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All these whom I have instanced, having invaded our country—not together nor at the same time, but as opportunity and self-interest and desire concurred in each case—our ancestors conquered in battle and put an end to their insolence. And yet they did not forsake their true selves1 after they had achieved successes of such magnitude nor did they experience the same misadventure as those who, owing to the exercise of good and wise judgement, have attained great wealth and good reputation, but who, owing to excess of good fortune, have grown overweening, lost their senses, and have been brought down to lower and meaner circumstances than those which they enjoyed before.
1 See for the figure and the thought, Isoc. 12.32; General Introduction.
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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