position; but even our
equity has very unreasonably subjected us to condemnation instead of
approval. Our abatement of our rights in the contract trials with our
allies, and our causing them to be decided by impartial laws at Athens,
have gained us the character of being litigious. And none care to
inquire why this reproach is not brought against other imperial powers,
who treat their subjects with less moderation than we do; the secret
being that where force can be used, law is not needed. But our subjects
are so habituated to associate with us as equals that any defeat
whatever that clashes with their notions of justice, whether it proceeds
from a legal judgment or from the power which our empire gives us, makes
them forget to be grateful for being allowed to retain most of their
possessions, and more vexed at a part being taken, than if we had from
the first cast law aside and openly gratified our covetousness. If we
had done so, not even would they have disputed that the weaker must give
way to the stronger. Men's indignation, it seems, is more excited by
legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by
an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior. At all events
they contrived to put up with much worse treatment than this from the
Mede, yet they think our rule severe, and this is to be expected, for
the present always weighs heavy on the conquered. This at least is
certain. If you were to succeed in overthrowing us and in taking our
place, you would speedily lose the popularity with which fear of us
has invested you, if your policy of to-day is at all to tally with
the sample that you gave of it during the brief period of your command
against the Mede. Not only is your life at home regulated by rules and
institutions incompatible with those of others, but your citizens abroad
act neither on these rules nor on those which are recognized by the rest
of Hellas.

"Take time then in forming your resolution, as the matter is of great
importance; and do not be persuaded by the opinions and complaints of
others to bring trouble on yourselves, but consider the vast influence
of accident in war, before you are engaged in it. As it continues, it
generally becomes an affair of chances, chances from which neither of
us is exempt, and whose event we must risk in the dark. It is a common
mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and
wait for disaster to discuss the matter.