Kitap 4
85.7
With regard to myself, too, I have come to you, not for the injury, but for the liberation of the Greeks-having bound the Lacedaemonian authorities by the most solemn oaths, that such as I win over shall assuredly be independent confederates-nor, again, that we may have allies whom we have got by violence or deceit, but, on the contrary, prepared to act as allies to you, who are enslaved by the Athenians. I claim, therefore, neither to be suspected myself, since I have given the strongest pledges for my honesty, nor to be considered a powerless avenger; and I call on you to come over to me with confidence.
86.1
"And if any one be backward to do so, from being personally afraid of some individual or other, lest I should put the city into the hands of a particular party, let him above all others feel confidence. For I am not come to be a partisan; nor am I minded to bring you a doubtful liberty, as I should do, if, disregarding your hereditary constitution, I should enslave the many to the few, or the few to the many.
86.2
For that would be more grievous than foreign dominion;
86.3
and towards us Lacedaemonians no obligation would be felt for our exertions, but instead of honour and glory, accusation rather.
86.4
And those charges with which we are throwing down the Athenians, we should ourselves seem to incur in a more odious degree than a party which has shown no pretensions to honesty. For to gain advantage by specious trickery is more disgraceful, at any rate for men in high station, than to do it by open violence:
86.5
since the one is a case of aggression on the plea of might, which fortune has given; the other, by the insidiousness of a dishonest policy. οὗτω πολλὴν περιωπὴν, κ. τ. λ.] These words should be closely connected with the following clause, καὶ οὐκ ἄν μείζω ... ὡς εἶπον, and the chapter should end at εἶπον, or at ποιούμεθα. —Arnold. So great care do we take for things which most deeply interest us;
