follow
their interests.
[4]
Now, as we have said, fear makes us hold our
empire in Hellas, and fear makes us now come, with the help of our friends,
to order safely matters in Sicily, and not to enslave any but rather to
prevent any from being enslaved.
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.
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References (14 total)
- Commentary references to this page (3):
- Cross-references to this page
(1):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PARTICLES
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(1):
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 5.89
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(9):
- LSJ, ἀνεπί-φθονος
- LSJ, ἀντί
- LSJ, ἀπρο-φάσιστος
- LSJ, ἐγχείρ-ησις
- LSJ, ἐκεῖ
- LSJ, καλλι^επ-έομαι
- LSJ, περιδεής
- LSJ, προσήκω
- LSJ, σωτηρ-ία
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