to observe the Peace; and I see that, for your part, you are quite ready
to do so. But what if the oath that we swore, and the terms upon which we
made the Peace, stand inscribed for our eyes to see? {6} What if it is
proved that from the outset, before Diopeithes sailed from Athens with the
settlers who are now accused of having brought about the war, Philip
wrongfully seized many of our possessions--and here, unrepealed, are your
resolutions charging him with this--and that all along he has been
uninterruptedly seizing the possessions of the other Hellenic and foreign
peoples, and uniting their resources against us? What is _then_ the
meaning of the statement that we ought either to go to war or to keep the
Peace? {7} For we have no choice in the matter: nothing remains open to us
but the most righteous and most necessary of all acts--the act that they
deliberately refuse to consider--I mean the act of retaliation against the
aggressor: unless indeed, they intend to argue that, so long as Philip
keeps away from Attica and the Peiraeus, he does the city no wrong and is
not committing acts of war. {8} But if _this_ is their criterion of right
and wrong, if _this_ is their definition of peace, then, although what
they say is iniquitous, intolerable, and inconsistent with your security,
as all must see, at the same time these very statements are actually
contradictory of the charges which they are making against Diopeithes. {9}
Why, I beg to ask,[n] are we to give Philip full leave to act in whatever
way he chooses, so long as he does not touch Attica, when Diopeithes is
not to be allowed even to assist the Thracians, without being accused of
initiating war? But even if this inconsistency is brought home to them,
still, we are told, the conduct of the mercenaries in ravaging the
Hellespontine country is outrageous, and Diopeithes has no right to drive
the vessels to shore,[n] and ought to be stopped. {10} I grant it: let it
be done: I have nothing to say against it. Yet nevertheless, if their
advice is genuinely based on considerations of right, and right alone, I
consider that they are bound to prove that, as surely as they are seeking