Philippic 2

Demosthenes

Demosthenes. Vol. I. Olynthiacs, Philippics, Minor Public Speeches, Speech Against Leptines, I-XVII, XX. Vince, J. H., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930 (printing).

On your practical measures you will, if you are wise, deliberate hereafter by yourselves[*](i.e. when the foreign envoys have withdrawn. At this point, if not at the end of the speech, the proposed answer was read. This is not indicated in the MSS.); at present I will suggest the immediate answer which it would be proper for you to adopt.

Answer

It would indeed have been fair, men of Athens, to call upon those who conveyed to you Philip’s promises,[*](The audience might fairly call upon men like Aristodemus, Ctesiphon, and Neoptolemus (Dem. 19.13, Dem. 19.315) to explain how they came to make themselves responsible for these promises, to which Philip had not actually committed himself.) on the strength of which you were induced to conclude the Peace.