accountable for the money, and the general for the actual operations. If
you act thus, and honestly make up your minds to take this course, you
will either compel Philip to observe a righteous peace and remain in his
own land--and no greater blessing could you obtain than that--or you will
fight him on equal terms.

{48} It may be thought that this policy demands heavy expenditure, and
great exertions and trouble. That is true indeed; but let the objector
take into account what the consequences to the city must be, if he is
unwilling to assent to this policy, and he will find that the ready
performance of duty brings its reward. {49} If indeed some god is offering
us his guarantee--for no human guarantee would be sufficient in so great a
matter--that if you remain at peace and let everything slide, Philip will
not in the end come and attack yourselves; then, although, before God and
every Heavenly Power, it would be unworthy of you and of the position that
the city holds, and of the deeds of our forefathers, to abandon all the
rest of the Hellenes to slavery for the sake of our own ease--although,
for my part, I would rather have died than have suggested such a thing--
yet, if another proposes it and convinces you, let it be so: do not defend
yourselves: let everything go. {50} But if no one entertains such a
belief, if we all know that the very opposite is true, and that the wider
the mastery we allow him to gain, the more difficult and powerful a foe we
shall have to deal with, what further subterfuge is open to us? Why do we
delay? {51} When shall we ever be willing, men of Athens, to do our duty?
'When we are compelled,' you say. But the hour of compulsion, as the word
is applied to free men, is not only here already, but has long passed; and
we must surely pray that the compulsion which is put upon slaves may not
come upon us. And what is the difference? It is this--that for a free man
the greatest compelling force is his shame at the course which events are
taking--I do not know what greater we can imagine; but the slave is