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35.
If it be urged that your reception of us will
be a breach of the treaty existing between you and Lacedaemon, the answer is
that we are a neutral state,
[2]
and that one of the express provisions of that treaty is that it shall be
competent for any Hellenic state that is neutral to join whichever side it
pleases.
[3]
And it is intolerable for Corinth to be allowed to obtain men for her navy
not only from her allies, but also from the rest of Hellas, no small number
being furnished by your own subjects; while we are to be excluded both from the alliance left open to us by
treaty, and from any assistance that we might get from other quarters, and
you are to be accused of political immorality if you comply with our
request.
[4]
On the other hand, we shall have much greater cause to complain of you, if
you do not comply with it;
if we, who are in peril, and are no enemies of yours, meet with a repulse
at your hands,
while Corinth, who is the aggressor and your enemy, not only
meets with no hindrance from you, but is even allowed to draw material for
war from your dependencies.
This ought not to be, but you should either forbid her enlisting men in
your dominions, or you should lend us too what help you may think advisable.
[5]
But your real policy is to afford us avowed
countenance and support. The advantages of this course, as we premised in the beginning of our
speech, are many. We mention one that is perhaps the chief. Could there be a clearer guarantee of our good faith than is offered by the
fact that the power which is at enmity with you, is also at enmity with us,
and that that power is fully able to punish defection.
And there is a wide difference between declining the alliance of an inland
and of a maritime power.
For your first endeavor should be to prevent, if possible, the existence of
any naval power except your own; failing this, to secure the friendship of the strongest that does exist.
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.
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References (34 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(8):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus, 513-862
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 1226
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.3
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.107
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XLVIII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.22
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.29
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.60
- Cross-references to this page
(7):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PREPOSITIONS
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, NEGATIVE SENTENCES
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.1
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.5.3
- William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter IV
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (19):
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