Book 6
3.13
So much for that. Why, then, have we come? That it surely is not because we are in straits, you could discover, if you please, by looking at the situation by sea or, if you please, at the situation by land at the present time. What, then, is the reason? Manifestly that some of our allies are doing what is not pleasing to us. And perhaps we also should like to show you the gratitude we rightly conceived toward you because you preserved us. At the close of the Peloponnesian war the Lacedaemonians rejected the proposal urged by many of their allies, that Athens should be destroyed.cp. II. ii. 19, 20.
3.14
Furthermore, to mention also the matter of expediency, there are, of course, among all the cities of Greece, some that take your side and others that take ours, and in each single city some people favour the Lacedaemonians and others the Athenians. If, therefore, we should become friends, from what quarter could371 B.C. we with reason expect any trouble? For who could prove strong enough to vex us by land if you were our friends? And who could do you any harm by sea if we were favourably inclined toward you?
3.15
Moreover, we all know that wars are forever breaking out and being concluded, and that we — if not now, still at some future time — shall desire peace again. Why, then, should we wait for the time when we shall have become exhausted by a multitude of ills, and not rather conclude peace as quickly as possible before anything irremediable happens?
