Epist. V.
WE hear you are at Thebes, and* 1.1 Proxenus gone into Asia, to take part with Cyrus; whether your designes will prosper God knowes, they are here condemned by many, for it is conceived unfit the Athenians should assist Cyrus, through whose means they were deprived of command by the Lacedae∣monians and fight for him, who fought against them. It is not therefore strange if the state being altered, some be ready of themselves to accuse you of temporising, and the better your successe is, the greater will be their calumnies; for I am well acquainted with the dispositions of some of them: But since we have undertaken this, let us prove our selves honest men, and call to mind what we use to say of vertue, accounting this one of the best sentences of the Poet, Our Fathers house must not be discredited. Know therefore, that to war, these two are requisite, Courage an Bounty, for this, we are loved of our friends, for that, feared of our enemies, of both, thou hast domestick precedents.