Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/188

 166 HISTORY OF GREECE. ye are now angry both with me, who advised you to go to war t and with yourselves, who followed the advice. Ye listened to me, considering me superior to others in judgment, in speech, in patriotism, and in incorruptible probity, 1 nor ought I now to be treated as culpable for giving such advice, when in point of fact the war was unavoidable, and there would have been still greater danger in shrinking from it. I am the same man, still unchanged, but ye, in your misfortunes, cannot stand to the convictions which ye adopted when yet unhurt. Extreme and unforeseen, indeed, are the sorrows which have fallen upon you : yet, inhab- iting as ye do a great city, and brought up in dispositions suit- able to it, ye must also resolve to bear up against the utmost pressure of adversity, and never to surrender your dignity. I have often explained to you that ye have no reason to doubt of eventual success in the war, but I will now remind you, more emphatically than before, and even with a degree of ostentation suitable as a stimulus to your present unnatural depression, that your naval force makes you masters, not only of your allies, but of the entire sea, 2 one half of the visible field for action and employment. Compared with so vast a power as this, the temporary use of your houses and territory is a mere trifle, an ornamental accessory not worth considering ; and this, too, if ye preserve your freedom, ye will quickly recover. It was your fathers who first gained this empire, without any of the advan- tages which ye now enjoy ; ye must not disgrace yourselves by losing what they acquired. Delighting as ye all do in the honor and empire enjoyed by the city, ye must not shrink from the toils whereby alone that honor is sustained : moreover, ye now fight, not merely for freedom instead of slavery, but for empire 1 Thucyd. ii, 60. KMTOL ifiol TOIOVTU avdpl bpyi&a&e, of ovdevbf ola/tai fjaauv elvat. yvuvai re TU deovra, KQI tpfiyvtvaai ravra, (j>c2.6noAif TE a? v upeiaouv. 2 Thucyd. ii, 62. drj^uGu de not rode, o fioi doKclre otir' avroi Kunom vnupxov vp.lv fieye'&ovg mpi if TTJV upx^v, ^ r> ^7" & v T0 'f "P' 11 oiiS 1 uv vvv exprjffufnjv KO/tnudeoTt-pav fyovrt rtjv Trpoarroiriaiv, et [$ rX7?}'yuevovf itfiuf napa rd stubs &pav. O?em?e fiev -yiip TUV ^vftfidxuv ftovcv upxsiv iyu de intofyaivu dvo pcpuv TUV If xP^ alt> Qavepuv, y^f /cai tfoiarr^f, roii irepov vfiiif Troirof Kvpiururovf bvraf, e0' oaov TE vvv Kai yv