s will,
and would grasp at the first excuse offered by any serious demonstration
of ours. We should also be reported, I am certain, as more numerous
than we really are, and men's minds are affected by what they hear,
and besides the first to attack, or to show that they mean to defend
themselves against an attack, inspire greater fear because men see that
they are ready for the emergency. This would just be the case with the
Athenians at present. They are now attacking us in the belief that we
shall not resist, having a right to judge us severely because we did
not help the Lacedaemonians in crushing them; but if they were to see
us showing a courage for which they are not prepared, they would be more
dismayed by the surprise than they could ever be by our actual power. I
could wish to persuade you to show this courage; but if this cannot be,
at all events lose not a moment in preparing generally for the war;
and remember all of you that contempt for an assailant is best shown by
bravery in action, but that for the present the best course is to accept
the preparations which fear inspires as giving the surest promise of
safety, and to act as if the danger was real. That the Athenians are
coming to attack us, and are already upon the voyage, and all but
here--this is what I am sure of."

Thus far spoke Hermocrates. Meanwhile the people of Syracuse were at
great strife among themselves; some contending that the Athenians had no
idea of coming and that there was no truth in what he said; some asking
if they did come what harm they could do that would not be repaid them
tenfold in return; while others made light of the whole affair and
turned it into ridicule. In short, there were few that believed
Hermocrates and feared for the future. Meanwhile Athenagoras, the leader
of the people and very powerful at that time with the masses, came
forward and spoke as follows:

"For the Athenians, he who does not wish that they may be as misguided
as they are supposed to be, and that they may come here to become our
subjects, is either a coward or a traitor to his country; while as for
those who carry such tidings and fill you with so much alarm, I wonder
less at their audacity than at their folly if they flatter themselves
that we do not see through them. The fact is that they have their
private reasons to be afraid, and wish to throw the city into
consternation to have their own terrors cast into the shade by the
public alarm. In sh