Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/141

 33-35] of your empire, are eager to take up arms, and that the

Corinthians, who are your enemies, are all-poweriul with them. They begin with us, but they will go on to you, that we may not stand united against them in the bond of a common enmity; they will not miss the chance of weakening us or strengthening themselves. And it is our business to strike first, we offering and you accepting our alliance, and to forestall their designs instead of waiting to counter- act them.

'If they say that we are their colony and that therefore you have no right to receive us, they should be made to understand that all colonies honour their mother-city when she treats them well, but are estranged from her by injustice. For colonists are not meant to be the servants but the equals of those who remain at home. And the injustice of their conduct to us is manifest : for we proposed an arbitration in the matter of Epidamnus, but they insisted on prosecuting their quarrel by arms and would not hear of a legal trial. When you see how they treat us who are their own kinsmen, take warning : if they try deception, do not be misled by them ; and if they make a direct request of you, refuse. For he passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach him- self with complaisance to his enemies.

'But again, you will not break the treaty with the Lace-

daemonians by receiving us: for we are not allies either of you or of them. What says the treaty?— "Any Hellenic city which is the ally of no one may join whichever league it pleases." And how monstrous, that they should man their ships, not only from their own confederacy, bat from Hellas in general, nay, even from your subjects, while they would debar us from