Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/162

 46 SPEECH OF THE CORINTHIANS [i US, and why are they blockading Potidaea, the latter a most advantageous post for the command of the Thracian peninsula, the former a great naval power which might have assisted the Peloponnesians ? 69 'And the blame of all this rests on you; for you wiio have enslaved Originally allowed them to fortify their Hellas by not prevent- city after the Persian War", and after- ins her^ enslavement. ^^^^^^ ^^ j^^jj ^ ^j^^j^ ^ong Walls '' ; and to this hour you have gone on defrauding of liberty their unfortunate subjects, and are now beginning to take it away from your own allies. For the true enslaver of a people is he who can put an end to their slavery but has no care about it ; and all the more, if he be reputed the champion of liberty in Hellas.— And so we have met at last, but with what difficulty ! and even now we have no definite object. By this time we ought to have been considering, not whether we are wronged, but how we are to be revenged. The aggressor is not now threatening, but advancing ; he has made up his mind, while we are resolved about nothing. And we know too well how by slow degrees and with stealthy steps the Athenians en- croach upon their neighbours. While they think that you are too dull to observe them, they are more careful, but, when they know that you wilfully overlook their aggres- sions, they will strike and not spare. Of all Hellenes, Lacedaemonians, you are the only people who never do anything : on the approach of an enemy you are content to defend yourselves against him, not by acts, but by intentions, and seek to overthrow him, not in the infancy but in the fulness of his strength. How came you to be considered safe ? That reputation of yours was never justified by facts. We all know that the Persian made his way from the ends of the earth against Peloponnesus before you encountered him in a worthy manner; and now you are blind to the doings of the Athenians, who ' Cp. i. 90 92. »> Cp. i. 107.