History of the Peloponnesian War

but if that is not possible, in rivalry of those who so speak, you strive not to appear to have followed his sentiments at second-hand; but when he has said any thing cleverly, you would fain appear to have anticipated its expression by your applause, and are eager to catch beforehand what is said, and at the same time slow to foresee the consequences of it.

Thus you look, so to speak, for something different from the circumstances in which we are actually living; while you have not a sufficient understanding of even that which is before you. In a word, you are overpowered by the pleasures of the ear, and are like men sitting to [*]( Literally, as spectators of them.) be amused by rhetoricians rather than deliberating upon state affairs.

"Wishing then to call you off from this course, I declare to you that the Mytilenaeans have injured you more than any one state ever did.

For I can make allowance for men who have revolted because they could not endure your government, or because they were compelled by their enemies. But for those who inhabited an island with fortifications, and had only to fear our enemies by sea, on which element, too, they were themselves not unprotected against them by a fleet of triremes, and who lived independent, and were honoured in the highest degree by us, and then treated us in this way; what else did those men do than deliberately devise our ruin, and rise up against us, rather than revolt from us, (revolt, at least, is the part of those who are subject to some violent treatment,) and seek to ruin us by siding with our bitterest enemies? Yet surely that is more intolerable than if they waged war against you by themselves for the acquisition of power.

Again, neither were the calamities of their neighbours, who had already revolted from us and been subdued, a warning to them; nor did the good fortune they enjoyed make them loath to come into trouble; but being over-confident with regard to the future, and having formed hopes beyond their power, though less than their desire, they declared war, having determined to prefer might to right; for at a time when they thought they should overcome us, they attacked us, though they were not being wronged.