[75]
This conclusion we may justly draw from the ancient struggles which they carried on against the Amazons and the Thracians and all of the Peloponnesians, and also from the wars which they waged against the Persians, in which, both when they fought alone and when they were aided by the Peloponnesians, whether on land or on the sea, they were victorious over the barbarians and were adjudged the meed of valor;1 for they could not have achieved these things, had they not far surpassed other men in the endowments of nature.
1 This paragraph sums up Athenian achievements in war which are stated at length in Isoc. 4.51-98. Cf. Isoc. 6.42; Isoc. 12.42 ff.