Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/248

 240 SPEECH OF EUPHEMUS [vi be sure that help will come to us from Peloponnesus, and ,, . .,,,, „ the Peloponnesiansare far better soldiers Onion ivtttbcstrenglii. ' If you join neUhcr side, than the Athenians. Let no one think you will really be tin- that the caution which professes to be true to both. jj^ Q^<gxQ with both, and therefore gives aid to neither, is just to us or safe for you. Such a policy, though it may pretend to impartiality, is really unjust. For if through your absence the victor overcomes and the vanquished falls, have you not aban- doned the one to his fate, and allowed the other to commit a crime? How much nobler would it be to join your injured kinsmen, and thereby maintain the common interest of Sicily and save the Athenians, whom you call 3'our friends, from doing wrong ! 'To sum up: — We Syracusans are quite aware that You who are Dori- ^here is no use in our dilating to you ans should not betray ov to any one elsc on matters which your kinsmen to loni- ^q^, j^^q^ ^^ ^^gU ^^3 ourselveS. But ans. If they coiquer,. , ym will be absorbed by ^e prefer a prayer to you; and them; if ive conquer^ Solemnly adjure you to consider, that, ive shall punish you. if you reject US, we, who are Dorians like yourselves, are betrayed by you to lonians, our in- veterate enemies, who are seeking our ruin. If the Athenians subdue us, your decision will have gained them the day; but the honour will be all their own, and the authors of their victory will be the prize of their victory. If on the other hand we conquer, you who have brought the peril upon us will have to sufter the penalty. Reflect then, and take your choice : will you have present safety and slavery, or the hope of delivering yourselves and us, and thereby escaping the dishonour of submitting to the Athenian yoke, and the danger of our enmity, which will not be short-lived ? ' 81 Thus spoke Hermocrates. Euphemus, the Athenian envoy, replied as follows : — 82 * We had come to renew our former alliance, but the attack made upon us by the Syracusan envoy renders it