But it will be urged that it is only in the case of a war that we shall be found useful.

To this we answer that if any of you imagine that that war is far off, he is grievously mistaken, and is blind to the fact that Lacedaemon regards you with jealousy and desires war, and that Corinth is powerful there--the same, remember, that is your enemy, and is even now trying to subdue us as a preliminary to attacking you.

And this she does to prevent our becoming united by a common enmity, and her having us both on her hands, and also to ensure getting the start of you in one of two ways, either by crippling our power or by making its strength her own.
Now it is our policy to be beforehand with her--that is, for Corcyra to make an offer of alliance and for you to accept it; in fact, we ought to form plans against her instead of waiting to defeat the plans she forms against us.
"If she asserts that for you to receive a colony of hers into alliance is not right, let her know that every colony that is well treated honours its parent state, but becomes estranged from it by injustice.
For colonists are not sent forth on the understanding that they are to be the slaves of those that remain behind, but that they are to be their equals.

And that Corinth was injuring us is clear.

Invited to refer the dispute about Epidamnus to arbitration, they chose to prosecute their complaints war rather than by a fair trial.