[4] After Zurborg, I omit {oukh oi eduoinoi}.

[5] Reading {kai ap arguriou}, with Zurborg.

[6] Lit. "Sophists." See Grote, "H. G." viii. lxvii. note, p. 497.

[7] E.g. chorus-trainers, musicians, grammarians, rhapsodists, and
actors.

[8] Or, "sacred and profane."

But if there is no desire to gainsay these views--only that certain
people, in their wish to recover that headship[9] which was once the
pride of our city, are persuaded that the accomplishment of their
hopes is to be found, not in peace but in war, I beg them to reflect
on some matters of history, and to begin at the beginning,[10] the
Median war. Was it by high-handed violence, or as benefactors of the
Hellenes, that we obtained the headship of the naval forces, and the
trusteeship of the treasury of Hellas?[11] Again, when through the too
cruel exercise of her presidency, as men thought, Athens was deprived
of her empire, is it not the case that even in those days,[12] as soon
as we held aloof from injustice we were once more reinstated by the
islanders, of their own free will, as presidents of the naval force?
Nay, did not the very Thebans, in return for certain benefits, grant
to us Athenians to exercise leadership over them?[13] And at another
date the Lacedaemonans suffered us Athenians to arrange the terms of
hegemony[14] at our discretion, not as driven to such submission, but
in requital of kindly treatment. And to-day, owing to the chaos[15]
which reigns in Hellas, if I mistake not, an opportunity has fallen to
this city of winning back our fellow-Hellenes without pain or peril or