the cause is which is before the
court.

As there was a law at Athens, that no one should be the cause of
carrying a decree of the people that any one should be presented with
a crown while invested with office till he had given in an account of
the way in which he had discharged its duties; and another law, that
those who had crowns given them by the people ought to receive them in
the assembly of the people, and that they who had them given to them
by the senate should receive them in the senate; Demosthenes was
appointed a superintendent of repairs of the walls; and he did it at
his own expense. Therefore, with reference to him Ctesiphon proposed
a decree, without his having given in any accounts, that he should be
presented with a golden crown, and that that presentation should take
place in the theatre, the people being summoned for the purpose, (that
is not the legitimate place for an assembly of the people;) and that
proclamation should be made, "that he received this present on account
of his virtue and devotion to the state, and to the Athenian people."
Aeschines then prosecuted this man Ctesiphon because he had proposed
a decree contrary to the laws, to the effect that a crown should be
given when no accounts had been delivered, and that it should be
presented in the theatre, and that he had made false statements in the
words of his motion concerning Demosthenes's virtue and loyalty; since
Demosthenes was not a good man, and was not one who had deserved well
of the state.

That kind of cause is indeed inconsistent with the precedents
established by our habits; but still it has an imposing look. For it
has on each side of the question a sufficiently clever interpretation
of the laws, and a very grave contest as to the respective services
done by the two rival orators to the republic. Therefore the object of
Aeschines was, since he himself had been prosecuted on a capital charge
by Demosthenes, for having given a false account of his embassy, that
now a trial should take place affecting the conduct and character of
Demosthenes, that so, under pretence of prosecuting Ctesiphon, he
might avenge himself on his enemy. For he did not say so much about
the accounts not having been delivered, as to the point that a very
bad citizen had been praised as an excellent.

Aeschines instituted this prosecution against Ctesiphon four years
before the death of Philip of Macedon. But the decision took place a
few years after