[47]
And so far are we inferior to our ancestors, both those who enjoyed the esteem of the Hellenes and those who incurred their hatred,1 that whereas they, when they resolved to wage war against any state, deemed it their duty, notwithstanding that the Acropolis was stored with silver and gold,2 to face danger in their own persons in support of their resolutions, we, on the other hand, not withstanding that we are in such extreme poverty3 and are so many in number, employ, as does the great King, mercenary armies!
1 The distinction is between those who were awarded the hegemony and those who later turned the hegemony into an empire maintained by force.
2 See 126.
3 See19 and Isoc. 7.54.
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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