Greek Texts & Translations

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 Chersonese, it is important to examine the terms of his dispatch to you and also to know what he is actually doing in the matter. For the whole of the land north of Agora, as being his own property and no concern of yours, he has handed over as a private estate to Apollonides of Cardia. Yet the boundary of the Chersonese is not Agora, but the altar of Zeus of the Marches, half way between Pteleum and the White Strand, 7.40where there was going to be a canal across the peninsula. This is proved by the inscription on the altar of Zeus, which runs thus: The dwellers here have set this boundary-stone
Midway `twixt Pteleum and the Silver Strand,
And raised this altar fair, that men may own
That Zeus is Warden of our No Mans Land. ^note
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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 Chersonese also? 7.44Philip's insolence is carried so far that he says that if the Cardians decline arbitration, he will be responsible for coercing them; as if you could not compel Cardians to do anything you wanted! He will make them do it, he says, since you cannot. Are not his favors to you great and manifest? 7.45And this letter was actually commended by some Athenians, who merit your hatred much more than Philip. For whatever Philip does to thwart you, he is only aiming at advantage and glory for himself, but Athenians who make a parade of their goodwill to Philip, rather than to their own country, are wretches who deserve to perish at your hands unpitied, if you carry your brains in your heads and not trodden down in your heels. ^note