Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/169

75-77] SPEECH OF THE ATHENIANS 53 we think that we are worthy of power ; and there was a time when you thought so too ; but now, when you mean expedienc}^ you talk about justice. Did justice ever deter an}' one from taking by force whatever he could ? Men who indulge the natural ambition of empire deserve credit if they are in any degree more careful of justice than they need be. How moderate we are would speedily appear if others took our place ; indeed our very moderation, which should be our glory, has been unjustly converted into a reproach. ' For because in our suits with our allies, regulated by 77 treaty, we do not even stand upon our ^, . , ' , . . , , . Ihey li'cre ilioiiMil to rights, but have mstituted the practice be litigious, becmiseihcy of deciding them at Athens and by allowed their subjects a Athenian ^ law, we are supposed to be '«'" ''">' ^^'«« " '"'*^ .... T.T r . of the strons;er. litigious. None of our opponents ob- serve why others, who exercise dominion elsewhere and are less moderate than we are in their dealings with their subjects, escape this reproach. Why is it ? Because men who practise violence have no longer any need of law. But we are in the habit of meeting our allies on terms of equality, and, therefore, if through some legal decision of ours, or exercise of our imperial power, contrary to their own ideas of right, they suffer ever so little, they are not grateful for our moderation in leaving them so much, but are far more offended at their trifling loss than if we had from the first plundered them in the face of day, laying aside all thought of law. For then they would themselves have admitted that the weaker must give way to the stronger. Mankind resent injustice more than violence, because the one seems to be an unfair advantage taken by an equal, the other is the irresistible force of a superior. They were patient under the yoke of the Persian, who inflicted on them far more grievous f.,.j, . . . The ruler of the day wrongs ; but now our donunion is -^ always unpopttlar. odious in their eyes. And no wonder : the ruler of the day is always detested by his subjects. And " (2) by impartial law.