war. You cannot do so: for had you been able, there is nothing which you
would sooner have produced. Indeed, even Philip himself makes no charge
against me as regards the war, though he complains of others. (_To the
clerk_.) Read Philip's letter itself.

{77, 78} [_Philip's letter is read_.]

{79} In this letter he has nowhere mentioned the name of Demosthenes, nor
made any charge against me. Why is it then that, though he complains of
others, he has not mentioned my own actions? Because, if he had written
anything about me, he must have mentioned his own acts of wrong; for it
was these acts upon which I kept my grip, and these which I opposed. First
of all, when he was trying to steal into the Peloponnese, I proposed the
embassy to the Peloponnese;[n] then, when he was grasping at Euboea, the
embassy to Euboea;[n] then the expedition--not an embassy any more--to
Oreus,[n] and that to Eretria, when he had established tyrants in those
cities. {80} After that I dispatched all the naval expeditions, in the
course of which the Chersonese and Byzantium and all our allies were
saved. In consequence of this, the noblest rewards at the hands of those
who had benefited by your action became yours--votes of thanks, glory,
honours, crowns, gratitude; while of the victims of his aggression, those
who followed your advice at the time secured their own deliverance, and
those who neglected it had the memory of your warnings constantly in their
minds, and regarded you not merely as their well-wishers, but as men of
wisdom and prophetic insight; for all that you foretold has come to pass.
{81} And further, that Philistides would have given a large sum to retain
Oreus, and Cleitarchus to retain Eretria, and Philip himself, to be able
to count upon the use of these places against you, and to escape all
exposure of his other proceedings and all investigation, by any one in any
place, of his wrongful acts--all this is not unknown to any one, least of