Pericles' Funeral Oration, delivered at a mass funeral for a number of Athenian soldiers who had died during an attack against their rival Sparta's allies, is an example of a form of rhetoric, epideictic, that functioned as a means of developing a sense of community. In order to make the mourners at the funeral believe the soldiers had died good, noble deaths, Pericles reaffirmed their sense of identity as a community by contrasting the Athenian philosophy and lifestyle enthymematically with those of Sparta. Athenians were portrayed as open, educated, brave, independent, and possessing a democracy for everyone, rather than for a privileged few. By implication, the Spartans were seen as xenophobic, brutish, cowardly, and discriminatory against those citizens who were not members of their elitist oligarchy. Hence, grief was converted to pride in the mourners, and the soldiers appeared noble in dying for such a good form of government. However, such an oration had the unfortunate side effect of disenfranchising Athens from the larger cultural community of the Greek city-states because it emphasized Athens' uniqueness and independence. After the collapse of the relations between the city-states, Athens was isolated and defeated. Because the Athenians' sense of community had been reaffirmed at the expense of a larger community, they unwittingly destroyed the source of their own strength. (JC)