delivering one of those clear and forcible speeches, which
seldom failed to make a strong impression on his audience.
The alliance was accepted, and succors voted.

The orator here delicately touches on the law of Eubulus,
which had made it capital to propose that the Theoric fund
should be applied to military service. This fund was in fact
the surplus revenue of the civil administration, which by the
ancient law was appropriated to the defense of the
commonwealth; but it had by various means been diverted from
that purpose, and expended in largesses to the people, to
enable them to attend the theatre, and other public shows and
amusements. The law of Eubulus perpetuated this abuse. (See my
article _Theorica_ in the Archaeological Dictionary.)
Demosthenes, seeing the necessity of a war supply, hints that
this absurd law ought to be abolished, but does not openly
propose it.

There has been much difference of opinion among the learned
as to the order of the three Olynthiac orations; nor is it
certain, whether they were spoken on the occasion of one
embassy, or several embassies. The curious may consult Bishop
Thirlwall's Appendix to the fifth volume of his Grecian
History, and Jacobs' Introduction to his translation. I have
followed the common order, as adopted by Bekker, whose edition
of Demosthenes is the text of this translation; and indeed my
opinion is, on the whole, in favor of preserving the common
order, though the plan of this work prevents my entering into
controversy on the question. To enable the reader more fully
to understand the following orations, I have in an Appendix