104
It is through fear of these things that he is now constrained to pay court to the King and to send him much tribute every year; but if you should cross over to the mainland with an army, he would greet you with joy, in the belief that you were come to his relief; and you will also induce many of the other satraps to throw off the King’s power if you promise them “freedom” and scatter broadcast over Asia that word which, when sown among the Hellenes, has broken up both our empire and that of the Lacedaemonians.“Freedom” of the Greeks from Athenian tyranny was the avowed object of the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 4.86. Cf. Isoc. 4.122.
105
I might go on and endeavor to speak at greater length on how you could carry on the war so as to triumph most quickly over the power of the King; but as things are, I fear that I might lay myself open to criticism if, having had no part in a soldier’s life, I should now venture to advise you, whose achievements in war are without parallel in number and magnitude. Therefore on this subject I think I need say nothing more. But to proceed with the rest of my discourse, I believe that both your own fatherAmyntas. II. and the founder of your kingdom,Perdiccas I. See 32, note. and also the progenitor of your raceHeracles. The latter was precluded by his divinity; Amyntas and Perdiccas by their death.— were it lawful for Heracles and possible for the others to appear as your counsellors—would advise the very things which I have urged.
106
I draw my inference from their actions while they lived. For your father, in dealing with those states which I am urging you to cultivate, kept on friendly termsWith Athens, Aeschin. 2.26; with Sparta, Xen. Hell. 5.2.38. with them all. And the founder of your empire, although he aspired higher than did his fellow citizensOf Argos. and set his heart on a king’s power, was not minded to take the same road as others who set out to attain a like ambition.
