History of the Peloponnesian War

But to become skilful at sea will not easily be acquired by them.

For not even have you, though practising from the very time of the Median war, brought it to perfection as yet; how then shall men who are agriculturalists and not mariners, and, moreover, will not even be permitted to practise, from being always [*](ἐφορμεῖν means properly to lie at anchor, or take up a station, with a hostile purpose; hence, to observe the movements of an enemy, with a view to attack him; or, frequently, to blockade him. ) observed by us with many ships, achieve any thing worth speaking of?

Against a few ships observing them they might run the risk, encouraging their ignorance by their numbers; but when kept in check by many, they will remain quiet; and through not practising will be the less skilful, and therefore the more afraid. For naval service is a matter of art, like any thing else;

and does not admit of being practised just when it may happen, as a by-work; but rather does not even allow of any thing else being a by-work to it.

"Even if they should take some of the funds at Olympia or Delphi, and endeavour, by higher pay, to rob us of our foreign sailors, that would be alarming, if we were not a match for them, by going on board ourselves and our resident aliens; but now this is the case; and, what is best of all, we have native steersmen, and crews at large, more numerous and better than all the rest of Greece.

And with the danger before them, none of the foreigners would consent to fly his country, and at the same time with less hope of success to join them in the struggle, for the sake of a few days' higher pay. The circumstances of the Peloponnesians then seem, to me at least, to be of such or nearly such a character;

while ours seem both to be free from the faults I have found in theirs, and to have other great advantages in more than an equal degree.

Again, should they come by land against our country, we will sail against theirs; and [*]( Literally, it will no longer be the same thing for some part of the Peloponnese to be ravaged, and for the whole of Attica. ) the loss will be greater for even a part of' the Peloponnese to be ravaged, than for the whole of Attica. For they will not be able to obtain any land in its stead without fighting for it; while we have abundance, both in islands and on the mainland. Moreover, consider it [in this point of view]: if we had been islanders, who would have been more impregnable?