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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: choice things of Sicily and Italy, of Cyprus and Egypt and Lydia, of
Pontus or Peloponnese, or wheresoever else it be, are all swept, as it
were, into one centre, and all owing, as I say, to their maritime
empire. And again, in process of listening to every form of speech,[5]
they have selected this from one place and that from another--for
themselves. So much so that while the rest of the Hellenes employ[6]
each pretty much their own peculiar mode of speech, habit of life, and
style of dress, the Athenians have adopted a composite type,[7] to
which all sections of Hellas, and the foreigner alike, have
contributed.
[1] Reading after Kirchhoff, {ettous ge . . . kan ei meizon en, ton
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