Opening On the Peace — Isocrates in Plato Scroll… Continue →
Isocrates · George Norlin
Translated by George Norlin (Loeb Classical Library, 1929). The numbers in the margin are the sections of the speech. All those who come before you on this platform are accustomed to assert that the subjects upon which they are themselves about to advise you are most important and most worthy of serious consideration by the state. Nevertheless, if it was ever appropriate to preface the discussion of any other subject with such words, it seems to me fitting also to begin with them in speaking upon the subject now before us. For we are assembled here to deliberate about War and Peace, which exercise the greatest power over the life of man, and regarding which those who are correctly advised must of necessity fare better than the rest of the world. Such, then, is the magnitude of the question which we have come together to decide. I observe, however, that you do not hear with equal favor …
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