How we cite our quotes: Line
Quote #10
Second Athenian Delegate: "I've never seen such a party! The Spartans were really charming, and we were superb company ourselves over the drinks."
First Athenian Delegate: "That figures, because when we're sober we get unhinged. If the Athenians will take my advice, from now on we'll go on all our diplomatic missions drunk. As it is, when we go to Sparta sober, we at once start looking for ways to stir up trouble. And so when they say something we don't hear it, and when they don't say anything we read things into that, and we each come away with different reports of the same discussions. But this time everything was agreeable. When somebody sang Telamon when he should have been singing Cleitagora, we'd applaud him and even swear up and down that—"
The Slaves approach.
"—Hey, those slaves are back again! Get lost, you whip fodder!" (1225-1240)
These lines are spoken by the Athenian Delegates as they stumble out of the party celebrating the new peace treaty between Athens and Sparta. They reveal that political conflict—including war—often arises simply because of misunderstanding and mistrust. To solve this problem, the First Athenian delegate has a novel solution: every time the Athenians go on a diplomatic mission to Sparta, they should be sure to get drunk. You can't start too many fights (or, more realistically, finish very many fights) when you're smashed.