History of the Peloponnesian War

"I say then, that you wish, though leaving many enemies behind you here, to bring hither fresh ones besides, by sailing there.

And you fancy, perhaps, that the treaty that has been made by you affords some ground of confidence. But though, as long as you remain quiet, that will, indeed, be a treaty—in name, (for to this condition have certain persons here and amongst your enemies brought it by their intrigues,) yet if we are ever defeated with any considerable force, those who hate us will quickly make an attack upon us; seeing, in the first place, that the arrangement was made of necessity by them, under circumstances of disaster, and of greater discredit to them than to us; and, secondly, that in this very arrangement we have many subjects open to debate.

There are some, too, who have not yet acceded even to this composition, such as it is, and those not the least powerful states; but some of them are at war with us downright, and, in the case of others, because the Lacedaemonians remain quiet at present, they too are restrained by truces from one ten days to another.

But probably, if they should find our power divided, (which we are now so anxious to bring about,) they would with all their might attack us, in conjunction with the Siceliots, whose alliance they would in time past have valued [*]( Literally, above many things. Compare I. 33.) most highly.

Every one therefore ought to look to this, and not presume to run risks with a state so unsettled, and to grasp at another empire before we have secured the one we have; seeing that the Chalcidians Thrace-ward, though they have revolted from us so many years, are still unsubdued; and there are some others on the different coasts of the mainland who yield us but a doubtful obedience. And so we are quick to succour the Segestans, who are our allies, for sooth, as being injured; but on those by whose revolt we have ourselves long ago been injured, we still defer to avenge ourselves.