1.16

122. Therefore it is the duty of a man of high aspirations, and a friend of the Hellenes, and of one whose mind sees further than others, to make full use of the services of such men against the barbarians, and, having taken away from the latter the amount of territory mentioned just before, to free those who serve in a foreign land from the evils which they themselves are suffering, as well as those which they inflict upon others, to form communities out of them, and to make these the boundaries of Hellas, and to set them in front of us all as a bulwark. 123. For if you do this, you will not only make them happy, but will also insure the safety of us all. Even should you fail in this, at least you will easily secure the liberation of the cities of Asia. Whichever of these undertakings you may be able to carry out or even only attempt, you will assuredly gain greater reputation than the rest, and that deservedly, if you apply yourself earnestly to the task, and encourage the Hellenes to do the same. 124. For everyone would naturally feel surprise at the situation of affairs and contempt for us, if amongst the barbarians, whom we consider effeminate, inexperienced in war, and corrupted by luxury, men have arisen who aspired to rule Hellas, while none of the Hellenes has aimed so high 125. as to attempt to make us masters of Asia, but we have been so far left behind by them that, while they did not hesitate to commence hostilities against us first, we do not even venture to take vengeance upon them for the evils we have suffered, but, although they acknowledge that in all their wars they possessed neither soldiers nor generals nor anything else of service for war, 126. but had to apply to us for all these, we have come so to desire to do ourselves harm that, when it is in our power to possess what is theirs without apprehension, we are fighting with one another about trifles, helping to subdue those who have revolted from the rule of Persia, and, without knowing it, sometimes assist our hereditary foes to destroy our own kinsmen.