Great King

Later the Great King invaded Greece.

A war for their recovery needs the support of the king of Persia and our allies, and they refuse that support.

then the existing fleet of old, unseaworthy triremes with which we had won Greece her independence by defeating the king of Persia and his barbarians—these existing vessels were replaced by a hundred new ones:

Thus—and it is only by calling the past to mind that one can properly determine policy—we began by making a truce with the Great King and establishing a permanent accord with him, thanks to the diplomacy of my mother’s brother, Epilycus, the son of Teisander.

\" — \"You cannot then say even of the Great King of the Persians whether he be happy?

Some of us spread the rumor that Philip is negotiating with the Lacedaemonians for the overthrow of Thebes and the dissolution of the free states, others that he has sent an embassy to the Great King, others that he is besieging towns in Illyria;

Yet these can never be worth more than two obols, but the other reforms, together with those that I proposed, are worth all the wealth of the Great King—that a city, so well provided with infantry, triremes, cavalry, and revenues, should be duly organized and equipped.

On an earlier occasion, when Perdiccas, who was king of Macedonia at the time of the Persian invasions, destroyed the barbarians who were retreating after their defeat at Plataea and so completed the discomfiture of the Great King, they did not vote him the citizenship, but only gave him immunity from taxes;

Because, you say, we shall warn them that the King has designs on them.

This is what I will try to do, if only I am able, first giving you briefly my views about our relations with the Great King.

For indeed, as regards your policy towards the King, I see that you are by no means on the same footing as the other Greeks;

For I suppose he learns from history and from report that your ancestors, when they might, at the price of submission to the Great King, have become the paramount power in Greece, not only refused to entertain that proposal, conveyed to them by Alexander, an ancestor of Philip’s line, but chose to quit their homes and endure every hardship, and thereafter wrought those deeds which all men are alwa …

The theory of Sovereignty neglects the mode in which the result has been arrived at, and thus is enabled to class together the coercive authority of the great King of Persia, of the Athenian Demos, of the later Roman Emperors, of the Russian Czar, and of the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain.

But, although our treaties were concluded under circumstances in which it was impossible for us to seek any advantage, yet, while there were other matters about which differences arose, neither the Great King nor the city of Athens ever charged us with having acquired Messene unjustly.

Even more should we deserve the ridicule of men if, having before us the example of the Phocaeans who, to escape the tyranny of the Great King, left Asia and founded a new settlement at Massilia, we should sink into such abjectness of spirit as to submit to the dictates of those whose masters we have always been throughout our history.

As to the hatred of us among the Hellenes, you have heard the report of our generals themselves, and what the King thinks of us, he has made plain in the letters which have been dispatched by him.

Whoever, therefore, knowing that such great vicissitudes have taken place and that such mighty powers have been so quickly brought to naught, yet trusts in our present circumstances, is all too foolish, especially since Athens is now in a much less favorable condition than she was at that time, while the hatred of us among the Hellenes and the enmity of the great King, which then brought disaster …

The king of Persia, however, did not have the same opinion of them:

the city which, held by another prince, Evagoras had captured with fifty men, the Great King, with all his vast power, was unable to subdue at all.

But distrustful of the consequences of his measures and wishing to make his position secure, he reduced the city to barbarism, and brought the whole island into subservience to the Great King.

I calmed and appeased both parties by assisting the King zealously and by treating the islanders justly.

Furthermore, though the inhabitants of the island were hostile to me, and the Great King, while outwardly reconciled, was really in an ugly mood,

on the contrary, although the great King had furnished them with more than five thousand talents for the war against us, and although the Chians had supported them more zealously than any of their other allies by means of their fleet and the Thebans had contributed a great number of troops to their land forces, the Lacedaemonians no sooner gained the supremacy than they straightway plotted against …

Nay, as to the barbarians with whom you are now waging war, it will suffice you to gain the mastery over them only so far as to secure the safety of your own territory, but the king who is now called Great you will attempt to overthrow, that you may both enhance your own renown and may point out to the Greek world who the enemy is against whom they should wage war.

Be assured that a glory unsurpassable and worthy of the deeds you have done in the past will be yours when you shall compel the barbarians—all but those who have fought on your side—to be serfs of the Greeks, and when you shall force the king who is now called Great to do whatever you command.

For I think if any one were to pick out that night in which he slept a dreamless sleep and, comparing with it the other nights and days of his life, were to say, after due consideration, how many days and nights in his life had passed more pleasantly than that night,—I believe that not only any private person, but even the great King of Persia himself would find that they were few in comparison wi …

Would he allow his eldest son, heir-apparent to the throne of Asia, to put what he chose into the royal stew, or would he prefer us to do it, supposing we came before him and convinced him that we had a better notion than his son of preparing a tasty dish?

Again, if his son has something the matter with his eyes, would he let him meddle with them himself, if he considered him to be no doctor, or would he prevent him? He would prevent him.

But if he supposed us to have medical skill, he would not prevent us, I imagine, even though we wanted to pull the eyes open and sprinkle them with ashes, so long as he believed our judgement to be sound. That is true.

For all these reasons, Theaetetus, we must assert that cross-questioning is the greatest and most efficacious of all purifications, and that he who is not cross-questioned, even though he be the Great King, has not been purified of the greatest taints, and is therefore uneducated and deformed in those things in which he who is to be truly happy ought to be most pure and beautiful.

And how many others, do you suppose, have been kidnapped on account of their wisdom, and haled off to the great King’s court, and live in slavery there?

Why, are you blind to the fact that you would not part with your son for the wealth of the Great King?