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We are concerned about our polity no less than about the safety of the whole state and we know that our democracy flourishes and endures in times of peace and security while in times of war it has twice already been overthrown,1 but we are hostile to those who desire peace as if suspecting them of favoring oligarchy,2 while we are friendly to those who advocate war as if assured of their devotion to democracy.
1 By the oligarchical revolution of 411 B.C., when the government of the Four Hundred was established, and that of 404 B.C., when the reign of the Thirty began.
2 For example, Timotheus, who was no flatterer. See Isoc. 15.131 ff. Cf. Isoc. 15.318.
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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