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80.
‘I have not lived so long,
Lacedaemonians, without having had the experience of many wars, and I see
those among you of the same age as myself, who will not fall into the common
misfortune of longing for war from inexperience or from a belief in its
advantage and its safety.
[2]
This, the war on which you are now debating, would be one of the greatest
magnitude, on a sober consideration of the matter.
[3]
In a struggle with Peloponnesians and neighbors our strength is of the same
character, and it is possible to move swiftly on the different points.
But a struggle with a people who live in a distant land, who have also an
extraordinary familiarity with the sea, and who are in the highest state of
preparation in every other department; with wealth private and public, with ships, and horses, and heavy infantry,
and a population such as no one other Hellenic place can equal, and lastly a
number of tributary allies—what can justify us in rashly beginning
such a struggle? wherein is our trust that we should rush on it unprepared?
[4]
Is it in our ships?
There we are inferior; while if we are to practise and become a match for them, time must
intervene.
Is it in our money?
There we have a far greater deficiency.
We neither have it in our treasury, nor are we ready to contribute it from
our private funds.
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.
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References (33 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(6):
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.25
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.1
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.1
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER X
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.71
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.89
- Cross-references to this page
(5):
- Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache, Von den Adjektiven und Participien insbesondere.
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), E´PHORI
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), GEROU´SIA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ATHE´NAE
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(1):
- Isocrates, On the Peace, Isoc. 8 97
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (21):
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