History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

Thucydides. The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Hobbes, Thomas. translator. London: John Bohn, 1843.

When Admetus not long after returned, he made himself known to him and desired him that though he had opposed him in some suit in Athens, not to revenge it on him now in the time of his flight, saying that being now the weaker, he must needs suffer under the stronger, whereas noble revenge is of equals upon equal terms; and that he had been his adversary but in matter of profit, not of life, whereas, if he delivered him up (telling him withal for what and by whom he was followed), he deprived him of all means of saving his life. Admetus having heard him bade him arise together with his son whom he held as he sat, which is the most submissive supplication that is.

Not long after came the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians; and though they alleged much to have him, yet he delivered him not but sent him away by land to Pydna upon the other sea (a city belonging to Alexander) because his purpose was to go to the king, where finding a ship bound for Ionia, he embarked and was carried by foul weather upon the fleet of the Athenians that besieged Naxos.

Being afraid, he discovered to the master (for he was unknown) who he was and for what he fled, and said that unless he would save him, he meant to say that he had hired him to carry him away for money; and that to save him, there needed no more but this, to let none go out of the ship till the weather served to be gone; to which if he consented, he would not forget to requite him according to his merit. The master did so; and having lain a day and a night at sea upon the fleet of the Athenians, he arrived afterward at Ephesus.