Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/184

 176 ANSWER OF THE MELIANS [v country, which may be saved or may be destroyed by a single decision.' 112 The Athenians left the conference: the Melians, after The Melians refuse Consulting among themselves, resolved to yield. to pcrsevere in their refusal, and made answer as follows : — ' Men of Athens, our resolution is un- changed ; and we will not in a moment surrender that liberty which our city, founded seven hundred years ago, still enjoys; we will trust to the good fortune which, by the favour of the Gods, has hitherto preserved us, and for human help to the Lacedaemonians, and endeavour to save ourselves. We are ready however to be your friends, and the enemies neither of you nor of the Lacedaemonians, and we ask you to leave our country when you have made such a peace as may appear to be in the interest of both parties.* 113 Such was the answer of the Melians; the Athenians, as Last words of the they quitted the conference, spoke as Athenians. follows : — ' Well, we must say, judging from the decision at which you have arrived, that you are the only men who deem the future to be more certain than the present, and regard things unseen as already realised in your fond anticipation, and that the more 3'ou cast your- selves upon the Lacedaemonians and fortune and hope, and trust them, the more complete will be your ruin.' 114 The Athenian envoys returned to the army; and the The Athenians block- generals, when they found that the ade Melos. Melians would not yield, immediately commenced hostilities. They surrounded the town of Melos with a wall, dividing the work among the several contingents. They then left troops of their own and of their allies to keep guard both by land and by sea, and retired with the greater part of their army ; the remainder carried on the blockade. 115 About the same time the Argives made an inroad into Phliasia, and lost nearly eighty men, who were caught in an ambuscade by the Phliasians and the Argive exiles.