Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/167

 73. 74] SPEECH OF THE A THENIANS 51 Salamis. Thereby he was prevented from saihng to the Peloponnesus and ravaging city after city ; for against so mighty a fleet how could you have helped one another? He himself is the best witness of our words ; for when he was once defeated at sea, he felt that his power was gone and quickly retreated with the greater part of his army. 'The event proved undeniably that the fate of Hellas 74 depended on her navy. And the three chief elements of success were contributed by us; namely, the greatest number of ships, the ablest general, the most devoted patriotism. The ships in all numbered four hundred a and of these, our own contingent amounted to nearly two-thirds. To the influence of Themistocles our general it was chiefly due that we fought in the strait, which was confessedly our salvation ; and for this service you your- selves honoured him above any stranger who ever visited you. Thirdly, we displa3^ed the most extraordinary courage and devotion ; there was no one to help us by land ; for up to our frontier those who lay in the enemy's path were already slaves; so we determined to leave our city and sacrifice our homes. Even in that extremity we did not choose to desert the cause of the allies who still resisted, or by dispersing ourselves to become useless to them; but we embarked and fought, taking no offence at your failure to assist us sooner. We maintain then that we rendered you a service at least as great as you rendered us. The cities from which you came to help us were still inhabited and you might hope to return to them ; your concern was for yourselves and not for us ; at any rate you remained at a distance while we had anything to lose. But we went forth from a city which was no more, and fought for one of which there was small hope ; and yet we saved ourselves, and bore our part in saving you. If, in order to preserve our land, like other states, we had gone over to the Persians at first, or afterwards had not ventured E 2
 * Reading with the great majority of MSS. TirpaKoaia