For in the first place, if it is the most experienced and the most capable who in any
 field of action deserve to be honored, it is without question our right to recover the
 hegemony which we formerly possessed; for no one can point to another state which so far
 excels in warfare on land as our city is superior in fighting battles on the sea. But, in the next place, if there are any who do not regard this as a fair basis of
 judgement, since the reversals of fortune are frequent (for sovereignty never remains in
 the same hands), and who believe that the hegemony, like any other prize, should be held
 by those who first won this honor, or else by those who have rendered the most service to
 the Hellenes, I think that these also are on our side; for the farther back into the past we go in our examination of both these titles to
 leadership, the farther behind shall we leave those who dispute our claims. For it is
 admitted that our city is the oldest See Isoc. 12.124 and Hdt.
 7.161 . and the greatest The same boast is
 made in Isoc. 10.35 and Isoc.
 15.299 . in the world and in the eyes of all men the most renowned. But
 noble as is the foundation of our claims, the following grounds give us even a clearer
 title to distinction: for we did not become dwellers in this land by driving others out of it, In contrast particularly to the ancestors of the Spartans when
 they established themselves in the Peloponnesus . nor by finding it uninhabited, nor by coming together
 here a motley horde composed of many races; but we are of a lineage so noble and so pure
 that throughout our history we have continued in possession of the very land which gave us
 birth, since we are sprung from its very soil The
 “autochthony” of the Athenians was a common theme of Athenian orators and poets: Isoc. 8.49 , Isoc. 12.124-125 ;
 Thuc. 1.2.5 ; Eur. Ion 589
 ff. ; Aristoph. Wasps 1076 . and are
 able to address our city by the very names which we apply to our nearest kin; for we alone of all the Hellenes have the right to call our city at once nurse and
 fatherland and mother. And yet, if men are to have good ground for pride and make just
 claims to leadership and frequently recall their ancestral glories, they must show that
 their race boasts an origin as noble as that which I have described. A challenge to Spartan pride and pretensions.