85;9i] THE MELIAN CONTROVERSY 169 words ; we will not go out of our way to prove at length that we have a right to rule, because «, ., ,, ° _ ' No use III lalking we overthrew the Persians"; or that about right ; expediency we attack you now because we arc '^ '^"^ '""• suffering any injury at your hands. We should not convince you if we did ; nor must you expect to con- vince us by arguing that, although a colony of the Lacedaemonians, you have taken no part in their ex- peditions, or that you have never done us any wrong. But you and we should say what we really think, and aim only at what is possible, for we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice only enters where there is equal power to enforce it, and that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.' Mel. ' Well, then, since you set aside justice and invite 90 us to speak of expediency, in our , . . . , , . , For voiir ozuit sakcs, judgment it is certainly expedient that //„„ ,i„ expedient that you should respect a principle which yon should not be too is for the common good ; that to every ^'"'^*' man when in peril a reasonable claim should be accounted a claim of right, and that any plea which he is disposed to urge, even if failing of the point a little, should help his cause. Your interest in this principle is quite as great as ours, inasmuch as you, if you fall, will incur the heaviest vengeance, and will be the most terrible example to mankind .' Ath. 'The fall of our empire, if it should fall, is 91 not an event to which we look forward ^ . r or ourselves we have With dismay; for ruling states such as „o fears. Itisyomvho Lacedaemon are not cruel to their have to kam the lesson vanquished enemies. ^With the f «^"" '^ expedient ^ . both for us and you. Lacedaemonians, however, we are not
- Cp. vi. 83 init. ■ ^ Or, 'inasmuch as you, if j'ou disregard
it, will by your example justify others in inflicting the heaviest ven- geance on you should you fall.' •^ Taking Ian St ... o a-^iuv as a parenthesis and giving a difTcrcnt N 2
