re not islanders, but situated on the
continent, the larger are held in check by need (3) and the small ones
absolutely by fear, since there is no state in existence which does not
depend upon imports and exports, and these she will forfeit if she does
not lend a willing ear to those who are masters by sea. In the next
place, a power dominant by sea can do certain things which a land power
is debarred from doing; as for instance, ravage the territory of a
superior, since it is always possible to coast along to some point,
where either there is no hostile force to deal with or merely a small
body; and in case of an advance in force on the part of the enemy they
can take to their ships and sail away. Such a performance is attended
with less difficulty than that experienced by the relieving force on
land. (4) Again, it is open to a power so dominating by sea to leave its
own territory and sail off on as long a voyage as you please. Whereas
the land power cannot place more than a few days' journey between itself
and its own territory, for marches are slow affairs; and it is not
possible for an army on the march to have food supplies to last for any
great length of time. Such an army must either march through friendly
territory or it must force a way by victory in battle. The voyager
meanwhile has it in his power to disembark at any point where he finds
himself in superior force, or, at the worst, to coast by until he
reaches either a friendly district or an enemy too weak to resist.
Again, those diseases to which the fruits of the earth are liable as
visitations from heaven fall severely on a land power, but are scarcely
felt by the navel power, for such sicknesses do not visit the whole
earth everywhere at once. So that the ruler of the sea can get in
supplies from a thriving district. And if one may descend to more
trifling particulars, it is to this same lordship of the sea that the
Athenians owe the discovery, in the first place, of many of the luxuries
of life through intercourse with other countries. So that the choice
things of Sicily and Italy, of Cyprus and Egypt and Lydia, of Pontus or
Peloponnese, or wheresoever else it be, are all swept, as it were,
into one centre, and all owing, as I say, to their maritime empire. And
again, in process of listening to every form of speech, (5) they have
selected this from one place and that from another--for themselves. So
much so that while the rest of the Hellenes employ (6) e