For we wish not only to obtain your countenance
and support, but also to preserve your respect. To abandon an ally
without just cause in a time of peril is justly regarded as an act of
treason. But then the alliance must be a fair and equal relation
voluntarily assumed on both sides, based on mutual esteem and parity
of power. Can anyone assert that our connexion with Athens answers to
this description? Have we not seen how the confederacy of maritime
cities formed against Persia was gradually converted into an Athenian
empire? And though we and the Chians enjoyed nominal independence, we
had good reason to fear that this was only a temporary concession,
which would be withdrawn as soon as the Athenians felt themselves
strong enough to attack us. We were allowed to retain our liberty,
partly because they feared our navy, and partly because they wished to
make us accomplices in their own aggressions, and lend an appearance
of equity to the acts of violence in which we were compelled to take
part. Having swallowed up the smaller states, they were ready to
pounce upon us, and were only prevented by the outbreak of the present
war. Who, then, can blame us, if we seized the opportunity when they
were weakened to repudiate this false alliance, and anticipate the
blow which they were preparing for us? Athens, we repeat, has no just
title to our allegiance; the bond which held us together was fear on
our side and interest on theirs.
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