History of the Peloponnesian War

Consider then, even after we have retired; and reflect again and again, that it is for your country that you are consulting, [*]( The construction of this sentence, according to the common reading, is abandoned as desperate by all the editors. Göller and Bloomfield substitute ἴστε for ἔσται; but Poppo protests strongly against the change. With due deference to such authorities, I would venture to ask, whether the text, as it stands, may not be explained by supposing δουλεύεσθαι to be understood with ἔσται—the infinitive being suggested by the indicative at the end of the antecedent clause—and referring ἣν not to πατρίδος as has been done hitherto, but to βουλήν. ἐς μίαν would then stand without its substantive, as it does Horm. Il. 2. 379, though in a different sense. Or, if that be considered a difficulty, it would perhaps be nothing inconsistent with the frequently careless style of Thucydides to suppose a confusion of two expressions, so that both ἥν and μίαν should be left in concord with βουλήν The sense of the passage would certainly be more natural, and the construction easier, if ἧς could be substituted for ἥν: but as MSS. afford no authority for the change, and as it does not appear absolutely necessary, it might be considered rash to adopt it.) which you can do but for one country, and for once, whether it prove successful or unsuccessful.

So the Athenians retired from the conference; and the Melians, having been left to themselves, as they still thought pretty nearly the same as they had maintained in the discussion, gave the following answer: