ey can
elude, and the enjoyment of their gains without shame. And yet if they
were the honest men they pretend to be, the less hold that others had
upon them, the stronger would be the light in which they might have put
their honesty by giving and taking what was just.
"But such has not been their conduct either towards others or towards
us. The attitude of our colony towards us has always been one of
estrangement and is now one of hostility; for, say they: 'We were not
sent out to be ill-treated.' We rejoin that we did not found the colony
to be insulted by them, but to be their head and to be regarded with
a proper respect. At any rate our other colonies honour us, and we
are much beloved by our colonists; and clearly, if the majority are
satisfied with us, these can have no good reason for a dissatisfaction
in which they stand alone, and we are not acting improperly in making
war against them, nor are we making war against them without having
received signal provocation. Besides, if we were in the wrong, it would
be honourable in them to give way to our wishes, and disgraceful for us
to trample on their moderation; but in the pride and licence of wealth
they have sinned again and again against us, and never more deeply than
when Epidamnus, our dependency, which they took no steps to claim in its
distress upon our coming to relieve it, was by them seized, and is now
held by force of arms.
"As to their allegation that they wished the question to be first
submitted to arbitration, it is obvious that a challenge coming from the
party who is safe in a commanding position cannot gain the credit due
only to him who, before appealing to arms, in deeds as well as words,
places himself on a level with his adversary. In their case, it was not
before they laid siege to the place, but after they at length understood
that we should not tamely suffer it, that they thought of the specious
word arbitration. And not satisfied with their own misconduct there,
they appear here now requiring you to join with them not in alliance but
in crime, and to receive them in spite of their being at enmity with us.
But it was when they stood firmest that they should have made overtures
to you, and not at a time when we have been wronged and they are in
peril; nor yet at a time when you will be admitting to a share in your
protection those who never admitted you to a share in their power, and
will be incurring an equal amount of blame from us wit
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