History of the Peloponnesian War

"Remembering these things, you must fight to the last with all your strength and not allow yourselves to be driven ashore, but when ship collides with ship be resolved never to separate until you have swept into the sea the hoplites on the enemy's decks.

And these things I urge upon the hoplites not less than upon the sailors, inasmuch as such work belongs rather to those on deck; and, besides, we still have the better of the enemy in most points with our land-force.

As for the sailors, I exhort them, and at the same time I even implore them, not to be overmuch dismayed by our calamities, since the forces we now have on the decks are better and our ships more numerous; and I would have you—those of you that is who have hitherto been accounted Athenians without being so[*](Referring to the resident aliens; cf. Schol. τοὺς μετοίκους λέγει)—reflect how well worth preserving is the proud feeling that because of your knowledge of our language and your imitation of our ways you have been admired through. out Hellas, and in point of advantage have had no less a share in our empire than ourselves, while as regards the fear you inspired in our subjects and the freedom from injury you enjoyed you have had a much greater share.

Do you, therefore, who alone are partners with us in our empire as free men, be just and do not utterly betray it; but with scorn both for the Corinthians, whom you have frequently beaten, and for the Siceliots, not one of whom, when our navy was at its best, ever presumed even to stand up against us, ward them off; and show that even amid weakness and misfortune your skill is more than a match for the strength and good fortune of your opponents.