territory adequate to our wants.”
[59] Thucyd. viii, 76. Καὶ παραινέσεις ἄλλας τε ἐποιοῦντο ἐν
σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἀνιστάμενοι, καὶ ὡς οὐ δεῖ ἀθυμεῖν ὅτι ~ἡ πόλις
αὐτῶν ἀφέστηκε~· τοὺς γὰρ ἐλάσσους ~ἀπὸ σφῶν τῶν~ πλεόνων καὶ ἐς
πάντα ποριμωτέρων ~μεθεστάναι~.
[60] Thucyd. viii, 76. Βραχὺ δέ τι εἶναι καὶ οὐδενὸς ἄξιον, ᾧ
πρὸς τὸ περιγίγνεσθαι τῶν πολεμίων ἡ πόλις χρήσιμος ἦν, καὶ
οὐδὲν ἀπολωλεκέναι, οἵ γε μήτε ἀργύριον ἔτι εἶχον πέμπειν, ἀλλ᾽
αὐτοὶ ἐπορίζοντο οἱ στρατιῶται, μήτε βούλευμα χρηστὸν, οὗπερ
ἕνεκα πόλις στρατοπέδων κρατεῖ· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τούτοις τοὺς μὲν
ἡμαρτηκέναι, τοὺς πατρίους νόμους καταλύσαντας, αὐτοὶ δὲ σώζειν
καὶ ἐκείνους πειράσεσθαι προσαναγκάζειν. Ὥστε οὐδὲ τούτους, οἵπερ
ἂν βουλεύοιέν τι χρηστὸν, παρὰ σφίσι χείρους εἶναι.
Such was the encouraging language of Thrasyllus and Thrasybulus,
which found full sympathy in the armament, and raised among them
a spirit of energetic patriotism and resolution, not unworthy of
their forefathers when refugees at Salamis under the invasion of
Xerxês. To regain their democracy and to sustain the war against the
Peloponnesians, were impulses alike ardent and blended in the same
tide of generous enthusiasm; a tide so vehement as to sweep before it
the reluctance of that minority who had before been inclined to the
oligarchical movement. But besides these two impulses, there was also
a third, tending towards the recall of Alkibiadês; a coadjutor, if in
many ways useful, yet bringing with him a spirit of selfishness and
duplicity uncongenial to the exalted sentiment now all-powerful at
Samos.[61]
[61] The application of the Athenians at Samos to Alkibiadês,
reminds us of the emphatic language in which Tacitus
characterizes an incident in some respects similar. The Roman
army, fighting in the cause of Vitellius against Vespasian, had
been betrayed by their general Cæcina, who endeavored to carry
them over to the latter: his army, however, refused to follow
him, adhered to their own cause, and put him under arrest. Being
afterwards defeated by the troops of Vespasian, and obliged to
capitulate in Cremona, they released Cæcina, and solicited his
intercession to obtain favorable terms. “Primores castrorum nomen
atque imagines Vitellii amoliuntur; catenas Cæcinæ (nam etiam
tum vinctus erat) exsolvunt, orantque, ut causæ suæ deprecator
adsistat: aspernantem tumentemque lacrymis fatigant. _Extremum
malorum, tot fortissimi viri, proditoris opem invocantes._”
(Tacitus, Histor. iii, 31.)
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