Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/183

 io7-iii] THE MELIAN CONTROVERSY 1 75 concern, but nearer home, for the preservation of your confederacy and of your own territory.' Ath. 'Help may come from Lacedaemon to you as it iii has come to others, and should you ji,it and you will ever have actual experience of it, tHen see. Nothing which you .,11 .1 ^ 1 say is to the poiut. You you will know that never once have J., ,i,u„i,a by a fahe the Athenians retired from a siege sense of honour. Think through fear of a foe elsewhere. You again. told us that the safety of your city would be your first care, but we remark that, in this long discussion, not a word has been uttered by you which would give a reasonable man expectation of deliverance. Your strongest grounds are hopes deferred, and what power you have is not to be compared with that which is already arrayed against you. Unless after we have withdrawn you mean to come, as even now you may, to a wiser conclusion, you are showing a great want of sense. For surely you cannot dream of flying to that false sense of honour which has been the ruin of so many when danger and dishonour were staring them in the face. Many men with their eyes still open to the consequences have found the word "honour" too much for them, and have suffered a mere name to lure them on, until it has drawn down upon them real and irretrievable calamities; through their own folly they have incurred a worse dishonour than fortune would have inflicted upon them. If you are wise you will not run this risk; you ought to see that there can be no disgrace in yielding to a great city which invites you to become her ally on reasonable terms, keeping your own land, and merely paying tribute ; and that you will cer- tainly gain no honour if, having to choose between two alternatives, safety and war, you obstinately prefer the worse. To maintain our rights against equals, to be politic with superiors, and to be moderate towards infe- riors is the path of safety. Reflect once more when we have withdrawn, and say to yourselves over and over again that 3'ou are deliberating about 3'our one and only