Supposing the Athenians had said,

假设雅典人表示
we're not interested and had gone home,

他们没有兴趣然后打道回府
just as the Persians had--

就像波斯人--
there was no Greek force except for

那么如果波斯大军再次兵临城下
the poor Asiatic Greeks themselves to

亚洲的希腊各邦就只能孤军奋战了
resist a Persian return and they couldn't possibly resist that.

而单凭他们自己是不可能挡住波斯军的
So for them,it was a life and death matter,

因此对他们而言这是性命交关的事
at least it was a matter of freedom versus slavery

至少这意味着自由还是奴役
that they should persuade the Athenians to take the lead.

那么他们就必然要说服雅典人来领导
But for the Athenians,who won the argument,

而对于在论战中获胜的那派雅典人而言
it was obvious they felt our needs,

很显然他们的利益
for instance access to the Black Sea,

比如通往黑海的通道