The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 2 by Demosthenes
page 71 of 218 (32%)
page 71 of 218 (32%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
jury the crowns awarded to the city in consequence of her action by the
Byzantines and by the Perinthians. {90, 91} [_The decree of the Byzantines is read_.] {92} Read out also the crowns awarded by the peoples of the Chersonese. [_The decree of the peoples of the Chersonese is read_.] {93} Thus the policy which I had adopted was not only successful in saving the Chersonese and Byzantium, in preventing the Hellespont from falling at that time into the power of Philip, and in bringing honours to the city in consequence, but it revealed to the whole world the noble gallantry of Athens and the baseness of Philip. For all saw that he, the ally of the Byzantines, was besieging them--what could be more shameful or revolting? {94} and on the other hand, it was seen that you, who might fairly have urged many well-founded complaints against them for their inconsiderate conduct[n] towards you at an earlier period, not only refused to remember your grudge and to abandon the victims of aggression, but actually delivered them; and in consequence of this, you won glory and goodwill on all hands. And further, though every one knows that you have crowned many public men before now, no one can name any but myself--that is to say, any public counsellor and orator--for whose merits the city has received a crown. {95} In order to prove to you, also, that the slanders which he uttered against the Euboeans and Byzantines, as he recalled to you any ill-natured action that they had taken towards you in the past, are disingenuous calumnies, not only because they are false (for this, I think, you may all be assumed to know), but also because, however true they might be, it was |
|