Persia

but the road to satiety is much more simple and direct in our country than with you;

For he has made himself master of everything in Media, but in Persia equality of rights is considered justice.

for in Persia, on account of its being difficult to breed horses and to practise horsemanship because it is a mountainous country, it was a very rare thing even to see a horse.

now therefore, go to the Persians, and good luck go with you;

So much being ready and done, Harpagus wanted to reveal his intent to Cyrus, who then lived among the Persians.

Then he sewed up the hare's belly, and sent it to Persia by the most trusted of his servants, giving him nets to carry as if he were a huntsman.

But perhaps the most striking examples of the ancient custom are to be found at this day in Persia, where (I am told) a man intending to enforce payment of a demand by fasting begins by sowing some barley at his debtor’s door and sitting down in the middle.

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.

It is true that just now the Persian’s gold has floated his extravagance, but even that will not suffice, for no wealth ever yet kept up with a debauched character.

The king of Persia was at the height of his power then, with ships and money and troops,and he would gladly have received us into his alliance because of the dangers that were threatening him.

But when Darius was come down to the coast with all his forces, and Alexander was shut up in Cilicia in extreme want, as you yourself said, and was, according to your statement, on the point of being trampled under the hoofs of the Persian horse, and when there was not room enough in the city to contain your odious demonstrations and the letters that you carried around, dangling them from your fin …

Our youngest brother, too, Aphobetus yonder, who as ambassador to the king of Persia has served you to the credit of the city, who administered your revenues honestly and well when you called him to the department of the treasury, who has gotten him children lawfully—not by putting his wife in Cnosion’s bed, as you, Demosthenes, did yours—he also is here, despite your slanders;

For Alcibiades the people of Ephesus erected a Persian pavilion twice as large as that of our official deputation:

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

Some people think that all rules of justice are merely conventional, because whereas a law of nature is immutable and has the same validity everywhere, as fire burns both here and in Persia, rules of justice are seen to vary.

But fortune was so perverse a lover that I had to journey either toward Persia, going forward into the farthest reaches of the barbarian lands—for you went even there, so great was the contentiousness of my evil genius—or else to sit here in Alexandria, which is in fact what came to pass.

This man disdained Darius, who invited him to come to Persia.

but they will prompt the king of Persia to become our paymaster and he is richer than all the rest together, and his power to interfere in Greece is such that in our former wars with Sparta, whichever side he joined, he ensured their victory, and so, if he sides with us now, he will easily crush the power of Philip.

There is no man living, whether Greek or barbarian, who does not know that the Thebans, or the Lacedaemonians, who held supremacy before them, or the king of Persia himself, would cheerfully and gratefully have given Athens liberty to keep what she had and to take what she chose, if only she would do their behest and surrender the primacy of Greece.

Further, inasmuch as it has been reported to me that within your jurisdiction there are sojourning many foreigners of different nations, Italians, French, Germans, and men of the Low Countries, the larger part of whom as we know came there by way of Persia and Turkey, and not through our realm;

from the mainland it draws near to the borders of Persia.

Do you not know that our city makes war occasionally on the Spartans and on the Great King?

Now, the Spartan fortunes, though great compared with the wealth of other Greeks, are nought beside that of the Persians and their king.

And if you are minded to be the head of our state, you would be right in thinking that your contest is with the kings of Sparta and of Persia?

" Just as he assails Hezekiah too, a king puffed up with treasures and glorying in them rather than in God, before those who had come from Persia, through Isaiah:

Need we be ashamed of imitating the king of the Persians?

For, roughly speaking, where cultivation is inefficient, the garrisons are not maintained and the tribute cannot be paid.

And do you really believe, Socrates, exclaimed Critobulus on hearing this, that the king of the Persians includes husbandry among his occupations?

But, on the other hand, if I really am handsome and you have the same feelings toward me that I have toward the one who is handsome in my eyes, I swear by all the gods that I would not take the kingdom of Persia in exchange for the possession of beauty.