15
For you would in fact be acting inconsistently if you should find fault with our people for lending a ready ear to your calumniators, but yourself should be found giving credence to those who practise this art and should not perceive that the more easily influenced by nobodies such persons declare our city to be, the better suited to your ends they prove it. For if those who are powerless to be of any service to Athens can accomplish by words alone what they wish, surely it is right to expect that you, who are able in very deed to confer upon her the greatest benefits, would not fail to gain from us anything whatever.
16
To the bitter accusers of our city I think I should place in contrast those who say that the very opposite is true, that is, those who assert that she has done no wrong at all, whether great or small. For my part, I would not make any such claim; for I should be ashamed if, while men in general do not regard even the gods as blameless, I should dare to affirm that our city had never transgressed at all.This statement is repeated in Isoc. 12.64, where Isocrates says of it, "as I have already said in another place."
17
Nevertheless, this I can say of Athens—that you could not find a city more useful to all the Greeks and to your enterprises; and to this fact you should give your special attention. For not only as your ally would she bring about many advantages to you, but even if she merely was believed to be on friendly terms with you.
