Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Olynthiacs and the Phillippics of Demosthenes - Literally translated with notes by Demosthenes
page 65 of 104 (62%)
have adopted measures of defense, he chose to deceive rather than warn
them of his attack; and think ye he would declare war against you before
he began it, and that while you are willing to be deceived? Impossible.
He would be the silliest of mankind, if, while you the injured parties
make no complaint against him, but are accusing your own countrymen, he
should terminate your intestine strife and jealousies, warn you to turn
against him, and remove the pretexts of his hirelings for asserting, to
amuse you, that he makes no war upon Athens. O heavens! would any
rational being judge by words rather than by actions, who is at peace
with him and who at war? Surely none. Well then; Philip immediately
after the peace, before Diopithes was in command or the settlers in the
Chersonese had been sent out, took Serrium and Doriscus, and expelled
from Serrium and the Sacred Mount the troops whom your general had
stationed there. [Footnote: This general was Chares, to whom
Cersobleptes had intrusted the defense of those places. The Sacred Mount
was a fortified position on the northern coast of the Hellespont. It was
here that Miltocythes intrenched himself, when he rebelled against
Cotys; and Philip took possession of it just before the peace with
Athens was concluded, as being important to his operations against
Cersobleptes. The statement of Demosthenes, that the oaths had then been
taken, is, as Jacobs observes, incorrect; for they were sworn afterward
in Thessaly. But the argument is substantially the same, for the peace
had been agreed to, and the ratification was purposely delayed by
Philip, to gain time for the completion of his designs.] What do you
call such conduct? He had sworn the peace. Don't say--what does it
signify? how is the state concerned?--Whether it be a trifling matter,
or of no concernment to you, is a different question: religion and
justice have the same obligation, be the subject of the offense great or
small. Tell me now; when he sends mercenaries into Chersonesus, which
the king and all the Greeks have acknowledged to be yours, when he avows
DigitalOcean Referral Badge