[124]
For as things now are, who would not have reason to be amazed1 at the turn events have taken and to feel contempt for us, when among the barbarians, whom we have come to look upon as effeminate and unversed in war and utterly degenerate from luxurious living,2 men have arisen3 who thought themselves worthy to rule over Hellas, while among the Hellenes no one has aspired so high as to attempt to make us masters of Asia?
1 For this and what follows cf. Isoc. 4.133-136.
2 Persian effeminacy is described at length in Isoc. 4.150 ff.
3 Dareius, Xerxes.