ll you have punished your enemies, his
ministers, at home. They will be the stumbling-blocks which prevent you
reaching the others. Why, do you suppose, Philip now insults you? To
other people he at least renders services though he deceives them, while
he is already threatening you. Look for instance at the Thessalians. It
was by many benefits conferred on them that he seduced them into their
present bondage. And then the Olynthians, again,--how he cheated them,
first giving them Potidaea and several other places, is really beyond
description. Now he is enticing the Thebans by giving up to them
Boeotia, and delivering them from a toilsome and vexatious war. Each
of these people did get a certain advantage; but some of them have
suffered what all the world knows; others will suffer whatever may
hereafter befall them. As for you, I recount not all that has been taken
from you, but how shamefully have you been treated and despoiled! Why is
it that Philip deals so differently with you and with others? Because
yours is the only State in Greece in which the privilege is allowed of
speaking for the enemy, and a citizen taking a bribe may safely address
the Assembly, though you have been robbed of your dominions. It was not
safe at Olynthus to be Philip's advocate, unless the Olynthian
commonalty had shared the advantage by possession of Potidaea. It was not
safe in Thessaly to be Philip's advocate, unless the people of Thessaly
had secured the advantage by Philip's expelling their tyrants and
restoring the Synod at Pylae. It was not safe in Thebes, until he gave up
Boeotia to them and destroyed the Phocians. Yet at Athens, though
Philip has deprived you of Amphipolis and the territory round
Cardia--nay, is making Euboea a fortress as a check upon us, and is
advancing to attack Byzantium--it is safe to speak in Philip's behalf.

JUSTIFICATION OF HIS PATRIOTIC POLICY

Do not go about repeating that Greece owes all her misfortunes to one
man. No, not to one man, but to many abandoned men distributed
throughout the different States, of whom, by earth and heaven, AEschines
is one. If the truth were to be spoken without reserve, I should not
hesitate to call him the common scourge of all the men, the districts,
and the cities which have perished; for the sower of the seed is
answerable for the crop....

I affirm that if the future had been apparent to us all,--if you,
AEschines, had foretold it and proclaimed it at the top