Isocrates, To Philip
George Norlin, Ed.

It was with this mind that I chose to address to you what I have to say—not that I singled you out to curry your favor, although in truth I would give much to speak acceptably to you. It was not, however, with this in view that I came to my decision, but rather because I saw that all the other men of high repute were living under the control of politics and laws,¹ with no power to do anything save what was prescribed, and that, furthermore, they were sadly unequal to the enterprise which I shall propose;