you certainly will,
if you mean again to exhibit the temper of which you gave a specimen
when, for a short time, you led the confederacy against the Persian.
For the institutions under which you live are incompatible with those
of foreign states; and further, when any of you goes abroad, he
respects neither these nor any other Hellenic laws.

"Do not then be hasty in deciding a question which is serious; and do
not, by listening to the misrepresentations and complaints of others,
bring trouble upon yourselves. Realize, while there is time, the
inscrutable nature of war; and how when protracted it generally ends
in becoming a mere matter of chance, over which neither of us can have
any control, the event being equally unknown and equally hazardous to
both. The misfortune is that in their hurry to go to war, men begin
with blows, and when a reverse comes upon them, then have recourse to
words. But neither you nor we have as yet committed this mistake; and
therefore while both of us can still choose the prudent part, we tell
you not to break the peace or violate your oaths. Let our differences
be determined by arbitration, according to the treaty. If you refuse,
we call to witness the gods by whom you have sworn that you are the
authors of the war; and we will do our best to strike in return."

When the Lacedaemonians had heard the charges brought by the allies
against the Athenians, and their rejoinder, they ordered everybody but
themselves to withdraw, and deliberated alone. The majority were
agreed that there was now a clear case against the Athenians, and that
they must fight at once.[25]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 18: Jowett says Thucydides "stands absolutely alone among
historians, not only of Hellas, but of the world, in his impartiality
and love of truth." Macaulay's enthusiasm for him is well known.
Mahaffy says his work was intended to be a military history, compiled
from original documents and from personal observations made by himself
and other eye-witnesses. "There can not be the smallest doubt," adds
Mahaffy, "that, in the hands of Thucydides, the art of writing history
made an extraordinary stride and attained a perfection which no
subsequent Hellenic, and few modern writers have attained." He is
praised for the "lofty dignity" which he imparts to every subject. His
temper is so solemn and severe as to be "strangely un-Attic." Among
his great and enduring merits is the fact that he has "taught us to
know mo