The love of Athens is ours. It is the love of country that the Gods call sacred. (Looks out across the fading city.) Hellas, your valleys and mountains, streams and happy groves … beautiful, beloved … who would not die for you…!
Lydia
I love you. If you live for me, you live for Hellas even more. Athens lives in our hearts, not otherwise.
Phocion
(Sternly.) If a barbarian rule our dear city, our hearts are dead. It is better for my heart to mingle with the soil of Hellas than beat as the slave of Alexander.
Lydia
I love you too much to see you run on death. Your wild plot to save our city is but the Fates’ way of taking you away from me.
Phocion
Try, Lydia, to love me as I love Athens.