Freedom and Independence of the Greeks
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 2 anchored passages
autonomy · free and independent · free constitution · freedom · freedom and independence of the Greeks · liberties
in the texts
On the Treaty with Alexander
The legal and political autonomy of Greek states, presented as the first principle of the compact and as the reason to oppose tyrannical interference.
Is it not, then, the height of absurdity that the clause about freedom should stand first in the compact, and that one who has enslaved others should be supposed not to have acted contrary to the joint agreement?
Or do you think that opportunity sometimes so prevails that men pursue expediency even apart from justice—and yet now, when justice and opportunity and expediency all concur, will you actually wait for some other season to claim your liberties and the liberties of all the Greeks.
My own advice, as I said at the start, is to believe them when they say that we ought to abide by the joint agreement, unless, when they insist on our abiding by the oaths, they interpret them as not forbidding any act of injustice, or imagine that no one will be sensible of the change from democracy to tyranny or of the overthrow of a free constitution.
To the Rulers of the Mytilenaeans
The Panhellenic political cause Isocrates claims to have supported through his writings.
on the contrary, you will find that I have been the counsellor and coadjutor of those who have chosen to speak well of you and of our other allies, and that I have myself composed more discourses on behalf of the freedom and independence of the Greeks than all those together who have worn smooth the floor of our platforms.