Philippic 4

The matters that you are debating, men of Athens, are to my mind so important and even vital to the State, that I will endeavour to offer you what I consider profitable advice on the subject. While the faults that have produced this unhappy state of things are neither few nor recently accumulated, there is nothing, men of Athens, more vexing at the present time than the way in which you detach your thoughts from affairs, and display an interest only so long as you sit here listening, or when some fresh item of news arrives; after that, each man goes home, and not only pays no attention to public business, but does not even recall it to mind.

Now the extent of the recklessness and rapacity that Philip shows in his dealings with all men is indeed as great as it has been described to you; but how impossible it is to stay him in this career by argument and declamation, assuredly no one is ignorant. For indeed, if no single thing else can teach a man the truth of that, let him weigh the following consideration. When we have had to speak in defence of our rights, we have never yet been defeated or proved in the wrong, but in every case we vanquish all our opponents and have the best of it in argument.

Is, then, Philip any the worse off for that, or Athens any the better? Far from it; for afterwards, when he takes up arms and marches to battle, ready to risk all he has, and we sit idle, alike those who have pleaded our cause and those who have been listening to them, then, naturally enough, deeds outweigh words, and the world in general gives heed, not to what we once said with justice or might now say, but to what we do. And what we do is insufficient to protect any of the victims of injustice; in fact, I need say no more about it.

Therefore, as the Greeks in every city are divided into these two parties—the one desiring neither to rule others by force nor to be slaves to any man, but to enjoy liberty and equality under a free constitution; the other eager to rule their fellow-countrymen, but to take their orders from some third person, who they think will enable them to compass their ends—Philip’s faction, those who hanker after tyrannies and oligarchies, have everywhere gained the supremacy, and I doubt whether of all the states there is any stable democracy left except our own.

Moreover, this supremacy of the constitution-mongers who rely on Philip’s support has been gained by all the devices usual in politics, first and foremost by providing a dispenser of wealth to such as covet it, secondly, and not less effectively, by having at their back a force capable of crushing their opponents on any occasion when they may call upon it.

But we, Athenians, are not only behindhand in this respect, but we cannot even rouse ourselves from sleep; we are like men who have drunk mandragora or some such drug. Hence, I believe—for I must speak the truth as I conceive it—we have been so discredited and despised that of those who are involved in actual danger some dispute with us about the right of leadership, others about the meeting-place for a congress, and some have made up their minds to defend themselves single-handed rather than with us.

What is my object in treating this matter so fully? For I protest in Heaven’s name that I have no ambition to incur your hostility. It is that each one of you, Athenians, may know and realize this—that in state affairs, as well as in private life, daily indifference and carelessness do not make their result felt at once on each occasion when duty is neglected, but come home to us when the total result of our policy is seen.

Look at Serrium and Doriscus; for these were the places that were disregarded immediately after the peace, and many of you perhaps do not even know of their existence. Yet it was your neglect and abandonment of them that ruined Thrace and Cersobleptes, who was your ally. Again, Philip, seeing that these were overlooked and were receiving no help from you, proceeded to raze Porthmus to the ground and founded a tyranny in Euboea over against Attica as a menace to you.

Because we neglected Euboea, Megara was very nearly captured. You showed no concern nor anxiety about any of these proceedings, and gave no indication that you would not allow Philip to continue them; so he bought up Antrones and soon afterwards got Oreus under his control.

I pass over many other instances, such as Pherae, the raid against Ambracia, the massacres at Elis, and countless others.[*](For the places named in this paragraph see especially Dem. 9.12, Dem. 9.15, Dem. 9.17, Dem. 9.27, Dem. 9.33.) I have gone into these details, not to give you a complete catalogue of the victims of Philip’s oppression and injustice, but to make it clear to you that he will never desist from molesting all of us and bringing us under his sway, unless someone restrains him.

But there are some who, without waiting to hear the speeches on these questions, are in the habit of asking at once, What then ought we to do?—not in order to do it, when they have heard it, for if so, they would be the most helpful of all citizens, but simply to get rid of the speaker. Nevertheless, you must be told what you ought to do. First, men of Athens, you must fix this firmly in your minds, that Philip is at war with us and has broken the peace, and that he is ill-disposed and hostile to the whole city and to the very soil on which the city stands, and, I will add, to the gods that dwell in it; and may those same gods complete his ruin! The chief object, however, of his arms and his diplomacy is our free constitution, and on nothing in the world is he more bent than on its destruction.

And it is in a way inevitable that he should now be acting thus. For observe! He wants to rule, and he has made up his mind that you, and you only, bar the way. He has long injured you; of nothing is he more conscious than of that. For it is by holding the cities that are really yours that he retains safe possession of all the rest; and if he gave up Amphipolis and Potidaea, even Macedonia would be no safe place for him.