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Yes this a repeat of a previous question, but I could not figure out how to post this answer, so I shall try to re-ask the question and answer it myself:

THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR By Thucydides 431 BC

Book V Chapter XVII: "Sixteenth Year of the War—The Melian Conference—Fate of Melos"

is known as the Melian Dialogue, and is one of the most famous portions of one of the greatest books of antiquity.

Wikipedia describes it under the heading "Melian Dialogue" as follows:

"The Melian dialogue takes place fifteen years into the Peloponnesian war, during the confrontation in 416–415 BC between the Athenians and the people of Melos, a small island located in the southern Aegean Sea just east of Sparta. The Athenians demanded that the Melians surrender their city and pay them tribute or face the destruction of their city. The Melians claimed their right to remain neutral, appealing to the Athenians' sense of decency and mercy toward a small, peaceful, and defenseless city."

The Athenians said to the Melians:

"you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

The Melians refused to surrender, so the Athenians defeated them, killed the adult men, and sold the women and children into slavery.

Walter Sobchak
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  • When you get at least 10 reputation, you can answer that question because it is protected. This is not the right way to ask and answer a question on this site. Please check the help section. – ermanen Dec 19 '14 at 21:43
  • If you want to answer a question yourself you can do that by writing an answer: don't put the answer in the question. However, as @ermanen says, the correct Stack Exchange way is to gain an upvote on an answer to another question, and then write the answer you want to on the correct question. – Andrew Leach Dec 19 '14 at 21:47
  • @Andrew Leach, this question is very similar, but the context and the examples demand a completely different line. Please consider removing the duplicate mark. – ScotM Dec 19 '14 at 22:03
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    @ScotM This "question" is not really a question. I interpret it as designed to be an answer to the other one. Hence the comments. – Andrew Leach Dec 19 '14 at 22:04

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"Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed." Jack London, Call of the Wild

Kill or Be Killed By Do or Die

The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer Richard A. Whiting / Gus Kahn / Ray Egan, Aint We Got Fun!

ScotM
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