History of the Peloponnesian War

Fearing, however, that those who were sent by him, either through incapacity for speaking, or through being deficient [*](γνώμης.] In corroboration of Arnold's argument for this reading in preference to μνήμης, compare the three requisite qualifications of an orator, mentioned II. 60. 5, ὃς οὐδενὸς οἴομαι ἥσσων, εἶναι γνῶναι τε τὰ δέοντα καὶ ἑρμηνεῦσαι ταῦτα, φιλόπολίς τε καὶ χρημάτων κρείσσων, κ. τ. λ.) in sense, or from a wish to say something to please the multitude, should not report the real facts of the case, he wrote a letter, thinking that by this means, more than any other, the Athenians would learn his own sentiments, without their being at all obscured by the messenger, and so would deliberate on the true state of the case.