History of the Peloponnesian War

"But neither toward others nor toward us have they shown themselves honest men; on the contrary, although they are colonists of ours, they have constantly stood aloof from us, and now they are at war with us, claiming that they were not sent out to be ill treated.

But neither did we colonize them to be insulted by them, but to be their leaders and to receive from them all due reverence.

The rest of our colonies, at any rate, honour us, and by our colonists we are beloved more than is any other mother-city.

And it is clear that, if we are acceptable to the majority, it cannot be on good grounds that we are unacceptable to these alone; nor are we making war upon them in a way so unusual without being also signally wronged.

And even if we were at fault, the honourable course for them would have been to make allowance for our temper, in which case it would have been shameful for us to outrage their moderation; but in the insolence and arrogance of wealth they have wronged us in many other ways, and particularly in the case of Epidamnus, our colony, which they made no claim to when it was in distress, but seized by force the moment we came to its relief, and continue to hold.