We do violence to our own allies and extort money from them

We have reached such a degree of imbecility that, although we are ourselves in need of the necessities of daily existence, we have undertaken to support mercenary troops and we do violence to our own allies and extort money from them. Isocrates. On The Peace. Speech 8. Section 46.

Image: A Greek mercenary (left) in the service of an Achaemenid Dynast of Hellespontine Phrygia (center) attacking a Greek psiloi (right) at the time of Pharnabazus II, Altıkulaç Sarcophagus, early 4th century BCE, at the Çanakkale Archaeological Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Elisa Triolo.