sheartening to your enemies, than that the power whose
adhesion you would have valued above much material and moral strength
should present herself self-invited, should deliver herself into your
hands without danger and without expense, and should lastly put you
in the way of gaining a high character in the eyes of the world, the
gratitude of those whom you shall assist, and a great accession of
strength for yourselves? You may search all history without finding
many instances of a people gaining all these advantages at once, or
many instances of a power that comes in quest of assistance being in
a position to give to the people whose alliance she solicits as much
safety and honour as she will receive. But it will be urged that it
is only in the case of a war that we shall be found useful. To this
we answer that if any of you imagine that that war is far off, he is
grievously mistaken, and is blind to the fact that Lacedaemon regards
you with jealousy and desires war, and that Corinth is powerful
there--the same, remember, that is your enemy, and is even now trying
to subdue us as a preliminary to attacking you. And this she does to
prevent our becoming united by a common enmity, and her having us both
on her hands, and also to ensure getting the start of you in one of two
ways, either by crippling our power or by making its strength her own.
Now it is our policy to be beforehand with her--that is, for Corcyra to
make an offer of alliance and for you to accept it; in fact, we ought to
form plans against her instead of waiting to defeat the plans she forms
against us.

"If she asserts that for you to receive a colony of hers into alliance
is not right, let her know that every colony that is well treated
honours its parent state, but becomes estranged from it by injustice.
For colonists are not sent forth on the understanding that they are to
be the slaves of those that remain behind, but that they are to be their
equals. And that Corinth was injuring us is clear. Invited to refer the
dispute about Epidamnus to arbitration, they chose to prosecute their
complaints war rather than by a fair trial. And let their conduct
towards us who are their kindred be a warning to you not to be misled
by their deceit, nor to yield to their direct requests; concessions to
adversaries only end in self-reproach, and the more strictly they are
avoided the greater will be the chance of security.

"If it be urged that your reception of us wi