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İngilizce İngilizce

11 And it is to be expected that acting as we do we should fare as we do; for nothing can turn out well for those who neglect to adopt a sound policy for the conduct of their government as a whole. On the contrary, even if they do succeed in their enterprises now and then, either through chance or through the genius of some man,The reference is to the victorious campaigns of Conon and his son Timotheus. See Isoc. 4.142, 154; Isoc. 5.61-64; Isoc. 15.107 ff. they soon after find themselves in the same difficulties as before, as anyone may see from what happened in our own history.

12 For when all Hellas fell under the power of Athens, after the naval victory of Conon and the campaign of Timotheus, we were not able to hold our good fortune any time at all, but quickly dissipated and destroyed it.In the disastrous “Social War.” For we neither possess nor do we honestly seek to obtain a polity which can properly deal with our affairs.

13 And yet we all know that success does not visit and abide with those who have built around themselves the finest and the strongest walls,Cf. Thucydides vii. 77: ἄνδρες γὰρ πόλις, καὶ οὐ τείχη οὐδὲ νῆες ἀνδρῶν κεναί. Also Alcaeus fr. 28, 29 L.C.L., and Sir William Jones, What Constitutes a State. nor with those who have collected the greatest population in one place, but rather with those who most nobly and wisely govern their state.