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When any danger threatens the city, they seek counsel from those who can speak best upon the question at issue and act upon their advice; but when men devote their efforts to preparing themselves to serve the state in just such crises, they think it proper to traduce them. And they reproach the Thebans and our other enemies for their ignorance;1 yet when men seek by every means to escape from that malady, they never cease maligning them.
1 No love was lost between Athens and Thebes, and to the Athenians the Thebans were proverbial for their stupidity. Cf. Plut. Mor. 995e: τοὺς γὰρ Βοιωτοὺς ἡμᾶς οἱ Ἀττικοὶ καὶ παχεῖς καὶ ἀναισθήτους καὶ ἠλιθιους, μάλιστα διὰ τὰς ἀδηφαγίας προσαγορεύουσιν. Cf. Pind. O. 6.148-153; Cicero, De fato4; Horace, Epist. 2.1.241-244.
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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