ject to us or to the Lacedaemonians; for the forms of constitution by which they govern their states have divided most of them in this way.' Whoever, then, thinks that the others will unite in any good policy before he has reconciled those who are at their head, is a mere simpleton, and out of touch with practical affairs. But if a man does not merely aim at personal display, but wishes to effect something, he must seek for such arguments as shall persuade these two states to share and share alike, to divide the supremacy,2 and to win from the barbarians those advantages which now they desire. should accrue to them from the Hellenes. Now our commonwealth would be easily induced to take this course, but the Lacedaemonians are for the present still hard to persuade, for they have inherited an erroneous notion that it is their ancestral prerogative to be leaders; but if it be shown to them that this honour belongs to us rather than to them, they will soon waive their punctilious claims in this matter, and follow their interests.

Now other speakers ought to have started from this basis, and not to have given advice about matters of common agreement before instructing us on disputed points; but I especially am bound, for two reasons, to give most of my attention to this matter: first, if possible, that some useful result may be attained, and that we may cease from our mutual rivalry and unite in a war against the barbarians; and, secondly, if that is impossible, that I may point out who are those that stand in the way of the happiness of Hellas, and that it may be made clear to all that, as previously the old maritime empire of Athens was based on a just title, so now she has a good right to dispute the leadership. For, on the one hand, if the men who deserve honour in each sphere of action are those who have the most experience and the greatest power, it is beyond dispute that we have a right to recover the leadership which we formerly used to possess; for no one can point to any other state that is so pre-eminent in war by land as ours excels in maritime enterprises. And, on the other hand, if any think that this is not a fair criterion, 1 Into democracies under Athens, or oligarchies under Sparta. 2 Athens receiving the supremacy on sea, Sparta on land.

but that fortune is too changeable for such a conclusion (since power never continues in the same hands), and claim that leadership, like any other prize, should be held either by those who first won this honour, or by those who have conferred the most benefits upon Hellas, I think that these too are on our side; for the further back one examines both these qualifications, the more we shall leave behind those who dispute our claim. For it is allowed that our commonwealth is the most ancient and the largest and most renowned in all the world; and, good as is this foundation of our claim, for what follows we have still greater right to be honoured. For we did not win the country we dwell in by expelling others from it,' or by seizing it when uninhabited, nor are we a mixed race collected together from many nations, but so noble and genuine is our descent, that we have continued for all time in possession of the land from which we sprang, being children of our native soil, and able to address our city by the same titles that we give to our nearest relations; for we alone among the Hellenes have the right to call our city at once. nurse and fatherland and mother. Yet our origin is but such as should be possessed by a people who indulge in a reasonable pride, who have a just claim to the leadership of Hellas, and who bring to frequent remembrance their ancestral glories.

This will show the magnitude of the gifts with which fortune originally endowed us; the great benefits we have conferred upon others we shall best examine by a detailed narrative of the early history and achievements of our city; for we shall find that she has not only led the way in warlike enterprises, but is also the founder of nearly all the established institutions among which we dwell, and under which we carry on our public life, and by means of which we are enabled to live. Now of useful services we must of necessity prefer, not such as on account of their insignificance escape notice and are passed over in silence, but such as on account of their importance are spoken of and kept in memory by all men, both in former times and at the present day and in every place.

1 Like the Spartans at the time of the Dorian immigration into Peloponnesus.

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In the first place, then, the first need of our nature was supplied by the agency of our state; for even though the story is a mythical one, yet it is fit to be told even at the present day. When Demeter came into the country in her wandering, after the rape of Persephone, and was kindly disposed to our forefathers on account of the services they rendered her, which can be told to none but the initiated, she bestowed two gifts which surpass all others: the fruits of the earth, which have saved us from the life of wild beasts, and the mystic rite, the partakers in which have brighter hopes concerning the end of life and the eternity beyond, -under these circumstances Athens showed such love for men, as well as for the gods, that, when she became mistress of these great blessings, she did not grudge them to the rest of the world, but shared her advantages with all. Now as to the festival, we to this day celebrate it every year;2 and as to the fruits of the earth, Athens has once for all taught the uses to which they can be put, the operations which they require, and the benefits which arise from them. Indeed no one will venture to disbelieve this statement, after I have made a few additional remarks. For in the first place, the very considerations which would lead a man to despise the 1 Persephone (Prosperine), the daughter of Demeter (Ceres), while gathering flowers in the vale of Henna in Sicily, was carried off by Dis (Pluto) to the lower world. Her distracted mother, wandering over the whole world in search of her, amongst other places came to Eleusis in Attica, where she was hospitably received by Celeus, king of the country. She remained there for a year, and cursed the earth with barrenness, until a bargain was made with Jupiter, by which Prosperine was to spend six months of the year with her mother. Ceres then removed the curse of barrenness: and, to show her gratitude for her hospitable reception, she established her religious worship in the country, Celeus himself, together with Triptolemus, Diocles, and Eumolpus, being constituted its interpreters. The Hierophant, or high priest of her mysteries, was always chosen from the Eumolpidae. Triptolemus is also said to have been taught by Ceres the art of sowing and ploughing, which he communicated to the world.

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2 The Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated every year in the month of Boëdromion (April), and lasted twelve days.

story on account of its antiquity, would give him probable reason to suppose that the events had actually happened; for that many have told the story of these events, and all have heard it, should make us regard it, though not recent, yet as worthy of belief. In the second place, we can not only take refuge in the fact that we have received the tradition and rumour from a distant period, but we can also produce greater proofs than this of these things. For most of the cities of Hellas, as a memorial of our old services, send to us each year first-fruits of their corn,' and those that omit to do so have often been commanded by the Pythia to pay the due proportion of their produce and perform their ancestral duties to our state. Yet can anything have stronger claims on our belief than that which is the subject of divine ordinance and of widesperad approval in Hellas, where ancient story bears common witness to present deeds, and modern events agree with the legends of men of old? Besides this, if we leave all this out of consideration and take a survey from the beginning, we shall find that those who first appeared upon the earth did not at once find life in its present condition, but little by little procured for themselves its advantages. Whom then should we think most likely either to receive it as a gift from the gods or to win it by their own efforts? Surely those who are admitted to have been the first to exist, and are at once most highly gifted for the pursuits of life and most. piously disposed towards the gods. Now what high honour ought to accrue to those who have produced such great blessings, it were a superfluous task to point out; for no one could find a reward commensurate with what has been achieved.

So much then concerning the greatest of our good works, first accomplished and most universal in its effects. But, in the same period, Athens, seeing the barbarians occupying the 1 The story is that, during a general famine in Hellas, the Athenians were ordered by the Delphic oracle to offer a sacrifice, called Proërosia, since it was offered at the time of seed-sowing, to Demeter on behalf of the rest of the Hellenes. Thereupon the famine ceased. Out of gratitude the first-fruits of all Hellas were afterwards sent to Athens.

greater part of the country,' and the Hellenes confined in a small space and driven by scarcity of land into intestine conspiracies and civil wars, and perishing, either from want of daily necessities or in war, was not content to leave things so, but sent forth leaders into the states who took those most in need of subsistence, made themselves their generals and conquered the barbarians in war, founded many states on both continents, colonized all the islands, and saved both those who followed them and those who stayed behind; for to the latter they left the home country sufficient for their needs, and the former they provided with more territory than they already possessed; for they acquired all the surrounding districts of which we are now in occupation. In this way too they afforded great facilities to those who in later times wished to send out colonists and to imitate our state; for it was not necessary for them to run risk in acquiring new territory, but they could go and live on land which we had marked out. Now who can show a leadership more ancestral than one which arose before most Hellenic cities were founded, or more beneficial than one which drove the barbarians from their homes, and led on the Hellenes to such prosperity?

Yet, after aiding in the accomplishment of the most pressing duties, Athens did not neglect the rest, but deemed it the first step only in a career of beneficence to find food for those in want, a step which is incumbent upon a people who aim at good government generally, and thinking that life which was limited to mere subsistence was not enough to make men desire to live, she devoted such close attention to the other

1i.e., the country possessed by the Hellenes in the time of Isocrates. In mythical times Greece was limited to Peloponnesus and Attica, the rest of the country being in the possession of barbarian races, such as the Thracians, Carians, and Caucasians.

2 i.e., Europe and Asia, Africa not being reckoned separately, but regarded as divided between the other two continents; Herodotus, however, reckons three divisions of the world. In Europe the reference is perhaps to the colonies founded by Miletus on the Euxine Sea. Referring to the colonization of the Cyclades at the time of the Ionic migration.

Referring to the Dorian migration.