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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: you. At last God granted them one day to push forward their dominion
on the sea, and then in an instant you completely succumbed to
them.[5] Is it not self-evident that your safety altogether depends
upon the sea? The sea is your natural element--your birthright; it
would be base indeed to entrust the hegemony of it to the
Lacedaemonians, and the more so, since, as they themselves admit, they
are far less acquained with this business than yourselves; and,
secondly, your risk in naval battles would not be for equal stakes--
theirs involving only the loss of the men on board their ships, but
yours, that of your children and your wives and the entire state.
[4] See "Pol. Ath." i. 19 foll.
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