[_Introduction_. The speech was delivered in 354 B.C. News had been brought to
Athens that the Persian King Artaxerxes Ochus was making great military and
naval preparations, and though these were, in fact, directed against his own
rebellious subjects in Egypt, Phoenicia, and Cyprus, the Athenians had some
ground for alarm: for, two years before this, Chares, in command of an Athenian
fleet, had given assistance to Artabazus, Satrap of Ionia, who was in revolt
against the king. The king had made a protest, and (late in 355) Athens had
ordered Chares to withdraw his aid from Artabazus. A party in Athens now wished
to declare war on Persia, and appealed strongly to Athenian traditions in favour
of the proposal. Demosthenes opposes them, on the ground that it was not certain
that the king was aiming at Athens at all, and that the disunion of the Hellenic
peoples would render any such action unsafe: Athens had more dangerous enemies
nearer home, and her finances were not in a condition for such a campaign. But
he takes advantage of the interest aroused, to propose a reform of the
trierarchic system, designed to secure a more efficient navy, and to remedy
certain abuses in the existing method of equipping vessels for service.

In earlier times, the duty of equipping and commanding each trireme was laid
upon single citizens of means, the hull and certain fittings being found by the
state. When, early in the fourth century, the number of wealthy men had
diminished, each ship might be shared by two citizens, who commanded in turn. In
357 a law was passed, on the proposal of Periander, transferring the
responsibility from individuals to 'Symmories' or Boards. (The system had been
instituted in a slightly different form for the collection of the war-tax in the
archonship of Nausinicus, 378-7 B.C.) The collection of the sums required became
the work of twenty Boards, formed by the subdivision of the 1,200 richest
citizens: each contributor, whatever his property, paid the same share. The
richer men thus got off with the loss of a very small proportion of their