Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/110

 #8 HISTORY OF GREECE. few ; trained seamen, yet fewer ; wealth, next to none. They could indeed invade and ravage Attica, by their superior num- bers and land-force : but the Athenians had possessions abroad sufficient to enable them to dispense with the produce of Attica, while their great navy would retaliate the like ravages upon Peloponnesus. To suppose that one or two devastating expedi- tions into Attica would bring the war to an end, would be a de- plorable error : such proceedings would merely enrage the Athe- nians, without impairing their real strength, and the war would thus be prolonged, perhaps, for a whole generation. 1 Before they determined upon war, it was absolutely necessary to provide more efficient means for carrying it on ; and to multiply their allies, not merely among the Greeks, but among foreigners also : while this was in process, envoys ought to be sent to Athens to remonstrate and obtain redress for the grievances of the allies. If the Athenians granted this, which they very probably would do, when they saw the preparations going forward, and when the ruin of the highly-cultivated soil of Attica was held over them in terrorem without being actually consummated, so much the better : if they refused, in the course of two or three years war might be commenced with some hopes of success. Archidamus reminded his countrymen that their allies would hold them responsible for the good or bad issue of what was now determined ; 2 admonishing them, in the true spirit of a conser- vative Spartan, to cling to that cautious policy which had been ever the characteristic of the state, despising both taunts on their tardiness and panegyric on their valor. " We, Spartans, owe both our bravery and our prudence to our admirable public dis- cipline : it makes us warlike, because the sense of shame is most closely connected with discipline, as valor is with the sense of shame : it makes us prudent, because our training keeps us too ignorant to set ourselves above our own institutions, and holds us tfiTitLj)oraroi e ! ai, teal rotf u/l/lotf uTraoiv apiara e^T/prvvrai, K^OVTU re i6it,> Kal irjfioaiif) not vavai KOI imroif /cat fi-xhoif, /cat o^.w. bao<; oi>K ev U*A.?M in ye x u p' l( t > 'EA/ljyi't/cGj tarlv, In 6e nal ff^ua^ovf Tro/lP.ot'f onov viro ^oi'fft, Trijf %pi] irpbf rovTovf ppSiuf irbfa[j.ov &paadai, /cat rivi -Ki 1 Thucyd. i, 81. <5f<!ot/ca cJ? fj.a^ov pr) nal rotf iraifflv aiirbv v etc. * Thucvd. 5, 82,