[3]
Now, if it were my
view that, of those qualities that constitute virtue, courage alone was their
possession, I might praise this and be done with the speaking, but since it fell
to their lot also to have been nobly born and strictly brought up and to have
lived with lofty ideals, because of all which they had every reason to be good
men, I should be ashamed if I were found to have passed over any of these
topics.1 I shall begin from the origin of their race.2
1 Blass censures the author for not following in the sequel a threefold division of his theme, which is here implied and may be found in Plat. Menex. 237 a-b: nobility of birth, upbringing and education, and exploits. These topics are treated, but not consecutively. Peculiar to this speech is the passage on the ten tribes, Dem. 60.27-32.
2 Blass compares Isocrates, Helen16 τὴν μὲν οὖν ἀρχὴν τοῦ λόγου ποιήσομαι τοιαύτην τοῦ γένους αὐτῆς, （Isoc. 10.16）.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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