postponement of our departure from Macedonia, until all should be in
readiness for his campaign against the Phocians; in order that, instead of
our bringing home a report of his intentions and his preparations for the
march, which would make you set out and sail round to Thermopylae with
your war-ships as you did before,[n] you might only hear our report of the
facts when he was already on this side of Thermopylae, and you could do
nothing. {33} And Philip was beset with such fear and such a weight of
anxiety, lest in spite of his occupation of these places, his object
should slip from his grasp, if, before the Phocians were destroyed, you
resolved to assist them, that he hired this despicable creature, not now
in company with his colleagues, but by himself alone, to make to you a
statement and a report of such a character that owing to them all was
lost. {34} But I request and entreat you, men of Athens, to remember
throughout this whole trial, that, had Aeschines made no accusation that
was not included in the indictment, I too would not have said a word that
did not bear upon it; but since he has had recourse to all kinds of
imputation and slander at once, I am compelled also to give a brief answer
to each group of charges. {35} What then were the statements uttered by
him that day, in consequence of which all was lost? 'You must not be
perturbed,' he said, 'at Philip's having crossed to this side of
Thermopylae; for you will get everything that you desire, if you remain
quiet; and within two or three days you will hear that he has become the
friend of those whose enemy he was, and the enemy of those whose friend he
was, when he first came. For,' said he, 'it is not phrases that confirm
friendships' (a finely sententious expression!) 'but identity of interest;
and it is to the interest of Philip and of the Phocians and of yourselves
alike, to be rid of the heartless and overbearing demeanour of the
Thebans.' {36} To these statements some gave a ready ear, in consequence
of the tacit ill-feeling towards the Thebans at the time. What then
followed--and not after a long interval, but immediately? The Phocians