Thesauros Literature Oratory Περὶ εἰρήνης

Περὶ εἰρήνης

Περὶ εἰρήνης Isocrates
58 For example, if the Thebans, after the battle which they won over the Lacedaemonians,The Battle of Leuctra, 371 B.C., the end of the Spartan supremacy and the beginning of the Theban hegemony, which lasted but nine years. had contented themselves with liberating the Peloponnesus and making the other Hellenes independentSee Isoc. 5.53 ff. and had thenceforth pursued peace, while we continued to make such blunders, then neither could this man have asked such a question nor could we ourselves have failed to realize how much better moderation is than meddlesomeness.
59 But now matters have taken such a turn that the Thebans are saving us and we them, and they are procuring allies for us and we for them.Not intentionally, but by our mistakes. So that if we were sensible we should supply each other with money for our general assemblies; for the oftener we meet to deliberate the more do we promote the success of our rivals.
60 But those among us who are able to exercise even a modicum of reason ought not to rest our hopes of safety upon the blunders of our enemies but upon our own management of affairs and upon our own judgement. For the good fortune which results to us from their stupidity might perhaps cease or change to the opposite, whereas that which comes about because of our own efforts will be more certain and more enduring.

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