History of the Peloponnesian War

not that they may avoid committing injustice with other, but that they may commit them by themselves; and that wherever they have the power, they may act with violence; and where they escape observation, they may take unfair advantage; and if in any case they have seized on something, they may not be put to the blush.

And yet, if they were, as they say, honest men, the more impregnable they were to their neighbours, the more manifestly might they have shown their virtue, by giving and taking what was just.

"But neither to others nor to us are they of such a character; but although our colonists, they have all along revolted from us, and are now making war upon us; saying that they were not sent out to be ill-treated.