on the contrary, having learned from the actual course of events that while according to
 law states and territories are deemed to belong to those who have duly and lawfully
 acquired them, in fact, however, they fall into the hands of those who are most practised
 in the art of warfare and are able to conquer their enemies in battle—thinking upon these
 things, they neglected agriculture and the arts and everything else and did not cease
 laying siege to the cities in the Peloponnesus 
 one by one and doing violence to them until they overthrew them all with the exception of
 Argos . For the
 Spartan Conquest of the Peloponnese see Grote,
 History of Greece 2 , pp. 418
 ff. 
 And so it resulted from the policy which we pursued that Hellas waxed great, Europe became
 stronger than Asia, and, furthermore, the Hellenes who were in straitened circumstances
 received cities and lands, while the barbarians who were wont to be insolent were expelled
 from their own territory and humbled in their pride; whereas the results of the Spartan
 policy were that their city alone became strong, dominated all the cities in the
 Peloponnesus , inspired fear in the other
 states, and was courted by them for her favor. In justice, however, we should praise the city which has been the author of many
 blessings to the rest of the world but should reprehend the state which is ever striving
 to effect its own advantage; and we should cultivate the friendship of those who do by
 others just as they do by themselves, but should abhor and shun those who feel the utmost
 degree of self-love, while governing their state in a spirit inimical and hostile to the
 world at large. Such was the beginning made by each of these two states. But at a later time, when the Persian War took place For
 conduct of Athens and Sparta in the Persian
 Wars, 49-52, compare Isoc. 4.71-74 , 85-98. (Xerxes,
 who was then king, having gathered together a fleet of thirteen hundred triremes and a
 land force numbering five millions in all, including seven hundred thousand fighting men,
 and led this vast force “An innumerable army” in Isoc. 4.93 . against the Hellenes), the Spartans, although they were masters of the Peloponnesus , contributed to the sea-fight which determined the issue of
 the whole war only ten triremes, whereas our ancestors, although they were homeless,
 having abandoned Athens See Isoc.
 4.96 ; Isoc. 6.43 . because the city had not
 been fortified with walls at that time, furnished not only a greater number of ships, but
 ships with a greater fighting force, than all the rest combined who fought together in
 that battle. See Isoc. 4.98 ,
 note.