HKB
for what is occurring is the strongest necessity; I know of none stronger that can be mentioned: to a slave, stripes and bodily chastisement; abominable things! too shocking to name!
To be backward, men of Athens, in performing those services to which the person and property of every one are liable, is wrong, very wrong, and yet it admits of some excuse: but refusing even to bear what is necessary to be heard, and fit to be considered, this calls for the severest censure. Your practice however is, neither to attend until the business actually presses, as it does now, nor to deliberate about any thing at leisure. When Philip is preparing, you, instead of doing the like and making counter-preparation, remain listless, and, if any one speaks a word, clamor him down: when you receive news that any place is lost or besieged, then you listen and prepare. But the time to have heard and consulted was then when you declined; the time to act and employ your preparations is now that you are hearing. Such being your habits, you are the only people who adopt this singular course: others deliberate usually before action, you deliberate after action. One thing [Footnote: He means negotiation with Persia, to obtain pecuniary assistance.] remains, which should have been done long ago, but even yet is not too late: I will mention it. Nothing in the world does Athens need so much, as money for approaching exigencies. Lucky events have occurred, and, if we rightly improve them, perhaps good service may be done. In the first place, those, [Footnote: The Thracians, who had always been regarded as benefactors of the Persian king, since they assisted Darius on his invasion of Scythia. Philip was making war in Thrace at this time, and had subjected a considerable part of the country.] whom the king trusts and regards as his benefactors, are at enmity and war with Philip. Secondly, the agent and confidant [Footnote: Hermias, governor of Atarneus in Mysia, who for his treasonable practices against Artaxerxes was seized by Mentor and sent in chains to Susa, where he was put to death. He was a friend of Aristotle, who was at his court, when he was taken prisoner. The philosopher afterward married his sister.] of all Philip's preparations against the king has been snatched off, and the king will hear all the proceedings, not from Athenian accusers, whom he might consider to be speaking for their own interests, but from the acting minister himself; the charges therefore will be credible, and the only remaining argument for our embassadors will be, one which the Persian monarch will rejoice to hear, that we should take common vengeance on the injurer of both, and that Philip is much more formidable to the king, if he attack us first; for, should we be left in the lurch and suffer any mishap, he will march against the king without fear. On all these matters then I advise that you dispatch an embassy to confer with the king, and put aside that nonsense which has so often damaged you--"the barbarian," forsooth, "the common enemy"--and the like. I confess, when I see a man alarmed at a prince in Susa and Ecbatana, and declaring him to be an enemy of Athens, him that formerly [Footnote: In the confederate war, when the Persian fleet enabled Conon to defeat the Lacedaemonians at Onidus, B. C. 394.] assisted in re-establishing her power, and lately made overtures [Footnote: Artaxerxes had applied both to Athens and Lacedaemon to aid him in the recovery of Egypt, which for many years had been held in a state of revolt. Both these states refused to assist him. He then applied to Thebes and Argos, each of which sent an auxiliary force.]--if you did not accept them, but voted refusal, the fault is not his--while the same man speaks a different language of one who is close at our doors, and growing up in the centre of Greece to be the plunderer of her people; I marvel, I dread this man, whoever he is, because he dreads not Philip.