Yet after losing most of their fleet besides other forces in Sicily, and with faction already dominant in the city, they could still for three years make head against their original adversaries, joined not only by the Sicilians, but also by their own allies nearly all in revolt, and at last by the King's son, Cyrus, who furnished the funds for the Peloponnesian navy. Nor did they finally succumb till they fell the victims of their own intestine disorders. So superfluously abundant were the resources from which the genius of Pericles foresaw an easy triumph in the war over the unaided forces of the Peloponnesians.

σφαλέντες δὲ ἐν Σικελίᾳ ἄλλῃ τε παρασκευῇ καὶ τοῦ ναυτικοῦ τῷ πλέονι μορίῳ καὶ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν ἤδη ἐν στάσει ὄντες ὅμως τρία μὲν ἔτη ἀντεῖχον τοῖς τε πρότερον ὑπάρχουσι πολεμίοις καὶ τοῖς ἀπὸ Σικελίας μετ΄ αὐτῶν͵ καὶ τῶν ξυμμάχων ἔτι τοῖς πλέοσιν ἀφεστηκόσι͵ Κύρῳ τε ὕστερον βασιλέως παιδὶ προσγενομένῳ͵ ὃς παρεῖχε χρήματα Πελοποννησίοις ἐς τὸ ναυτικόν͵ καὶ οὐ πρότερον ἐνέδοσαν ἢ αὐτοὶ ἐν σφίσι κατὰ τὰς ἰδίας διαφορὰς περιπεσόντες ἐσφάλησαν. τοσοῦτον τῷ Περικλεῖ ἐπερίσσευσε τότε ἀφ΄ ὧν αὐτὸς προέγνω καὶ πάνυ ἂν ῥᾳδίως περιγενέσθαι τὴν πόλιν Πελοποννησίων αὐτῶν τῷ πολέμῳ. 

Cf. ARISTOPHANES : Unjust discourse, Puppet politics ||| PLATO : Totalitarianism is ignorance, Tyranny and slavery, Disease and deformity of the soul ||| MANUEL II PALAEOLOGUS : The virtue of a king ||| GENNADIUS SCHOLARIUS : Words are the fathers of all Good