[81]
But the remainder of the day would fail me if I undertook to set forth the advantages we should gain by such a course. This much, at any rate, is clear to all—that we have been superior to all the Hellenes, not because of the size of our city or the number of its inhabitants,1 but because the government which we have established is like a military camp, well administered and rendering willing obedience to its officers.2 If, then, we shall create in reality that which it has profited us to imitate, there can be no doubt that we shall easily overcome our foes.
1 Sparta was about six miles in circumference. The number of pure Spartan inhabitants never exceeded 10,000.
2 The whole life of a Spartan youth was supervised by military officers of one sort or another. Those over twenty years of age ate at a common table, or military mess. War was the first and only duty of a Spartan citizen, and obedience more important even than life.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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