Greek Texts & Translations

19.155So I got them away from Athens, but quite against their will, as you will easily learn from their subsequent behavior. When we had arrived at Oreus and joined Proxenus, instead of obeying their instructions and proceeding by sea, they started on a roundabout tour. We had wasted three-and-twenty days before we reached Macedonia; and all the rest of the time, making, with the time consumed by the journey, fifty days in all, until the arrival of Philip, we were dawdling at Pella. 19.156Throughout that period Philip was occupying and disposing of Doriscus, Thrace, the Thracian fortresses, the Sacred Mount, and so forth, in spite of the peace and armistice. ^note All this time I did not spare words; I talked to them first as one communicating his opinion, then as instructing the ignorant, and finally in uncompromising language, as dealing with corrupt and profligate persons. 19.157The man who openly contradicted me, and set himself in opposition to my advice and your formal resolutions, was Aeschines. You will learn presently whether his conduct was agreeable to his colleagues. For the moment, I have nothing to say of them by way of fault-finding. They may all show themselves honest men today, not by compulsion but of their own free will, and as having no share in those iniquities. ^note That the deeds done were disgraceful, monstrous, and venal, you have already discovered; let facts disclose who were the participators.

19.158But it may be urged that they spent all this time swearing in the allies, or discharging some other part of their duty. Not at all; though they were on their travels for three whole months, and received from you a thousand drachmas for journey-money, they did not get the oaths from any single city either on their outward journey or on their way home. The oaths were administered at the hostelry in front of the Temple of the Twins,—any of you who have been to Pherae will know the place I mean,—at the time when Philip was already on his march towards Athens with his army, and in a manner, men of Athens, that was thoroughly discreditable to the city. 19.159Yet Philip would have paid any sum to have matters managed in this way. For when these men had failed to draw the treaty, as they first tried to do, with a clause excepting the Halians and the Phocians, and Philocrates had been compelled by you to erase those words and write expressly, “the Athenians and the Allies of the Athenians,” to the treaty so drawn Philip did not wish any of his allies to have sworn; for then they would have refused to join in his forcible occupation of those possessions of yours which he now holds, and the oath would have been their excuse. 19.160Nor did he desire witnesses of the promises on the strength of which he was obtaining the peace, nor any public disclosure of the fact that after all Athens had not been beaten in the war, and that it was Philip who was really eager for the peace, and was ready to make large promises to the Athenians if he could get it. Therefore he disapproved of these men going anywhere, lest the facts that I am stating should become generally known; and they were ready to gratify him with ostentatious deference and extravagant adulation. 19.161Yet, when they are convicted of all these delinquencies, of having squandered their time, thrown away the Thracian outposts, done nothing agreeable either to your instructions or to sound policy, and sent lying dispatches to Athens, how can this man possibly find a way of escape before an intelligent and conscientious jury? However, to prove the truth of my statements, read first the decree giving directions for the administration of the oath, then Philip's letter, and then the decree of Philocrates, and the decree of the Assembly.Decree
Letter
Decrees

19.162To prove, moreover, that we should have caught Philip at the Hellespont, if my advice had been taken and your directions obeyed in the terms of the decrees, call the witnesses who were there present.Witnesses

Now read the other deposition testifying to the answer made by Philip to Eucleides ^note here, who arrived later.

(The Deposition is read)Deposition