Book 2
23.17
Another topic is derived from analogy in things. For instance, Iphicrates, when they tried to force his son to perform public services because he was tall, although under the legal age, said: If you consider tall boys men, you must vote that short men are boys. Similarly, Theodectes in his law,This law (already mentioned in 23.11) is said to have been an oration on the legal position of mercenaries. says: Since you bestow the rights of citizenship upon mercenaries such as Strabax and Charidemus on account of their merits, will you not banish those of them who have wrought such irreparable misfortunes?
23.18
Another topic consists in concluding the identity of antecedents from the identity of results.Cause and effect. Thus Xenophanes said: There is as much impiety in asserting that the gods are born as in saying that they die; for either way the result is that at some time or other they did not exist. And, generally speaking, one may always regard as identical the results produced by one or other of any two things: You are about to decide, not about Isocrates alone, but about education generally, whether it is right to study philosophy.Isoc. 15.173. And, to give earth and water is slavery, and to be included in the common peaceThe peace concluded between the Greeks (although the Lacedaemonians held aloof) and Alexander the Great after the death of Philip of Macedon (336 B.C.). implies obeying orders. Of two alternatives, you should take that which is useful.
