Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
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7.1Men of
7.2Philip begins by saying that he offers you Halonnesus as his own property, but that you have no right to demand it of him, because it was not yours when he took it, and is not yours now that he holds it. Moreover, when we ambassadors visited him, he used similar language, to the effect that he had captured the island from pirates and that therefore it belonged absolutely to him. 7.3It is not difficult to refute this claim on the ground of its unfairness. For all pirates seize places belonging to others and turn them into strongholds from which to harry their neighbors. But a man who should defeat and punish pirates would surely be unreasonable, if he said that the stolen property wrongfully held by them passed thereby into his own possession. 7.4For, that plea once granted, if some pirates seize a strip of Attic territory, or a part of
7.7But when he says that he is willing to arbitrate, he is merely mocking you. In the first place, he expects Athenians to refer to arbitration, as against this upstart from
7.9Then again he says that he has sent envoys to arrange with you an inter-state legal compact, and that this compact will be valid, not as soon as it is ratified by the body of Athenian jurors, as the law directs, but only after it has been referred to him, thus constituting himself a court of appeal from your decision. note His object, of course, is to steal a march on you, and to insert in the compact an admission on your part that none of the wrongs committed at
7.14As for the pirates, he says that it is only fair that we should join him in clearing the sea of these depredators, who injure you as much as himself; which amounts to a claim that you should set him up as a maritime power and confess that without Philip's help you cannot keep the high seas safe, 7.15and furthermore that he should have a free hand to cruise about and anchor off the different islands and, under pretence of protecting them from pirates, bribe the islanders to revolt from you. Not content with getting your commanders to carry refugees from
7.17Men of
7.18With regard to the amendment of the peace, Philip's ambassadors conceded to us the right to amend it, and our amendment, universally admitted to be fair, was that each side should retain its own possessions. But he now contends that he never agreed to this, and that his ambassadors never even raised the point. This simply means that his friends here have persuaded him that you have no memory for what has been stated publicly in the Assembly. 7.19But that is just the one thing that you cannot have forgotten; for at the same meeting of the Assembly Philip's ambassadors put his case before you and the decree was duly proposed, so that, as the decree was recited immediately after the conclusion of the speeches, it was impossible for you to pass at once a resolution which gives the lie to the ambassadors. So it is not against me but against you that his letter is aimed, alleging that you have sent back to him your decision on questions that were never put before you. 7.20Why, the ambassadors themselves, whom your resolution flatly contradicted, when you read them your answer and offered them hospitality, did not venture to come forward and say, “You misrepresent us, men of
7.24As for me, men of
7.30As for the other amendment which you propose to introduce, that all the Greeks who are not parties to the peace should remain free and independent, and that if they are attacked, the signatories should unite to defend them, 7.31you considered it both fair and generous that the peace should not be confined to
7.33With regard to his repeated promises to you of substantial benefits, he complains that I am slandering and defaming him in the ears of the Greeks, for he says that he has never made you any promises at all. Such is the shamelessness of the man who stated in his letter, which is still to be seen in the Council House, that if peace was made he would confer such benefits on you as would stop the mouths of us, his opponents, benefits which he said he would put down in writing, if he were sure that the peace would be made. The inference was that all the good things that we were to enjoy on the conclusion of peace were ready for immediate delivery. 7.34Peace has been concluded, but all the good things that we were to enjoy are still to seek, and upon the Greeks has come such ruin as you well know. Yet he promises in the present letter that if you will only trust his friends and advocates and will punish the wicked men who traduce him to you, he will confer substantial benefits. His benefits, however, will amount to this: 7.35he will not restore your possessions, for he claims them as his own, and his rewards will not be delivered in this part of the world, for fear his motive should be misrepresented to the Greeks note; some other country, it seems, some new quarter will be assigned for the bestowal of your rewards.
7.36As for the places held by you which he took in time of peace, violating the terms and breaking his engagements, since he has not a word to say but is clearly convicted of injustice, he expresses his willingness to refer the question to a fair and impartial court. But this is the only question that needs no such reference; the calendar is sufficient to decide it. 7.37For we all know in what month and on what day the peace was made, and as surely also do we know in what month and on what day Fort Serreum and Ergisce and the Sacred Mount note were captured. Surely these things were not done in a corner; they need no judicial inquiry; everyone can find out which came first, the month in which the peace was made or that in which the places were taken.
7.38Again, he says that he has restored all the prisoners that were taken in the war. Yet the man of Carystus, note the agent of our city, for whose recovery you sent three embassies—Philip was so anxious to oblige you that he killed him and did not even allow you to recover his corpse for burial.
7.39With regard to the
The dwellers here have set this boundary-stoneUnknown
Midway `twixt Pteleum and the Silver Strand,
And raised this altar fair, that men may own
That Zeus is Warden of ourNo Mans Land . note
7.41This district, however, of whose extent most of you are aware, he treats as his own, enjoying part himself and bestowing part on others, and so he brings all your property under his own control. Not only does he appropriate the land north of Agora, but he also orders you in his present letter to settle by arbitration any disputes you have with the Cardians to the south of Agora—the Cardians, who are settlers in your own territory! 7.42They have a dispute with you; see whether it is about a trifle. They say that the land they live in is not yours, but their own, and that while your possessions there are held by grace in a foreign country, theirs are their own property on their own soil, and that this is admitted in a decree of your countryman, Callippus of the Paeanian deme. 7.43And there they speak truth, for he did propose such a decree, and when I indicted him for a breach of the constitution, you acquitted him; that is how he has brought your claim into dispute. But if and when you submit your dispute with the Cardians to arbitration, to decide whether the land is yours or theirs, why not extend the principle to the other states of the
7.46It now remains for me, in answer to this precious letter and to the speeches of the ambassadors, to propose the resolution which I conceive to be in accordance with justice and your interests.
Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
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