Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/259

 91,92] SPEECH OF ALCIBIADES 25 1 vantages which you will inflict, by the fortification of Decelea. The whole stock of the country will fall into your hands. The slaves will come over to you of their own accord ; what there is besides will be seized by you. The Athenians will at once be deprived of the revenues which they obtain from the silver mines of Laurium, and of all the profits which they make by the land or by the law courts : above all, the customary tribute will cease to flow in ; for their allies, when they see that you are now carrying on the war in earnest, will not mind them. How 92 far these plans are executed, and with how much speed and energy, Lacedaemonians, depends on you ; for I am confident that they are practicable, and I am not likely to be mistaken. 'You ought not in fairness to think the worse of me because, having been once distinguished Athens has compelled as a lover of my country, I now cast me to be her enemy. She in my lot with her worst foes and is >w longer my country. ,, .,, ,, • Ui ^ct J <lo her evil only attack her with all my might ; or sus- ^,^^^ ^ ^^^^^^ ^.^^^.^ ^^/ pect that I speak only with the eager- ness of an exile. An exile I am indeed ; I have lost an ungrateful country, but I have not lost the power of doing you service, if you will listen to me. The true enemies of my country are not those who, like you, have injured her in open war, but those who have compelled her friends to become her enemies. I love Athens, not in so far as I am wronged by her, but in so far as I once enjoyed the privileges of a citizen. The country which I am attacking is no longer mine, but a lost country which I am seeking to regain. He is the true patriot, not who, when unjustly exiled, abstains from attacking his country, but who in the warmth of his affection seeks to recover her without regard to the means. I desire therefore that you, Lace- daemonians, will use me without scruple in any service however difficult or dangerous, remembering that, accord- ing to the familiar saying, "the more harm I did you as an enemy, the more good can I do you as a friend." For