[1]: Amphipolis, a city in Macedonia near the mouth of the Strymon river, conquered and colonized by Athenians in 437 B.C. It was taken by Philip in 358 B.C., but the war with Athens was delayed until Philip seized Potidaea, 356 B.C.
[2]: Isocrates had now passed his ninetieth birthday.
[3]: Such as Amphipolis, surrounded by warlike tribes.
[4]: Cyrene, in northern Africa. See Grote, Hist. iii. p. 445.
[5]: An alliance was entered into between Athens and Amadocus, the powerful Thracian king, 390 B.C. (Xen. Hell. 4.8.26).
[6]: Cf. Isoc. 4.172-174.
[7]: See Isoc. 4.17, where almost the same words are used.
[8]: The same sentiment is expressed in Isoc. Letter 1.6-7. See General Introd. pp. xxxvi. ff.
[9]: Possibly a disparagement of Plato’s Republic and Laws (see Blass, Die attische Beredsamkeit, ii. p. 4), but more probably of Isocrates’ unfriendly rival, Antisthenes, who, according to Diog. Laert. 6.1.16, wrote a work On Law, or the Constitution of a State.
[10]: See 127 and General Introd. p. xlii.
[11]: For these early conquests of Philip see Grote, Hist. xi. p. 18.
[12]: Cf. Isoc. Letter 1.2-3. See Jebb, Attic Orators, ii. p. 67.
[13]: See Isoc. 12.1-2.
[14]: αἱ δυσχέρειαι may mean difficulties or disadvantages under which speeches labor which are composed for a reading public, or the prejudices against them caused by these disadvantages. The latter seems to be the sense here. See Benseler’s note.
[15]: “Isocrates addressed him (Philip) as a friend of letters and philosophy: a reputation which his choice of Aristotle as an instructor of his son, Alexander, tends to bear out” (Grote, Hist. xi. p. 325).
[16]: The leading states. Cf. Isoc. 4.64.
[17]: Perdiccas I., the founder of the Argive dynasty in Macedonia, was, according to Hdt. 8.137, a descendant of the Argive hero Temenus. See also Hdt. 5.22 and Grote, Hist. iii. p. 432.
[18]: Heracles. See General Introd. p. xli.
[19]: At the “Festival of Heracles.” Xen. Hell. 6.4.7; Dio. Sic. 15.53.
[20]: See Isoc. 4.62 and note.
[21]: According to Dio. Sic. 4.39 the Athenians were the first to offer sacrifices to Heracles as a god.
[22]: For this statement and the following paragraph see Isoc. 4.56-62.
[23]: The following paragraphs betray a cynicism which is foreign to the Isoc. 4.See General Introd. p. xxxvi.
[24]: Cf.8 and Isoc. 4.17.
[25]: The expression is loose. He means that the hatred for Persia under Xerxes changed to friendship under Artaxerxes when the Peace of Antalcidas was made. Cf. Sparta’s “love” for Persia mentioned in Isoc. 12.102-103.
[26]: Especially at the close of the Peloponnesian War. See Isoc. 14.31; Xen. Hell. 3.5.8.
[27]: Under Chabrias, against Agesilaus, 378 B.C. Xen. Hell. 5.4; Grote, Hist. ix. p. 343.
[28]: Thebes became the supreme power in Greece by the battle of Leuctra, 371 B.C.
[29]: 361 B.C.
[30]: In 362 B.C., when Epaminondas, at the head of the Thebans and their allies, including the Argives, Arcadians, Messenians, and the Eleans, marched on Sparta to destroy her, the Athenians dispatched Iphicrates with an army of twelve thousand to the rescue. See Isoc. 8.105; Xen. Hell. 6.5.23 ff.; Grote, Hist. x. pp. 89 ff.
[31]: The hegemony of Sparta lasted from the battle of Aegospotami, 405 B.C., to the battle of Leuctra, 371 B.C.
[32]: Epaminondas (see 44 and note) actually entered Sparta. Xen. Hell. 7.5.11.
[33]: The Argives and the Messenians were allied with Philip against Sparta. See Dem. 6.9, 15.
[34]: Besides the Argives and Messenians, also the Arcadians, the Megalopolitans, the Eleans, and the Sicyonians. Dio. Sic. 16.39.
[35]: Especially by the Athenians and the Thebans. Dem. 16.22-23.
[36]: The Helots.
[37]: Thebes was the principal enemy of the Phocians in the Sacred War, which was now drawing to a close. For this war see Grote, Hist. xi. p. 45.
[38]: As in the campaign referred to in 44, which ended with the battle of Mantinea.
[39]: The Spartans.
[40]: This was done by the Spartans six years before this. Dio. Sic. 16.39.
[41]: The conflict between democracy and oligarchy, which raged with varying intensity in most of the Greek cities, in Argos was most bitter. In 371 B.C. occurred a massacre in which twelve hundred of the leading men were slain by the mob. Dio. Sic. 15.57-58; Grote, Hist. ix. p. 417.
[42]: Battle of Leuctra, 371 B.C.
[43]: Epaminondas invaded the Peloponnese in 369, 368, 366, 362, stirring up the cities there against Sparta. Dio. Sic. 15.62-75.
[44]: By conquering Alexander of Pherae. Dio. Sic. 15.67.
[45]: The Megarians sided with Sparta when Agesilaus invaded Boeotia in 378. Xen. Hell. 5.4.41.
[46]: The border town of Oropus, 366 B.C. Xen. Hell. 7.4.1.
[47]: See Dem. 18.99.
[48]: One hundred ships under Epaminondas, 364 B.C. Dio. Sic. 15.78-79.
[49]: Ten years, 356-346 B.C. See Isoc. 5.50.
[50]: The Phocians met their expenses in the war from the rich treasures in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
[51]: Orchomenus, Coroneia, Corsiae. Dio. Sic. 16.33-58.
[52]: The Phocian forces were composed mainly of mercenaries.
[53]: The war was concluded shortly after this by the intervention of Philip against the Phocians.
[54]: For the career of the brilliant, unscrupulous Alcibiades see Grote, Hist. vi. pp. 301 ff., vii. 49 ff., and Plut. Alc.
[55]: He was exiled on the charge of having profaned the Eleusinian Mysteries.
[56]: For example, Themistocles.
[57]: By stirring up and aiding, through his great personal influence and his sagacity, all the enemies of Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
[58]: The defeat at Aegospotami, and after that the rule of the “thirty tyrants,” and later the “decarchy.”
[59]: Under the rule of the decarchies described in Isoc. 4.111 ff.
[60]: Isocrates does not much exaggerate the mischief he wrought in Greek affairs generally.
[61]: For this play of words— ἀρχή“beginning,” ἀρχή“dominion” — cf. Isoc. 4.119, Isoc. 3.28, Isoc. 8.101.
[62]: At length Alcibiades fell out with Athens’ enemies, and began to intrigue in her favor; and so effectively did he work that his services were recognized at home and he was welcomed back to take again a leading part in the life of Athens, 408 B.C. There appears to have been no open opposition to his return. The many who distrusted him probably thought him less dangerous at home than in exile.
[63]: See Isoc. 4.142 ff.
[64]: The battle of Aegospotami.
[65]: See Isoc. 9.52 ff.
[66]: See 86, 87, and Isoc. Letter 9.13-14.
[67]: Battle of Cnidus, 394 B.C. There is a dramatic significance in the fact that Conon fought in the battle of Aegospotami which gave Sparta the supremacy and in the battle of Cnidus which took it from her.
[68]: From Spartan rule.
[69]: He restored the walls which had been torn down as one of the terms imposed upon Athens after the battle of Aegospotami. Xen. Hell. 4.8.9 ff.
[70]: Dionysius, the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse, 406-367 B.C.
[71]: See Dio. Sic. 13.96.
[72]: Yet Isocrates once wrote to him a most respectful letter ( Isoc. Letter 1).
[73]: A navy of three hundred and ten ships, Dio. Sic. 14.42, and an army of a hundred thousand men more or less, Dio. Sic. 2.5.
[74]: Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, Isoc. 9.37.
[75]: See Isoc. 5.132 and Hdt. 1.108.
[76]: Hdt. 1.112 ff.
[77]: Cf. Isoc. Letter 2.21: “It is a much greater glory to capture the good will of states than their fortifications.”
[78]: Demosthenes and his party. On Isocrates and Demosthenes see Havet, Introd. to Cartelier’s Isoc. 15.pp. xlviii ff.
[79]: The Messenians were at war with Sparta and in alliance with Philip. Paus. 4.28.2.
[80]: See Isoc. 5.20.
[81]: The Amphictyony was an association of states for the protection of the worship of Apollo at Delphi (Grote, Hist. ii. pp. 284 ff.). The members of the Amphictyony, among whom the Thebans and the Thessalians were prominent, were now engaged in the Sacred War against the Phocians, seeking to wrest from the latter the control of the Temple. In 338 B. C. Philip had been invited by the Amphictyony to join them against the Phocians.
[82]: See Isoc. 5.49 ff.
[83]: See Isoc. Letter 2.6.
[84]: Isocrates dwells on his disabilities repeatedly. Cf. Isoc. Letter 1.9; Isoc. Letter 8.7; and Isoc. 12.9-10. See General Introd. p. xix.
[85]: Isoc. 4.14.
[86]: Not an empty boast. See Havet, Introduction to Cartelier’s Isoc. 15 pp. lxxv ff.
[87]: Cf. Isoc. 4.15.
[88]: The same explanation of Agesilaus’s failure is given in Isoc. Letter 9.13.
[89]: See Isoc. 4.145-149, where the same episode is used to the same point in similar language.
[90]: This apology is curious, since Greek orators habitually repeated identical passages in dealing with the same situations. Cf. Isoc. 15.74.
[91]: Cf. Isoc. 15.55. An “epideictic” speech was a lecture whose aim was to display the rhetorical powers of the speaker.
[92]: See Isoc. 4.110 ff.
[93]: See Isoc. 4.168 and note.
[94]: Cyrus gave Clearchus about ten thousand pounds with which to levy mercenaries. Xen. Anab. 1.1.9.
[95]: Artaxerxes II., 405-359 B.C.
[96]: This is inexact. He is probably thinking of the defeat of the Athenians in the Peloponnnesian War in which Sparta had the assistance of Persia; but Artaxerxes II. came to the throne in the year of the battle of Aegospotami.
[97]: At the battle of Cnidus with the help of Conon, 394 B.C.
[98]: Artaxerxes III., 359-339 B.C.
[99]: Treaty of Antalcidas. See Isoc. 4.115 ff., 175 ff.
[100]: Isoc. 4.140, 161.
[101]: Isoc. 4.161.
[102]: Isoc. 4.162.
[103]: Mausolus.
[104]: “Freedom” of the Greeks from Athenian tyranny was the avowed object of the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 4.86. Cf. Isoc. 4.122.
[105]: Amyntas. II.
[106]: Perdiccas I. See 32, note.
[107]: Heracles. The latter was precluded by his divinity; Amyntas and Perdiccas by their death.
[108]: With Athens, Aeschin. 2.26; with Sparta, Xen. Hell. 5.2.38.
[109]: Of Argos.
[110]: The Pisistratidae of Athens. A recent case in point was the murder of Alexander of Pherae. Cf. Isoc. 2.5.
[111]: See Diod. iv. 17.
[112]: Isoc. 9.16.
[113]: Chiefs, of barbarian tribes, such as Diomedes, Mygdon, Sarpedon, Busiris, Antaeus.
[114]: Europe and Asia. Cf. Isoc. 4.35.
[115]: Repeated in Isoc. Letter 3.5.
[116]: The contrast is between Zeus, Apollo, Athena, etc., and under-world deities Hades, Persephone, the Furies, etc.
[117]: Jason, tyrant of Pherae, in Thessaly. His “talked-of” expedition against Persia is mentioned also by Xen. Hell. 6.1.12. See General Introd. p. xl, footnote.
[118]: A catch phrase for the territory of Asia Minor. Cf. “Asia from Cnidus to Sinope” in Isoc. 4.162.
[119]: See Isoc. Letter 9.9. Cf. 96; Isoc. 4.168; Isoc. 8.24.
[120]: For this and what follows cf. Isoc. 4.133-136.
[121]: Persian effeminacy is described at length in Isoc. 4.150 ff.
[122]: Dareius, Xerxes.
[123]: Cf. Isoc. 4.135.
[124]: Cf. Isoc. 4.133-136.
[125]: Cf. Isoc. 4.134.
[126]: Isoc. 4.157.
[127]: Cf. 14, 15.
[128]: Cf. Isoc. 4.81.
[129]: 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.
[130]: In the Panegyricus.
[131]: See General Introd. p. xxxviii.
[132]: See Isoc. 4.132, 184, 187.
[133]: See Isoc. 1.50.
[134]: The Spartan kings are merely “kings,” while the Persian king is “The Great King.”
[135]: Cf. Isoc. 2.37.
[136]: Cf. Isoc. 9.3; Isoc. 6.109.
[137]: The same sentiment is in Isoc. Letter 3.4.
[138]: Cf. Isoc. 4.138 ff.
[139]: Cyrus. See 66.
[140]: The treasury of the Confederacy of Delos was originally in the island of Delos; later it was transferred to the Parthenon at Athens.
[141]: For these services see Isoc. 4.91-96.
[142]: He means the spot where the trophy was raised, marked later by the column erected by the Greeks. Hdt. 7..228.
[143]: For like apologies see Isoc. 15.9; Isoc. 12.4; Isoc. Letter 6.6.
[144]: Cf. Isoc. Letter 9.17.
[145]: The indigenous Macedonians are regarded as half barbarians.