Melian dialogues

[Brad DeLong]

>>>There's a great line in the Melian dialogue that goes (something like):
>>>The powerful do to the weak what they choose to and can and the weak have
>>>no choice but to accept this.
>>
>>OK. But let's remember that this line was spoken by the loser of the
>>Peloponesian war: the "powerful" Athens.
>>
>>Joanna

It's called "irony." The answer to the Athenian position was provided 
by Persia and Sparta when they turned out to be the "strong"...