48
In justice, however, we should praise the city which has been the author of many blessings to the rest of the world but should reprehend the state which is ever striving to effect its own advantage; and we should cultivate the friendship of those who do by others just as they do by themselves, but should abhor and shun those who feel the utmost degree of self-love, while governing their state in a spirit inimical and hostile to the world at large. Such was the beginning made by each of these two states.
49
But at a later time, when the Persian War took placeFor conduct of Athens and Sparta in the Persian Wars, 49-52, compare Isoc. 4.71-74, 85-98.(Xerxes, who was then king, having gathered together a fleet of thirteen hundred triremes and a land force numbering five millions in all, including seven hundred thousand fighting men, and led this vast force“An innumerable army” in Isoc. 4.93. against the Hellenes),
50
the Spartans, although they were masters of the Peloponnesus, contributed to the sea-fight which determined the issue of the whole war only ten triremes, whereas our ancestors, although they were homeless, having abandoned AthensSee Isoc. 4.96; Isoc. 6.43. because the city had not been fortified with walls at that time, furnished not only a greater number of ships, but ships with a greater fighting force, than all the rest combined who fought together in that battle.See Isoc. 4.98, note.