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İngilizce İngilizce

26 Then again you are doubtless well aware that possessions, whether private or public, when they have remained for a long time in the hands of their owner, are by all men acknowledged to be hereditary and incontestable. Now we took Messene before the Persians acquired their kingdomIn 559 B.C., when Cyrus became ruler of Persia. and became masters of the continent, in fact before a number of the Hellenic cities were even founded.

27 And yet notwithstanding that we hold these titles, the Thebans would on the one hand restore Asia as his ancestral right to the barbarian,By the peace terms of Pelopidas. See introduction to this oration. who has not yet held sway over it for two hundred years, while on the other hand they would rob us of Messene, which we have held for more than twice that length of time;Messene was not actually subdued until 724-723 B.C. Perhaps Isocrates is speaking loosely, or perhaps he follows another source than Pausanias, who is almost our sole authority for this period. However, the conquests of Alcamenes took place about 786 B.C., and Isocrates perhaps refers to this or a similar event. See Paus. 4.4.3. Dinarchus (Din. 1.73) gives the same figure as lsocrates. and although it was only the other day that they razed both Thespiae and Plataea to the ground,Plataea was destroyed about 372 B.C., and Thespiae shortly after. See Dio. Sic. 15.46.4 and Xen. Hell. 6.3.1. Others give the date as 374 B.C. yet now, after a lapse of four hundred years, they propose to settle their colonists in Messene acting in both cases contrary to the oaths and covenants.Cf. the Peace of Antalcidas. See Isoc. 4.115 ff. and note.