[42]
But I marvel that those who think that none of these proposals could possibly be carried out are not aware, either by their own knowledge or by tradition, that there have been many terrible wars after which the participants have come to an understanding and rendered great services to one another. For what could exceed the enmity which the Hellenes felt toward Xerxes? Yet everyone knows that we and the Lacedaemonians came to prize his friendship1 more than that of those who helped us to establish our respective empires.
1 The expression is loose. He means that the hatred for Persia under Xerxes changed to friendship under Artaxerxes when the Peace of Antalcidas was made. Cf. Sparta's “love” for Persia mentioned in Isoc. 12.102-103.
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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