We must not attribute the cause to any subsequent misfortunes but to their crimes in the
beginning, as the result of which they were brought to such a disastrous end. So that
anyone would be much more in accord with the truth if he should assert that they first
became subject to the dominion of their present ills at the moment when they attempted to
seize the dominion of the sea,
For because of their supremacy on land and of their stern discipline and of the self
control which was cultivated under it, they readily obtained command of the sea, whereas
because of the arrogance
but conceived that they were licensed to do whatever they pleased and so were plunged into great confusion. For they did not know that this licence which all the world aspires to attain is a difficult thing to manage, that it turns the heads of those who are enamored by it, and that it is in its nature like courtesans, who lure their victims to love but destroy those who indulge this passion.
And yet it has been shown clearly that it has this effect; for anyone can see that those
who have been in the strongest position to do whatever they pleased have been involved in
the greatest disasters, ourselves and the Lacedaemonians first of all. For when these
states, which in time past had governed themselves with the utmost sobriety and enjoyed
the highest esteem,
For we, being hated by our allies and standing in peril of being enslaved, were saved by
the Lacedaemonians;