And of their banishments, their civil strife, their subversion of laws, their political
 revolutions, their atrocities upon children, their insults to women, their pillage of
 estates, who could tell the tale? I can only say this much of the whole business—the
 severities under our administration could have been readily brought to an end by a single
 vote of the people, Such a decree of the Ecclesia as was
 passed in 378 B.C. , when the new confederacy was formed,
 absolving the allies from paying tribute and from the practice of trying their cases in
 Athens . These had been the causes of
 friction. See Isoc. 12.63 . while the murders and
 acts of violence under their regime are beyond any power to remedy. And, furthermore, not even the present peace, nor yet that “autonomy” which is inscribed
 in the treaties Above all, the Treaty or Peace of
 Antalcidas, 387 B.C. Cf. Isoc. 4.120
 ff. 
 Xen. Hell. 5.1.31 , quotes from this treaty: “King
 Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia , and the islands of Clazomene and Cyprus , shall belong to him. He thinks it just also to leave all the
 other cities autonomous, both small and great—except Lemnos , Imbros, and Scyros, which are to belong to Athens , as they did originally. Should any parties
 refuse to accept this peace, I will make war upon them, along with those who are of the
 same mind, by land as well as by sea, with ships and with money” (Trans. by Grote,
 Hist. ix. p. 212). See General Introduction. p. xliii, and introduction
 to Panegyricus . but is not found in our governments, is preferable
 to the rule of Athens . For who would desire a
 condition of things where pirates command the seas In the
 absence of the Athenian fleet. and mercenaries occupy our cities; where fellow-countrymen, instead of waging war in defense of their territories against
 strangers, are fighting within their own walls Cf. Xen. Hell. 5.2.1 . against each other; where more
 cities have been captured in war Cf. Isoc. 12.97 . than before we made the peace; and where revolutions
 follow so thickly upon each other that those who are at home in their own countries are
 more dejected than those who have been punished with exile? For the former are in dread of
 what is to come, while the latter live ever in the hope of their return. And so far are the states removed from “freedom” and “autonomy” Freedom and autonomy—a single idea; see General Introd. p xxxii; Isoc. 14.24 ; Isoc. Letter
 8.7 . that some of them are ruled by tyrants, some are controlled by alien
 governors, some have been sacked and razed, See Isoc. 4.126 . and some have become slaves to the
 barbarians—the same barbarians whom we once so chastened for their temerity in crossing
 over into Europe , and for their overweening
 pride,