<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:py="http://codespeak.net/lxml/objectify/pytype" py:pytype="TREE"><text xml:lang="eng"><body><div type="translation" n="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0014.tlg014.perseus-eng2" xml:lang="eng"><div type="textpart" subtype="section" n="12"><p>Moreover you are now calling on the Greeks to join you; but if you refuse to do their bidding—and your relations with some of them are not cordial—how can you expect any of them to answer your call? <q type="spoken">Because,</q> you say, <q type="spoken">we shall warn them that the King has designs on them.</q> But seriously, do you imagine that they cannot detect that for themselves? I am sure they can. But as yet their fear of <placeName key="tgn,7000231">Persia</placeName> is subordinate to their feuds with you and, in some cases, with one another. Therefore your ambassadors will only go round repeating their heroics.<note anchored="true" resp="Loeb">The ambassadors are compared to rhapsodists, the wandering professional reciters of epic poetry, whose art was falling into contempt in an age of wider education.</note></p></div></div></body></text></TEI>