Limited Time Offer
Premium members can get their quote collection automatically imported into their Quotosaurus collections.
“ ”They sent him (Phormio) twenty ships, but ordered the commander of them to go to Crete first; for Nicias of Gortys in Crete, who was the proxenus of the Athenians, had induced them to send a fleet against Cydonia, a hostile town which he promised to reduce.But he really invited them to please the Polichnitae, who are neighbours of the Cydoniatae.
So the Athenian commander took the ships, went to Crete, and joined the Polichnitae in ravaging the lands of the Cydoniatae; there, owing to contrary winds and bad weather, a considerable time was wasted.
(Book 2 Chapter 85.5-6)
About Thucydides
Thucydides (or Thoukydides)(c. 472 BC – c. 400 BC) was an ancient Greek historian, author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens. This work is widely regarded a classic and represents the first work of its kind.
Biography information from Wikiquote
Additional quotes by Thucydides
(Peloponnesian Generals:) The skill (ἐπιστήμη) of your enemies which you so greatly dread, if united with courage (ἀνδρείαν), may be able in the moment of danger to remember and execute the lesson which it has learned, but without courage (εὐψυχίας) no skill (τέχνη) can do anything at such a time.
τῶνδε δὲ ἡ ἐπιστήμη, ἣν μάλιστα φοβεῖσθε, ἀνδρείαν μὲν ἔχουσα καὶ μνήμην ἕξει ἐν τῷ δεινῷ ἐπιτελεῖν ἃ ἔμαθεν, ἄνευ δὲ εὐψυχίας οὐδεμία τέχνη πρὸς τοὺς κινδύνους ἰσχύει.
For fear makes men forget, and skill which cannot fight (ἀλκῆς) is useless.
φόβος γὰρ μνήμην ἐκπλήσσει, τέχνη δὲ ἄνευ ἀλκῆς οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ.
(Book 2 Chapter 87.4)
would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.
for it has always been law that the weaker should be subject to the stronger.