Book 2
5.5
For I know that there have been cases before now—some of them the result of slander, others of mere suspicion—where men who have become fearful of one another and wished to strike before they were struck, have done irreparable harm to people who were neither intending nor, for that matter, desiring to do anything of the sort to them.
5.6
In the belief, then, that such misunderstandings are best settled by conference, I have come here, and I wish to point out to you that you are mistaken in distrusting us.
5.7
For, first and chiefly, our oaths, sworn by the gods, stand in the way of our being enemies of one another; and the man who is conscious that he has disregarded such oaths, I for my part should never account happy. For in war with the gods I know not either by what swiftness of foot or to what place of refuge one could make his escape, or into what darkness he could steal away, or how he could withdraw himself to a secure fortress. For all things in all places are subject to the gods, and all alike the gods hold in their control.
5.8
Touching the gods, then, and our oaths I am thus minded, and to the keeping of the gods we consigned the friendship which we covenanted; but as for things human, I believe that at this time you are to us the greatest good we possess.
5.9
For, with you, every road is easy for us to traverse, every river is passable, supplies are not lacking; without you, all our road is through darkness—for none of it do we know—every river is hard to pass, every crowd excites our fears, and most fearful of all is solitude—for it is crowded full of want.
