[40]
And this could be proved by numerous instances; but as for those which have occurred in our own time at any rate, who does not know that the Lacedaemonians shattered your power,1 which was thought to be irresistible—although at first they possessed slight resources for the war waged at sea, but they won the Greeks over to their side because of that general belief—and that you in turn took the leadership away from them, although you depended on a city without walls and in evil plight,2 but possessed Justice as your ally?
1 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.
2 A reference to the beginning of the Corinthian War, 395 B.C. Athens had been compelled by Sparta to destroy her Long Walls and fortifications after her defeat in 404 B.C.
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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