get in supplies from a thriving district. And if one may descend to
more trifling particulars, it is to this same lordship of the sea that
the Athenians owe the discovery, in the first place, of many of the
luxuries of life through intercourse with other countries. So that the
choice things of Sicily and Italy, of Cyprus and Egypt and Lydia, of
Pontus or Peloponnese, or wheresoever else it be, are all swept, as it
were, into one centre, and all owing, as I say, to their maritime
empire. And again, in process of listening to every form of speech,[5]
they have selected this from one place and that from another--for
themselves. So much so that while the rest of the Hellenes employ[6]
each pretty much their own peculiar mode of speech, habit of life, and
style of dress, the Athenians have adopted a composite type,[7] to
which all sections of Hellas, and the foreigner alike, have
contributed.

[1] Reading after Kirchhoff, {ettous ge . . . kan ei meizon en, ton
dia k.t.l.} See Thuc. i. 143; Isocr. "de Pace," 169 A; Plut.
"Them." 4 (Clough, i. 235).

[2] Lit. "they are superior to their allies."

[3] Reading with Kirchhoff, {dia khreian . . . dia deos}.

[4] Or, "the army marching along the seaboard to the rescue."

[5] Or, "a variety of dialects."

[6] Or, "maintain somewhat more."

[7] Or, "have contracted a mixed style, bearing traces of Hellenic and