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It was with this mind that I chose to address to you what I have to say—not that I singled you out to curry your favor, although in truth I would give much to speak acceptably to you. It was not, however, with this in view that I came to my decision, but rather because I saw that all the other men of high repute were living under the control of politics and laws,See 127 and General Introd. p. xlii. with no power to do anything save what was prescribed, and that, furthermore, they were sadly unequal to the enterprise which I shall propose;
15
while you and you alone had been granted by fortune free scope both to send ambassadors to whom ever you desire and to receive them from whom ever you please, and to say whatever you think expedient; and that, besides, you, beyond any of the Hellenes, were possessed of both wealth and power, which are the only things in the world that are adapted at once to persuade and to compel; and these aids, I think, even the cause which I shall propose to you will need to have on its side.
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For I am going to advise you to champion the cause of concord among the Hellenes and of a campaign against the barbarian; and as persuasion will be helpful in dealing with the Hellenes, so compulsion will be useful in dealing with the barbarians. This, then, is the general scope of my discourse.
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But I must not shrink from telling you plainly of the discouragements I met with from some of my associates; for I think the tale will be somewhat to my purpose. When I disclosed to them my intention of sending you an address whose aim was, not to make a display, nor to extol the wars which you have carried on—for others will do this—but to attempt to urge you to a course of action which is more in keeping with your nature, and more noble and more profitable than any which you have hitherto elected to follow,
