To Philip

If we do not stop these men from banding together, by providing sufficient livelihood for them, they will grow before we know it into so great a multitude as to be a terror no less to the Hellenes than to the barbarians. But we pay no heed to them; nay, we shut our eyes to the fact that a terrible menace which threatens us all alike is waxing day by day.

It is therefore the duty of a man who is high-minded, who is a lover of Hellas, who has a broader vision than the rest of the world, to employ these bands in a war against the barbarians, to strip from that empire all the territory which I defined a moment ago, to deliver these homeless wanderers from the ills by which they are afflicted and which they inflict upon others, to collect them into cities, and with these cities to fix the boundary of Hellas, making of them buffer states to shield us all.

For by doing this, you will not only make them prosperous, but you will put us all on a footing of security. If, however, you do not succeed in these objects, this much you will at any rate easily accomplish,—the liberation of the cities which are on the coast of Asia. But no matter what part of this undertaking you are able to carry out, or only attempt to carry out, you cannot fail to attain distinguished glory; and it will be well deserved if only you will make this the goal of your own efforts and urge on the Hellenes in the same course.

For as things now are, who would not have reason to be amazed[*](For this and what follows cf. Isoc. 4.133-136.) at the turn events have taken and to feel contempt for us, when among the barbarians, whom we have come to look upon as effeminate and unversed in war and utterly degenerate from luxurious living,[*](Persian effeminacy is described at length in Isoc. 4.150 ff.) men have arisen[*](Dareius, Xerxes.) who thought themselves worthy to rule over Hellas, while among the Hellenes no one has aspired so high as to attempt to make us masters of Asia?

Nay, we have dropped so far behind the barbarians that, while they did not hesitate even to begin hostilities against the Hellenes, we do not even have the spirit to pay them back for the injuries we have suffered at their hands. On the contrary, although they admit that in all their wars they have no soldiers of their own nor generals nor any of the things which are serviceable in times of danger,

but have to send and get all these from us,[*](Cf. Isoc. 4.135.) we have gone so far in our passion to injure ourselves that, whereas it lies in our power to possess the wealth of the barbarians in security and peace, we continue to wage war upon each other over trifles,[*](Cf. Isoc. 4.133-136.) and we actually help to reduce to subjection those who revolt[*](Cf. Isoc. 4.134.) from the authority of the King, and sometimes, unwittingly, we ally ourselves with our hereditary foes[*](Isoc. 4.157.) and seek to destroy those who are of our own race.

Therefore, since the others are so lacking in spirit, I think it is opportune for you to head the war against the King; and, while it is only natural for the other descendants of Heracles, and for men who are under the bonds of their polities and laws, to cleave fondly to that state in which they happen to dwell, it is your privilege, as one who has been blessed with untrammeled freedom,[*](Cf. 14, 15.) to consider all Hellas your fatherland,[*](Cf. Isoc. 4.81.) as did the founder of your race, and to be as ready to brave perils for her sake as for the things about which you are personally most concerned.

Perhaps there are those—men capable of nothing else but criticism—who will venture to rebuke me because I have chosen to challenge you to the task of leading the expedition against the barbarians and of taking Hellas under your care, while I have passed over my own city.

Well, if I were trying to present this matter to any others before having broached it to my own country, which has thrice[*](Twice from the barbarians—at Marathon and Salamis; once from the Spartans at the battle of Cnidus, where the navy under Conon put an end to the Spartan hegemony.) freed Hellas—twice from the barbarians and once from the Lacedaemonian yoke—I should confess my error. In truth, however, it will be found that I turned to Athens first of all and endeavored to win her over to this cause with all the earnestness of which my nature is capable,[*](In the Panegyricus.) but when I perceived that she cared less for what I said than for the ravings of the platform orators,[*](See General Introd. p. xxxviii.) I gave her up, although I did not abandon my efforts.

Wherefore I might justly be praised on every hand, because throughout my whole life I have constantly employed such powers as I possess in warring on the barbarians, in condemning those who opposed my plan, and in striving to arouse to action whoever I think will best be able to benefit the Hellenes in any way or to rob the barbarians of their present prosperity.

Consequently, I am now addressing myself to you, although I am not unaware that when I am proposing this course many will look at it askance, but that when you are actually carrying it out all will rejoice in it; for no one has had any part in what I have proposed, but when the benefits from it shall have been realized in fact, everyone without fail will look to have his portion.

Consider also what a disgrace it is to sit idly by and see Asia flourishing more than Europe and the barbarians enjoying a greater prosperity[*](See Isoc. 4.132, 184, 187.) than the Hellenes; and, what is more, to see those who derive their power from Cyrus, who as a child was cast out by his mother on the public highway, addressed by the title of “The Great King,” while the descendants of Heracles, who because of his virtue was exalted by his father to the rank of a god,[*](See Isoc. 1.50.) are addressed by meaner titles[*](The Spartan kings are merely “kings,” while the Persian king is “The Great King.”) than they. We must not allow this state of affairs to go on; no, we must change and reverse it entirely.

Rest assured that I should never have attempted to persuade you to undertake this at all had power and wealth been the only things which I saw would come of it; for I think that you already have more than enough of such things, and that any man is beyond measure insatiable who deliberately chooses the extreme hazard of either winning these prizes or losing his life.

No, it is not with a view to the acquisition of wealth and power that I urge this course, but in the belief that by means of these you will win a name of surpassing greatness and glory. Bear in mind that while we all possess bodies that are mortal, yet by virtue of good will and praise and good report and memory which keeps pace with the passage of time we partake of immortality[*](Cf. Isoc. 2.37.)— a boon for which we may well strive with all our might and suffer any hardship whatsoever.

You may observe that even common citizens of the best sort, who would exchange their lives for nothing else, are willing for the sake of winning glory to lay them down in battle;[*](Cf. Isoc. 9.3; Isoc. 6.109.) and, in general, that those who crave always an honor greater than they already possess are praised by all men, while those who are insatiable with regard to any other thing under the sun are looked upon as intemperate and mean.[*](The same sentiment is in Isoc. Letter 3.4.)

But more important than all that I have said is the truth that wealth and positions of power often fall into the hands of our foes, whereas the good will of our fellow countrymen and the other rewards which I have mentioned are possessions to which none can fall heir but our own children, and they alone. I could not, therefore, respect myself if I failed to advance these motives in urging you to make this expedition and wage war and brave its perils.

You will best resolve upon this question if you feel that you are summoned to this task, not by my words only, but by your forefathers, by the cowardice of the Persians, and by all who have won great fame and attained the rank of demigods because of their campaigns against the barbarians, and, most of all, by the present opportunity, which finds you in the possession of greater power than has any of those who dwell in Europe, and finds him against whom you are to make war more cordially hated and despised by the world at large than was ever any king before him.

I should have given much to be able to blend into one all the speeches I have delivered on this question; for the present discourse would then appear more worthy of its theme. But, as things are, it devolves upon you to search out and consider, from all my speeches, the arguments which bear upon and urge you to this war; for so you will best resolve upon the matter.

Now I am not unaware that many of the Hellenes look upon the King's power as invincible.[*](Cf. Isoc. 4.138 ff.) Yet one may well marvel at them if they really believe that the power which was subdued to the will of a mere barbarian—an ill-bred[*](Cyrus. See 66.) barbarian at that—and collected in the cause of slavery, could not be scattered by a man of the blood of Hellas, of ripe experience in warfare, in the cause of freedom—and that too although they know that while it is in all cases difficult to construct a thing, to destroy it is, comparatively, an easy task.

Bear in mind that the men whom the world most admires and honors are those who unite in themselves the abilities of the statesman and the general. When, therefore, you see the renown which even in a single city is bestowed on men who possess these gifts, what manner of eulogies must you expect to hear spoken of you, when among all the Hellenes you shall stand forth as a statesman who has worked for the good of Hellas, and as a general who has overthrown the barbarians?