by Demosthenes
[60] How, then, is this date proved? On the twenty-seventh, when you were holding an assembly at Peiraeus to discuss dockyard business, Dercylus arrived from Chalcis with the intelligence that Philip had put the whole affair into the hands of the Thebans, and he computed that it was then the fourth day after the convention. Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven: that makes it the fourth day. Therefore these dates, together with their own reports and decrees, all convict these men of having co-operated with Philip, and they share with him the guilt of the destruction of the Phocians.
[61] ἔτι τοίνυν τὸ μηδεμίαν τῶν πόλεων τῶν ἐν Φωκεῦσιν ἁλῶναι πολιορκίᾳ μηδ᾽ ἐκ προσβολῆς κατὰ κράτος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ σπείσασθαι πάντας ἄρδην ἀπολέσθαι, μέγιστόν ἐστι σημεῖον τοῦ διὰ τούτους πεισθέντας αὐτοὺς ὡς ὑπὸ τοῦ Φιλίππου σωθήσονται ταῦτα παθεῖν: οὐ γὰρ ἐκεῖνόν γ᾽ ἠγνόουν. φέρε δή μοι καὶ τὴν συμμαχίαν τὴν τῶν Φωκέων καὶ τὰ δόγμαθ᾽ ὑφ᾽ ὧν καθεῖλον αὐτῶν τὰ τείχη, ἵν᾽ εἰδῆθ᾽ οἵων ὑπαρχόντων αὐτοῖς παρ᾽ ὑμῶν οἵων ἔτυχον διὰ τούτους τοὺς θεοῖς ἐχθρούς. λέγε.”Συμμαχία Φωκέων καὶ Ἀθηναίων”
[61] Again, the consideration that not a city of the Phocians was taken forcibly, whether by blockade or assault, and yet that they were all brought to utter ruin under the convention, is a convincing proof that they perished because they had been persuaded through these men that Philip would deliver them; for about his character they had no illusions. Now give me our treaty with the Phocians, and the Amphictyonic decrees, under which they dismantled their defences. These documents will show you on what footing you stood with them, and what treatment they have received by the fault of these wicked men. Read.” Alliance of the Phocians and the Athenians”
[62] ἃ μὲν τοίνυν ὑπῆρχε παρ᾽ ὑμῶν αὐτοῖς, ταῦτ᾽ ἐστί, φιλία, συμμαχία, βοήθεια: ὧν δ᾽ ἔτυχον διὰ τοῦτον τὸν βοηθῆσαι κωλύσαντα ὑμᾶς, ἀκούσατε. λέγε.”Ὁμολογία Φιλίππου καὶ Φωκέων”
ἀκούετ᾽, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι. ‘ὁμολογία Φιλίππου καὶ Φωκέων,’ φησίν, οὐχὶ Θηβαίων καὶ Φωκέων, οὐδὲ Θετταλῶν καὶ Φωκέων, οὐδὲ Λοκρῶν, οὐδ᾽ ἄλλου τῶν παρόντων οὐδενός: καὶ πάλιν ‘παραδοῦναι δὲ τὰς πόλεις Φωκέας,’ φησί, ‘Φιλίππῳ,’ οὐχὶ Θηβαίοις οὐδὲ Θετταλοῖς οὐδ᾽ ἄλλῳ οὐδενί.
[62] These are the relations that subsisted between you and them — friendship, alliance, succor. Now hear what they have suffered through the man who thwarted the succor you owed them. Read.” Convention between Philip and the Phocians”
You hear it, men of Athens. A convention between Philip and the Phocians, it says, not between the Thebans and the Phocians, or the Thessalians and the Phocians, or the Locrians, or any other of the nationalities then present. Again, it says that the Phocians are to surrender their cities to Philip, not to the Thebans, or the Thessalians, or any other people.
[63] διὰ τί; ὅτι Φίλιππος ἀπηγγέλλετο πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὑπὸ τούτου ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν Φωκέων σωτηρίᾳ παρεληλυθέναι. τούτῳ δὴ πάντ᾽ ἐπίστευον, καὶ πρὸς τοῦτον πάντ᾽ ἐσκόπουν, πρὸς τοῦτον ἐποιοῦντο τὴν εἰρήνην. λέγε δὴ τἀπίλοιπα. καὶ σκοπεῖτε τί πιστεύσαντες τί ἔπασχον. ἆρά γ᾽ ὅμοι᾽ ἢ παραπλήσι᾽ οἷς οὗτος ἀπήγγελλεν; λέγε.”Δόγματα Ἀμφικτυόνων”
[63] Why? Because you had been assured by Aeschines that Philip had come to deliver the Phocians. In Aeschines they had confidence; to Aeschines they looked for aid; with Aeschines they were making their peace. Read the other documents. Now you shall see to what sufferings they were brought by that confidence. Does the story agree with, does it in any way resemble, those reports of Aeschines? Read.” Decrees of the Amphictyonic Council”
[64] τούτων, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, δεινότερ᾽ οὐ γέγονεν οὐδὲ μείζω πράγματ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῶν ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, οἶμαι δ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ἐν τῷ πρόσθεν χρόνῳ. τηλικούτων μέντοι καὶ τοιούτων πραγμάτων κύριος εἷς ἀνὴρ Φίλιππος γέγονεν διὰ τούτους, οὔσης τῆς Ἀθηναίων πόλεως, ᾗ προεστάναι τῶν Ἑλλήνων πάτριον καὶ μηδὲν τοιοῦτον περιορᾶν γιγνόμενον. ὃν μὲν τοίνυν τρόπον οἱ ταλαίπωροι Φωκεῖς ἀπολώλασιν, οὐ μόνον ἐκ τῶν δογμάτων τούτων ἔστιν ἰδεῖν,
[64] Men of Athens, nothing more awful or more momentous has befallen in Greece within living memory, nor, as I believe, in all the history of the past. Yet through the agency of these men all these great and terrible transactions have been dominated by a single individual, though the city of Athens is still in being, the city whose ancestral prerogative it was to stand forth as the champion of the Hellenic race, and declare that such things shall not be. In what fashion these unhappy Phocians have perished you may learn, not from the decrees alone,
[65] ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἔργων ἃ πέπρακται, θέαμα δεινόν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, καὶ ἐλεινόν: ὅτε γὰρ νῦν ἐπορευόμεθ᾽ εἰς Δελφούς, ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἦν ὁρᾶν ἡμῖν πάντα ταῦτα, οἰκίας κατεσκαμμένας, τείχη περιῃρημένα, χώραν ἔρημον τῶν ἐν ἡλικίᾳ, γύναια δὲ καὶ παιδάρι᾽ ὀλίγα καὶ πρεσβύτας ἀνθρώπους οἰκτρούς: οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἷς δύναιτ᾽ ἐφικέσθαι τῷ λόγῳ τῶν ἐκεῖ κακῶν νῦν ὄντων. ἀλλὰ μὴν ὅτι τὴν ἐναντίαν ποτὲ Θηβαίοις ψῆφον ἔθενθ᾽ οὗτοι περὶ ἡμῶν ὑπὲρ ἀνδραποδισμοῦ προτεθεῖσαν, ὑμῶν ἔγωγ᾽ ἀκούω πάντων.
[65] but from the deeds that have been wrought — a spectacle, men of Athens, to move us to terror and pity indeed! Not long ago, when we were travelling to Delphi, necessity compelled us to look upon that scene — homesteads levelled with the ground, cities stripped of their defensive walls, a countryside all emptied of its young men; only women, a few little children, and old men stricken with misery. No man could find words adequate to the woes that exist in that country today. And yet these are the people — you take the words out of my mouth — these are the people who in the day of our trial openly cast their vote against the Thebans, when the question was the enslavement of us all!
[66] τίν᾽ ἂν οὖν οἴεσθ᾽, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοὺς προγόνους ὑμῶν, εἰ λάβοιεν αἴσθησιν, ψῆφον ἢ γνώμην θέσθαι περὶ τῶν αἰτίων τοῦ τούτων ὀλέθρου; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἶμαι κἂν καταλεύσαντας αὐτοὺς ταῖς ἑαυτῶν χερσὶν καθαροὺς ἔσεσθαι νομίζειν. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ αἰσχρόν, μᾶλλον δ᾽ εἴ τις ἔστιν ὑπερβολὴ τούτου, τοὺς σεσωκότας ἡμᾶς τότε καὶ τὴν σῴζουσαν περὶ ἡμῶν ψῆφον θεμένους, τούτους τῶν ἐναντίων τετυχηκέναι διὰ τούτους, καὶ περιῶφθαι τοιαῦτα πεπονθότας οἷ᾽ οὐδένες ἄλ�
�οι τῶν Ἑλλήνων; τίς οὖν ὁ τούτων αἴτιος; τίς ὁ ταῦτα φενακίσας; οὐχ οὗτος;
[66] Then what vote, what judgement, men of Athens, do you think that our forefathers would give, if they could recover consciousness, at the trial of the men who devised the destruction of the Phocians? I conceive that they would account even those who should stone them to death with their own hands to be free of all bloodguiltiness. For is it not an ignominy — or use a stronger word if such there be — that, by the fault of these men, the people who saved us at that crisis, and gave for us the verdict of deliverance, have received evil in requital of good, and have been abandoned to the endurance of afflictions such as no people of the Greeks has ever known? And who is the author of those wrongs? Who is the contriver of that deception? Who but Aeschines?
[67] πολλὰ τοίνυν ἄν τις, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, Φίλιππον εὐδαιμονίσας τῆς τύχης εἰκότως, τοῦτο μάλιστ᾽ ἂν εὐδαιμονίσειεν ἁπάντων, ὃ μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ τὰς θεὰς οὐκ ἔχω λέγειν ἔγωγ᾽ ἄλλον ὅστις ηὐτύχηκεν ἐφ᾽ ἡμῶν. τὸ μὲν γὰρ πόλεις μεγάλας εἰληφέναι καὶ χώραν πολλὴν ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτῷ πεποιῆσθαι καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα ζηλωτὰ μέν ἐστιν, οἶμαι, καὶ λαμπρά: πῶς γὰρ οὔ; ἔχοι δ᾽ ἄν τις εἰπεῖν πεπραγμένα καὶ ἑτέροις πολλοῖς.
[67] Men of Athens, Philip has many claims to congratulation on his good fortune, but beyond them all he might well be especially congratulated for one thing, in which I solemnly declare that I can name no man of our time who has been equally fortunate. Such achievements as the capture of great cities and the subjugation of a vast territory are, I suppose, enviable, as they are undoubtedly imposing; yet we could mention many other men who have done the like.
[68] ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖν᾽ ἴδιον καὶ οὐδενὶ τῶν πάντων ἄλλῳ γεγονὸς εὐτύχημα. τὸ ποῖον; τὸ ἐπειδὴ πονηρῶν ἀνθρώπων εἰς τὰ πράγματ᾽ αὐτῷ ἐδέησεν, πονηροτέρους εὑρεῖν ἢ ἐβούλετο. πῶς γὰρ οὐχ οὗτοι τοιοῦτοι δικαίως ὑποληφθεῖεν ἄν, οἵ γε, ἃ ὑπὲρ αὑτοῦ Φίλιππος τηλικούτων ὄντων αὐτῷ τῶν διαφόρων οὐκ ἐτόλμα ψεύσασθαι, οὐδ᾽ ἔγραψεν οὔτ᾽ εἰς ἐπιστολὴν οὐδεμίαν, οὔτε πρεσβευτὴς οὐδεὶς εἶπε τῶν παρ᾽ ἐκείνου, ἐπὶ ταῦτα μισθώσαντες ἑαυτοὺς ὑμᾶς ἐξηπάτων;
[68] But the stroke of good fortune I have in mind is peculiar to him and has befallen no other man. What is it? It is that, when he needed scoundrels for his purposes, he found bigger scoundrels than he wanted. For surely that is a fair description of the men who deceived you, hiring themselves out for lies which Philip, in spite of the great interests at issue, did not dare to tell on his own account, which he never wrote in any letter or put into the mouth of ambassadors of his own.
[69] καὶ ὁ μὲν Ἀντίπατρος καὶ ὁ Παρμενίων, δεσπότῃ διακονοῦντες καὶ οὐ μέλλοντες ὑμῖν μετὰ ταῦτ᾽ ἐντεύξεσθαι, ὅμως τοῦθ᾽ εὕροντο, μὴ δι᾽ αὐτῶν ὑμᾶς ἐξαπατηθῆναι: οἱ δέ, Ἀθηναῖοι, τῆς ἐλευθερωτάτης πόλεως, πρέσβεις ταχθέντες ὑμᾶς, οἷς ἀπαντῶντας ἐμβλέπειν, οἷς συζῆν ἀνάγκη τὸν λοιπὸν βίον καὶ ἐν οἷς εὐθύνας ἔμελλον δώσειν τῶν πεπραγμένων, τούτους ἐξαπατᾶν ὑπέστησαν. πῶς ἂν ἄνθρωποι κακίους ἢ μᾶλλον ἀπονενοημένοι τούτων γένοιντο;
[69] Antipater and Parmenio, though they were in the service of a hard taskmaster, and though they were not likely to fall in with you again, nevertheless claimed exemption from serving as the agents of your beguilement; and yet citizens of Athens, the appointed envoys of the freest of all cities, men who must needs encounter you and look you in the face, who must live with you all the rest of their life, who would have to render you a strict account of their actions, accepted a commission to beguile you! Could any men be more wicked or more lost to all sense of shame?
[70] ἵνα τοίνυν εἰδῆθ᾽ ὅτι καὶ κατάρατός ἐστιν ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν, καὶ οὐδ᾽ ὅσιον ὑμῖν οὐδ᾽ εὐσεβές ἐστι τοιαῦτ᾽ ἐψευσμένον αὐτὸν ἀφεῖναι, λέγε τὴν ἀρὰν καὶ ἀνάγνωθι λαβὼν τὴν ἐκ τοῦ νόμου ταυτηνί.”Ἀρά”
ταῦθ᾽ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, καθ᾽ ἑκάστην τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ὁ κῆρυξ εὔχεται νόμῳ προστεταγμένα, καὶ ὅταν ἡ βουλὴ καθῆται, παρ᾽ ἐκείνῃ πάλιν. καὶ ταῦτ᾽ οὐκ ἔνεστιν εἰπεῖν τούτῳ ὡς οὐκ εὖ ᾔδει: ὑπογραμματεύων γὰρ ὑμῖν καὶ ὑπηρετῶν τῇ βουλῇ αὐτὸς ἐξηγεῖτο τὸν νόμον τοῦτον τῷ κήρυκι.
[70] To show you that this man is already accursed by you, and that religion and piety forbid you to acquit one who has been guilty of such falsehoods, — recite the curse. Take and read it from the statute: here it is.” Prayer”
This imprecation, men of Athens, is pronounced, as the law directs, by the marshal on your behalf at every meeting of the Assembly, and again before the Council at all their sessions. The defendant cannot say that he is not familiar with it, for, when acting as clerk to the Assembly and as an officer of the Council, he used to dictate the statute to the marshal.
[71] πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἄτοπον καὶ ὑπερφυὲς ἂν πεποιηκότες ὑμεῖς εἴητε, εἰ ἃ προστάττετε, μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀξιοῦτε ποιεῖν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν τοὺς θεούς, ταῦτ᾽ αὐτοὶ κύριοι γεγενημένοι τήμερον μὴ ποιήσαιτε, ἀλλ᾽ ὃν ἐκείνοις εὔχεσθ᾽ ἐξώλη ποιεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ γένος καὶ οἰκίαν, τοῦτον ἀφείητ᾽ αὐτοί; μηδαμῶς: ὃς γὰρ ἂν ὑμᾶς λάθῃ, τοῦτον ἀφίετε τοῖς θεοῖς κολάζειν: ὃν δ᾽ ἂν αὐτοὶ λάβητε, μηκέτ᾽ ἐκείνοις περὶ τούτου προστάττετε.
[71] Would you not have acted absurdly and preposterously if today, when the power is in your own hands, you should preclude yourselves from doing what you enjoin, or rather require, the gods to do on your behalf; if you should yourselves release a man whom you have implored them to extirpate along with his household and his kindred? Never! Leave the undetected sinner to the justice of the gods; but about the sinner whom you have caught yourselves, lay no further injunctions on them.
[72] εἰς τοίνυν τοῦτ᾽ ἀναιδείας καὶ τόλμης αὐτὸν ἥξειν ἀκούω, ὥστε πάντων τῶν πεπραγμένων ἐκστάντα, ὧν ἀπήγγειλεν, ὧν ὑπέσχετο, ὧν πεφενάκικε τὴν πόλιν, ὥσπερ ἐν ἄλλοις τισὶ κρινόμενον καὶ οὐκ ἐν ὑμῖν τοῖς ἅπαντ᾽ εἰδόσι, πρῶτον μὲν Λακεδαιμονίων, εἶτα Φωκέων, εἶθ᾽ Ἡγησίππου κατηγορήσειν. ἔστι δὲ ταῦτα γέλως, μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀναισχυντία δεινή.
[72] I am informed that he has become so proficient in effrontery and hardihood that he will disavow all his acts — his reports, his promises, his deceptions of the city — as though he were not on trial before a jury that knows the whole truth, and that he will denounce first the
Lacedaemonians,then the Phocians, and then Hegesippus. That is buffoonery, nay, barefaced impudence.
[73] ὅσα γὰρ νῦν ἐρεῖ περὶ τῶν Φωκέων ἢ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων ἢ τοῦ Ἡγησίππου, ὡς Πρόξενον οὐχ ὑπεδέξαντο, ὡς ἀσεβεῖς εἰσίν, ὡς — ὅ τι ἂν δήποτ᾽ αὐτῶν κατηγορῇ, πάντα δήπου ταῦτα πρὸ τοῦ τοὺς πρέσβεις τούτους δεῦρ᾽ ἥκειν ἐπέπρακτο, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἐμποδὼν τῷ τοὺς Φωκέας σῴζεσθαι, ὡς τίς φησιν;
[73] Whatever he may say just now about the Phocians or the Lacedaemonians or Hegesippus, — that they did not receive Proxenus, that they are irreligious, that they are — anything he can say to their disadvantage, — surely all that was finished and done with before the return of the envoys to Athens, and therefore could not have stood in the way of the deliverance of the Phocians. Who says so? Why, Aeschines here, the defendant himself.
[74] Αἰσχίνης αὐτὸς οὑτοσί. οὐ γὰρ ὡς εἰ μὴ διὰ Λακεδαιμονίους, οὐδ᾽ ὡς εἰ μὴ Πρόξενον οὐχ ὑπεδέξαντο, οὐδ᾽ ὡς εἰ μὴ δι᾽ Ἡγήσιππον, οὐδ᾽ ὡς εἰ μὴ διὰ τὸ καὶ τὸ ἐσώθησαν ἂν οἱ Φωκεῖς, οὐχ οὕτω τότ᾽ ἀπήγγειλεν, ἀλλὰ πάντα ταῦθ᾽ ὑπερβὰς διαρρήδην ἥκειν πεπεικὼς ἔφη Φίλιππον Φωκέας σῴζειν, τὴν Βοιωτίαν οἰκίζειν, ὑμῖν τὰ πράγματ᾽ οἰκεῖα ποιεῖν: ταῦτα πεπράξεσθαι δυοῖν ἢ τριῶν ἡμερῶν: διὰ ταῦτα χρήμαθ᾽ ἑαυτῷ τοὺς Θηβαίους ἐπικεκηρυχέναι.