登陆注册
5541300000166

第166章

The Athenian forces at Catana now at once sailed against Messina, in the expectation of its being betrayed to them. The intrigue, however, after all came to nothing: Alcibiades, who was in the secret, when he left his command upon the summons from home, foreseeing that he would be outlawed, gave information of the plot to the friends of the Syracusans in Messina, who had at once put to death its authors, and now rose in arms against the opposite faction with those of their way of thinking, and succeeded in preventing the admission of the Athenians. The latter waited for thirteen days, and then, as they were exposed to the weather and without provisions, and met with no success, went back to Naxos, where they made places for their ships to lie in, erected a palisade round their camp, and retired into winter quarters; meanwhile they sent a galley to Athens for money and cavalry to join them in the spring. During the winter the Syracusans built a wall on to the city, so as to take in the statue of Apollo Temenites, all along the side looking towards Epipolae, to make the task of circumvallation longer and more difficult, in case of their being defeated, and also erected a fort at Megara and another in the Olympieum, and stuck palisades along the sea wherever there was a landing Place. Meanwhile, as they knew that the Athenians were wintering at Naxos, they marched with all their people to Catana, and ravaged the land and set fire to the tents and encampment of the Athenians, and so returned home. Learning also that the Athenians were sending an embassy to Camarina, on the strength of the alliance concluded in the time of Laches, to gain, if possible, that city, they sent another from Syracuse to oppose them. They had a shrewd suspicion that the Camarinaeans had not sent what they did send for the first battle very willingly; and they now feared that they would refuse to assist them at all in future, after seeing the success of the Athenians in the action, and would join the latter on the strength of their old friendship. Hermocrates, with some others, accordingly arrived at Camarina from Syracuse, and Euphemus and others from the Athenians; and an assembly of the Camarinaeans having been convened, Hermocrates spoke as follows, in the hope of prejudicing them against the Athenians:

"Camarinaeans, we did not come on this embassy because we were afraid of your being frightened by the actual forces of the Athenians, but rather of your being gained by what they would say to you before you heard anything from us. They are come to Sicily with the pretext that you know, and the intention which we all suspect, in my opinion less to restore the Leontines to their homes than to oust us from ours; as it is out of all reason that they should restore in Sicily the cities that they lay waste in Hellas, or should cherish the Leontine Chalcidians because of their Ionian blood and keep in servitude the Euboean Chalcidians, of whom the Leontines are a colony.

No; but the same policy which has proved so successful in Hellas is now being tried in Sicily. After being chosen as the leaders of the Ionians and of the other allies of Athenian origin, to punish the Mede, the Athenians accused some of failure in military service, some of fighting against each other, and others, as the case might be, upon any colourable pretext that could be found, until they thus subdued them all. In fine, in the struggle against the Medes, the Athenians did not fight for the liberty of the Hellenes, or the Hellenes for their own liberty, but the former to make their countrymen serve them instead of him, the latter to change one master for another, wiser indeed than the first, but wiser for evil.

"But we are not now come to declare to an audience familiar with them the misdeeds of a state so open to accusation as is the Athenian, but much rather to blame ourselves, who, with the warnings we possess in the Hellenes in those parts that have been enslaved through not supporting each other, and seeing the same sophisms being now tried upon ourselves- such as restorations of Leontine kinsfolk and support of Egestaean allies- do not stand together and resolutely show them that here are no Ionians, or Hellespontines, or islanders, who change continually, but always serve a master, sometimes the Mede and sometimes some other, but free Dorians from independent Peloponnese, dwelling in Sicily. Or, are we waiting until we be taken in detail, one city after another; knowing as we do that in no other way can we be conquered, and seeing that they turn to this plan, so as to divide some of us by words, to draw some by the bait of an alliance into open war with each other, and to ruin others by such flattery as different circumstances may render acceptable? And do we fancy when destruction first overtakes a distant fellow countryman that the danger will not come to each of us also, or that he who suffers before us will suffer in himself alone?

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 超能女王在未来

    超能女王在未来

    宅女穿越未来该肿么破?在线等着急!没事儿,咱有先天元素体质,升级、撩美男样样不耽误,分分钟秒杀那些世家子弟……一个崭新的世界,一个重生的灵魂,看她如何迎风而上,逆天升级,走上人生巅峰!
  • 终点的少女

    终点的少女

    所谓女生,就是一种既温柔又敏感、既可爱又绝情的生物啊。在女子高中的入学式上,内部直升的希代子记住了初入校园的奥沢朱里。古里古怪的奥沢朱里长年在海外生活,父亲是著名的摄影师,她开朗大方,用自信当作在青春期对抗世界的武器——这一切都敲进了平凡似尘埃的希代子的心里。“围城”般的吸引之后,两人成为了朋友,也埋下了伤害的种子……东野圭吾、宫部美雪激赞的新生代女作家——柚木麻子纤细而不失力量之作收录出道获奖之作《勿忘我之蓝》在内的四个故事,一部女子图鉴般的短篇小说集,写尽成长之酸甜。然而雪崩时,没有一片雪花是无辜的。
  • 1987年的浆水和酸菜(锐·小说系列第二辑)

    1987年的浆水和酸菜(锐·小说系列第二辑)

    本书为80后回族青年女作家马金莲的短篇小说集,由《1987年的浆水和酸菜》等7部作品构成。作家从常年生长生活的西北乡村汲取创作灵感,用质朴、细腻的笔触,再现上世纪八九十年代普通回族家庭的生活往事,深入刻画了回族女性与儿童,展现彼时家庭、家族间的亲情、生存的艰辛和宽厚忍耐的民族性格,显示出作家深厚的人文关怀。鲜活富有个性的语言通过这些细节让时光流转,反映了一个民族的生活侧面和那个时代中国社会平民的生活状态。
  • 二十八夜叉大军王名号

    二十八夜叉大军王名号

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 翠缺

    翠缺

    大战曾强奸过年幼的翠缺,翠缺后来到他的家具厂打工时,他居然还想乘机逼其就范,结果被翠缺用剪刀刺死……
  • 里尔克抒情诗选

    里尔克抒情诗选

    《里尔克抒情诗选》是从著名德语诗人里尔克《图像集》、《永恒读物》、《新诗集》、《新诗集续编》等诗集中精选了百余首诗歌,并附有译者的三篇赏析。
  • 最强爆炸升级

    最强爆炸升级

    肩扛如意金箍棒,左手无敌封神榜,右手弑仙灭神剑,神挡杀神,佛挡杀佛,三千位面、无数生灵、皆在脚下颤抖。地球少年陈溪穿越异界,得到无敌升级系统,杀怪爆经验,爆各种神奇的宝贝,杀人也爆经验,爆各种神奇的宝贝。我们的宣言是:宝贝!只有你想不到,没有我们爆不到。从此,陈溪走上一条脚踏诸天天才,拳轰无上圣地的无敌之路。长夜新书《超神网购》已经发布,同样的热血、同样的霸道,带你领悟不一样的热血都市!就是爽、爽、爽···
  • 都市之邪龙逆世

    都市之邪龙逆世

    身怀龙族魂,体流龙神血,修得逆天之力,机缘巧合住进一幢只有三个美女的别墅,故事从这里开始------
  • 豪门盛宠:误惹天价老公

    豪门盛宠:误惹天价老公

    一次荒唐,她怀孕了。家人将她扫地出门,初恋痛恨她的不忠与其恩断义绝。五年后,她带着一只萌宝回归。却被G市权势滔天,杀伐决断,多金帅气的靳少看上。“靳少,你别太过分了,否则……”她咬牙,怒瞪他。“否则你想怎样?”男人薄唇勾出邪肆的弧度,无视她的警告,依然步步紧逼。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 首席挚宠冒牌妻

    首席挚宠冒牌妻

    她是被人调教后假扮的豪门千金“柳甜心”,被迫着去接近他。他是性格冷冽、多金的阎家二少,他在复仇的道路上遇见了她。她以为自己装扮得天衣无缝,岂料他早就识破了她的身份。她每日在尽心引诱他,他却在恶整她的时候爱上她。