I offer you a more glorious and easier subject: the qualities of Mausolus and Artémise's lawful love are nobler themes than Bucephalus' inhumanity or Helen's levity. Your eloquence will not have to hide crimes. All the subterfuges that rhetoric teaches to impose lies and make them plausible will be of no use. Without borrowing anything from sophists, it will suffice that you write as an orator, philosopher, and historian all at once. Eloquence, this rare privilege given by the gods to men like a ray of their divinity, should only be used to protect innocence or to immortalize integrity. Those who elevated Persuasion to the rank of goddess did not intend to submit it to the whims of men. They undoubtedly knew that eloquence is a heavenly gift that must never be profaned. The power it holds to stir or soothe the most violent passions, to move the hardest hearts, to persuade the most defiant, to compel the most stubborn to yield to our will, and to push us to oppose ourselves by abandoning our own opinions to follow those of others, all these advantages were not given to us to be used with injustice or illusions. On the contrary, it is she that the gods chose to show to the world the beauty of morality to win new conquests every day. It is thanks to her that the men who possess her achieve immortality by immortalizing others. It is she who, despite the passage of time and the vicissitudes of life, preserves the memory of the beautiful actions. It is she who, despite the destruction of kingdoms and empires, perpetuates the memory of kings and emperors, and even when their ashes are no longer resting in their tombs, when their palaces are in ruins, when their most famous cities are abandoned, when their statues are overthrown and their kingdoms have changed their names, she continues to show to the whole earth an image of their worth. Yes, several centuries after their disappearance, they still live among men, they still have friends and subjects, they are consulted to guide the conduct of our life, their good qualities are imitated, they are given new praises. Envy no longer tarnishes their glory, all the praise they deserve is granted, the veneration they receive is so great that the places they have inhabited are visited with a certain timidity. And if there are still some old ruins of their buildings, they are respected for what time did not respect, they are looked upon with pleasure, they are preferred to all the magnificence of modern times, and even painters used these prestigious ruins to perpetuate their memory. 

After this, Isocrates, do not be surprised, if I ardently wish your eloquence to make an apology for my beloved husband. I am fully aware of the esteem it enjoys throughout Greece, and I foresee with certainty that it will be recognized in the centuries to come. All writings bearing the name of Isocrates or Theopompus will be revered by time, fortune, and all men. They will cross all nations and all ages without suffering offenses, and they will enjoy the same reputation as those they have described. 

 

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