“They knew well that the same practices as acquire good things serve also to preserve them:  hence they made sure many of their original belongings and acquired many new ones.  What need is there here to catalogue in detail Crete, Pontus, Cyprus, Asiatic Iberia, Farther Albania, both Syrian nations, each of the two Armenias, the Arabians, the Palestinians?  We did not even know their names accurately in the old days:  yet now we lord it over some ourselves and others we have bestowed upon various persons, insomuch that we have gained from them income and powers and honors and alliances.

[-39-] “With such examples before you, then, do not bring shame upon our fathers’ deeds nor let slip that empire which is now the greatest.  We cannot deliberate in like manner with the rest of mankind who possess no similar advantages.  For them it suffices to live in ease and, with safety guaranteed, to be subservient to others, but for us it is inevitable to toil and march and amid dangers to preserve our existing prosperity.  Against this prosperity many are plotting.  Every object which surpasses others attracts both emulation and jealousy; and consequently an eternal war is waged by all inferiors against those who excel them in any respect.  Hence we either ought not from the first to have increased, thus differing from other men, or else, since we have grown so great and have gained so many possessions, it has been fated that we should either rule these firmly or ourselves perish utterly.  For it is impossible for men who have advanced to so great reputation and such vast power to live apart and without danger.  Let us therefore obey Fortune and not repel her, seeing that she voluntarily and self-invited belonged to our fathers and now abides with us.  This result will not be reached if we cast away our arms and desert the ranks and sit idly at home or wander among our allies.  It will be reached if we keep our arms constantly in hand—­this is the only way to preserve peace—­and practice warlike deeds in the midst of dangers—­this is the only way we shall avoid fighting forever—­and aid promptly those allies that ask us—­in this way we shall get more—­and do not indulge those enemies who are always turbulent—­in this way no one will any longer care to wrong us.

[-40-] “For if some god had actually become our sponsor that, even if we should fail to do this, no one would plot against us and we should forever enjoy in safety all that we have won, it would still be disgraceful to say that we ought to keep quiet; yet those who are willing to do nothing that is requisite would have some show of excuse.  But, as a fact, it is inevitable that men who possess anything should be plotted against by many, and it behooves us to anticipate their attacks.  One class that holds quietly to its own possessions incurs danger even for these, while another without any compulsion employs war to acquire the possessions of others and keeps them.  No one who is in terror regarding his own goods longs for those of his neighbors; for the fear concerning what he already has effectually deters him, from meddling in what does not belong to him.  Why then does any man say such a thing as this,—­that we must not all the time be gaining something more!