Book 7
1.4
You likewise possess as peculiarly your own all the arts and crafts which have to do with ships. Again, you are far superior to other men in experience of nautical affairs, for most of you get your livelihood from the sea; hence, while attending to your private concerns, you are also at the same time gaining experience for encounters by sea. Here is another point also: there is no port from which more triremes can sail forth at one time than from your city. And this is a matter of no slight importance with reference to leadership, for all men love best to join forces with the power which is first to show itself strong.
1.5
Furthermore, it has also been granted you by the gods to be successful in this pursuit. For while you have engaged in very many and very great combats by sea, you have met with an exceedingly small number of misfortunes and have achieved an exceedingly large number of successes. Therefore it is likely that the allies would like best to share in such perils if they were under your leadership.
1.6
And that this devotion to the sea is indeed both necessary and proper for you, you must conclude from the following fact: the Lacedaemonians once made war upon you for many years, The reference is to the Peloponnesian War, which was terminated by the capture of the Athenian fleet by the Lacedaemonians at Aegospotami (Hell. II. i. 20-32). and though masters of your land could make no progress toward destroying you. But when at length the deity granted them to win the mastery by sea, straightway you fell completely under their power.369 B.C. In these circumstances, therefore, it is plain to be seen that all your safety depends upon the sea.
