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Now the polity as it was in the earlier time was as much better and stronger than that which obtained later as Aristides and Themistocles and Miltiades1 were better men than Hyperbolus2 and Cleophon3 and those who today harangue the people.4 And you will find that the people who then governed the state were not given over to slackness and poverty and empty hopes,5
1 Demosthenes （Dem. 3.21 ff.） compares Aristides and Pericles with the present-day orators who say to the people:“What are your desires; what shall I propose; how can I please you?”
2 Hyperbolus, successor to Cleon, the tanner. Aristophanes calls him πονηρός （Aristoph. Peace 684）; Thucydides, μοχθηρός （Thuc. 8.73）.
3 For Cleophon see Isoc. 8.13, note.
4 Aristophon and Eubulus.
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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