History of the Peloponnesian War

"And if any one be backward to do so, from being personally afraid of some individual or other, lest I should put the city into the hands of a particular party, let him above all others feel confidence. For I am not come to be a partisan; nor am I minded to bring you a doubtful liberty, as I should do, if, disregarding your hereditary constitution, I should enslave the many to the few, or the few to the many.

For that would be more grievous than foreign dominion;

and towards us Lacedaemonians no obligation would be felt for our exertions, but instead of honour and glory, accusation rather.

And those charges with which we are throwing down the Athenians, we should ourselves seem to incur in a more odious degree than a party which has shown no pretensions to honesty. For to gain advantage by specious trickery is more disgraceful, at any rate for men in high station, than to do it by open violence:

since the one is a case of aggression on the plea of might, which fortune has given; the other, by the insidiousness of a dishonest policy. [*](οὗτω πολλὴν περιωπὴν, κ. τ. λ.] These words should be closely connected with the following clause, καὶ οὐκ ἄν μείζω ... ὡς εἶπον, and the chapter should end at εἶπον, or at ποιούμεθα. —Arnold.) So great care do we take for things which most deeply interest us;

and in addition to oaths, you could not receive a greater assurance than in the case of men whose actions, when viewed in the light of their words, convey a necessary conviction that it is even expedient for them to do as they have said.