ABSTRACT
“The examination of what is just is something one undertakes only when there is equal necessity on both sides. Wherever there is a strong and a weak, the possible is done by the first and accepted by the second.” They have thus expressed in two sentences the totality of political realism. Only the Greeks of this period were able to conceive evil with this marvellous lucidity. They no longer loved the good but their fathers, who had loved it, had passed on its light to them. They made use of it to know the truth of evil. Men had not yet entered into falsehood. This is why it was not the Athenians, but the Romans, who founded an empire. Any time there is action, thought is moved towards its goal. Without obstacles the goal would be reached as soon as it is thought.
