History of the Peloponnesian War

For though we often forewarned you what injuries we were going to receive from the Athenians, you did not gain information respecting what we told you from time to time, but rather suspected the speakers of speaking for their own private interests. And for this reason it was not before we suffered, but when we are in the very act of suffering, that you have summoned the allies here; amongst whom we may speak with the greatest propriety, inasmuch as we have also the greatest complaints to make, being insulted by the Athenians, and neglected by you. And if they were an obscure people any where [*]( The που in the original would perhaps be most fully expressed by our colloquial phrase, in some corner or other. ) who were injuring Greece, you might have required additional warning, as not being acquainted with them;

but as it is, why need we speak at any great length, when you see that some of us are already enslaved, and that they are plotting against others, and especially against our allies, and have been for a long time prepared beforehand, in case they should ever go to war.

For they would not else have stolen Corcyra from us, and kept it in spite of us, and besieged Potidaea; of which places, the one is the most convenient for their deriving the full benefit from their possessions Thrace-ward, [*]( Arnold translates it, so as to give you the full benefit of your dominion in the neighbourhood of Thrace. But could the Lacedaemonians be said to have any such dominion, at any rate before the expedition of Brasidas? and does not the πελοποννησίοις in the next sentence seem to he put emphatically, as in opposition to the Athenian dominion just alluded to?) and the other would have supplied the largest navy to the Peloponnesians.

"And for these things it is you who are to blame, by having at first permitted them to fortify their city after the Median war, and subsequently to build the long walls; and by continually up to the present time depriving of liberty, not only those who had been enslaved by them, but your own allies also now. For it is not he who has enslaved them, but he who has the power to stop it, but overlooks it, that more truly does this; especially if he enjoys the reputation for virtue as being the liberator of Greece.

But with difficulty have we assembled now, and not even now for any clearly defined object. For we ought to be considering no longer whether we are injured, but in what way we shall defend ourselves. For the aggressors come with their plans already formed against us who have not made up our minds; at once, and not putting it off. [*]( Or, not merely threatening to attack us, as μέλλησις is used below.)

And we know in what way, and how gradually, the Athenians encroach upon their neighbours. And while they think that they are not observed through your want of perception, [*]( Or, διὰ τὸ ἀναίσθητον ὑμων may be taken with θαρσοῦσι, and be rendered through your not perceiving it. ) they feel less confident; but when they know that you are aware of their designs, but overlook them, they will press on you with all their power.

For you alone of the Greeks, Lacedaemonians, remain quiet, defending yourselves against any one, not by exertion of your power, but by mere demonstration of it;

and you alone put down the power of your enemies, not when beginning, but when growing twice as great as it was. And yet you used to have the name of cautious; but in your case the name, it seems, was more than the reality. For we ourselves know that the Mede came from the ends of the earth to the Peloponnese, before your forces went out to meet him as they should have done; and now the Athenians, who are not far removed, as he was, but close at hand, you overlook; and instead of attacking them, prefer to defend yourselves against their attack, and to reduce yourselves to mere chances in struggling with them when in a much more powerful condition: though you know that even the barbarian was chiefly wrecked upon himself; [*]( i. e. he was himself, as it were, the rock on which his fortune split. Perished by his own folly."—Arnold.) and that with regard to these very Athenians, we have often ere this escaped more by their errors than by assistance from you. For indeed hopes of you have before now in some instances even ruined some, while unprepared through trusting you.

And let none of you think that this is spoken for enmity, rather than for expostulation; for expostulation is due to friends who are in error, but accusation to enemies who have committed injustice.