[132]
Consider also what a disgrace it is to sit idly by and see Asia flourishing more than Europe and the barbarians enjoying a greater prosperity1 than the Hellenes; and, what is more, to see those who derive their power from Cyrus, who as a child was cast out by his mother on the public highway, addressed by the title of “The Great King,” while the descendants of Heracles, who because of his virtue was exalted by his father to the rank of a god,2 are addressed by meaner titles3 than they. We must not allow this state of affairs to go on; no, we must change and reverse it entirely.
1 See Isoc. 4.132, 184, 187.
2 See Isoc. 1.50.
3 The Spartan kings are merely “kings,” while the Persian king is “The Great King.”
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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