Philippic 4

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.