Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. - Thucydides

[5]I lived through the whole of it when I was of an age to appreciate what was going on and could apply my mind to an exact understanding of things. It so turned out that I was banished from my own country for twenty years after the Amphipolis campaign and thus had the time to study matters more closely; and as consequence of my exile I had access to activities on both sides, not least to those of the Peloponnesians. [6]I will therefore now relate the differences that arose after the ten-year war and the collapse of the treaty, and then the subsequent course of the war.

I am the same as I was, and do not alter; it is you who have changed. What has happened is this: you took my advice when you were still untouched by misfortune, and repented of your action when things went badly with you; it is because your own resolution is weak that my policy appears to you to be mistaken.

It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.