i-peace party is seated.

(4) After Zurborg, I omit {oukh oi eduoinoi}.

(5) Reading {kai ap arguriou}, with Zurborg.

(6) Lit. "Sophists." See Grote, "H. G." viii. lxvii. note, p. 497.

(7) E.g. chorus-trainers, musicians, grammarians, rhapsodists, and
actors.

(8) Or, "sacred and profane."

But if there is no desire to gainsay these views--only that certain
people, in their wish to recover that headship (9) which was once the
pride of our city, are persuaded that the accomplishment of their hopes
is to be found, not in peace but in war, I beg them to reflect on some
matters of history, and to begin at the beginning, (10) the Median war.
Was it by high-handed violence, or as benefactors of the Hellenes, that
we obtained the headship of the naval forces, and the trusteeship of the
treasury of Hellas? (11) Again, when through the too cruel exercise of
her presidency, as men thought, Athens was deprived of her empire, is it
not the case that even in those days, (12) as soon as we held aloof from
injustice we were once more reinstated by the islanders, of their own
free will, as presidents of the naval force? Nay, did not the very
Thebans, in return for certain benefits, grant to us Athenians
to exercise leadership over them? (13) And at another date the
Lacedaemonans suffered us Athenians to arrange the terms of hegemony
(14) at our discretion, not as driven to such submission, but in
requital of kindly treatment. And to-day, owing to the chaos (15) which
reigns in Hellas, if I mistake not, an opportunity has fallen to this
city of winning back our fellow-Hellenes without pain or peril or
expense of any sort. It is given to us to try and harmonise states
which are at war with one another: it is given to us to reconcile the
differences of rival factions within those states themselves, wherever
existing.

(9) Lit. "her hegemony for the city," B.C. 476.

(10) "And first of all."

(11) See Thuc. i. 96.

(12) B.C. 378. Second confederacy of Delos. See Grote, "H. G." x. 152.

(13) B.C. 375. Cf. "Hell." V. iv. 62; Grote, "H. G." x. 139; Isocr.
"Or." xiv. 20; Diod. Sic. xv. 29.

(14) B.C. 369 (al. B.C. 368). Cf. "Hell." VII. i. 14.

(15) See "Hell."VII. v. 27.

Make it but evident that we are minded to preserve the independence (16)
of the Delphic shrine in its primitive integrity, not by joining in
any war but by the moral force of embassies throughout the length and
breadth of Hellas--and I