[69]
At that time, then, we recognized the principle that it is not just for the stronger to rule over the weaker,1 even as now we recognize it in the nature of the polity which has been established amongst ourselves. But that we could not, if we would, attain to this empire by conquest I think I shall quickly prove. For when, with the help of ten thousand talents,2 we were not able to retain it, how can we acquire it in our present state of poverty, especially since we are now addicted, not to the ways of life by which we gained it, but to those by which we lost it?
1 That is, we recognized it as valid not only in our domestic relations but in our foreign policy.
2 A round number. Cf. Isoc. 15.234. In 126 he speaks of 8000. Thucydides （ii.13. 3） states that 9700 talents was the largest amount ever stored on the Acropolis.
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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