History of the Peloponnesian War

or if they require equality, let them also give it. I know that such men, or any man else that excelleth in the glory of anything whatsoever, shall as long as he liveth be envied, principally of his equals, and then also of others amongst whom he converseth; but with posterity they shall have kindred claimed of them, though there be none; and his country will boast of him, not as of a stranger or one that had been a man of lewd life, but as their own citizen and one that had achieved worthy and laudable acts.

This being the thing I aim at and for which I am renowned, consider now whether I administer the public the worse for it or not. For having reconciled unto you the most potent states of Peloponnesus without much either danger or cost, I compelled the Lacedaemonians to stake all that ever they had upon the fortune of one day of Mantineia.

And this hath my youth and madness, supposed to have been very madness, with familiar and fit words wrought upon the power of the Peloponnesians, and shewing reason for my passion, made my madness now no longer to be feared. But as long as I flourish with it, and Nicias is esteemed fortunate, make you use of both our services. And abrogate not your decree touching the voyage into Sicily, as though the power were great you are to encounter withal.

For the number wherewith their cities are populous is but of promiscuous nations, easily shifting and easily admitting new comers, and consequently not sufficiently armed, any of them, for the defence of their bodies, nor furnished, as the custom of the place appointeth, to fight for their country.

But what any of them thinks he may get by fair speech or snatch from the public by sedition, that only he looks after, with purpose, if he fail, to run the country. And it is not likely that such a rabble should either with one consent give ear to what is told them or unite themselves for the administration of their affairs in common;

but if they hear of fair offers, they will one after one be easily induced to come in, especially if there be seditions amongst them, as we hear there are.

And the truth is, there are neither so many men of arms as they boast of, nor doth it appear that there are so many Grecians there in all as the several cities have every one reckoned for their own number. Nay, even Greece hath much belied itself, and was scarce sufficiently armed in all this war past.

So that the business there, for all that I can by fame understand, is even as I have told you, and will yet be easier. For we shall have many of the barbarians, upon hatred of the Syracusians, to take our parts against them there; and if we consider the case aright, there will be nothing to hinder us at home.

For our ancestors, having the same enemies which they say we leave behind us now in our voyage to Sicily, and the Persian besides, did nevertheless erect the empire we now have by our only odds of strength at sea.