Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/328

212 SPEECH OF DIODOTUS [ni give up your empire, and, when virtue is no longer dangerous, you may be as virtuous as you please. Punish them as they would have punished you ; let not those who have escaped appear to have less feeling than those who conspired against them. Consider : what might not they have been expected to do if they had conquered? — especially since they were the aggressors. For those who wantonly attack others always rush into extremes, and sometimes, like these Mytilenacans, to their own destruction. They know the fate which is reserved for them by an enemy who is spared: •'iwhen a man is injured wantonly he is more dangerous if he escape than the enemy who has only suffered what he has inflicted ^ Be true then to your- selves, and recall as vividly as you can what you felt at the time ; think how you would have given the world to crush your enemies, and now take your revenge. Do not be soft-hearted at the sight of their distress, but remember the danger which was once hanging over your heads. Chastise them as they deserve, and prove by an example to your other allies that rebellion will be punished with death. If this is made quite clear to them, your attention will no longer be diverted from your enemies by wars against your own allies.* 41 Such were the words of Cleon ; and after him Diodotus the son of Eucrates, who in the previous Speech of Diodotus. 1,1 11 1 1 • r assembly had been the chief opponent of the decree which condemned the Mytilenaeans, came forward again and spoke as follows : — 42 ' I am far from blaming those who invite us to reconsider our sentence upon the Mytilenaeans, nor do I approve of the censure which has been cast on the practice of deliberating more than once about matters so critical. In my opinion the two things most adverse to good counsel are haste and passion ; the former is generally a mark " Or, referring the words to the Mytilenaeans : ' He who has gone out of his way to bring a calamity upon himself is more dangerous if he be allowed to escape than the enemy who only retaliates.*