On the False Embassy

Aeschines? Oh no; it was never meant to come off, and he neither wanted it nor expected it; let him be quit of the imputation of blabbing! The truth is that his purpose required that you should be hoodwinked by that talk; that you should refuse to hear the truth from me and should stay at home; and that they should triumphantly carry a decree ensuring the destruction of the Phocians. That is why this tissue of lies was woven; that is why it was made the theme of a popular harangue.

Now when I heard him making all these fine promises, and knew to a certainty that he was lying,—but let me tell you why I knew. First, because, when Philip was on the point of swearing the oath of ratification, the Phocians were expressly excluded from the treaty by these men and that exclusion should have been passed over in silence, if the Phocians were to be delivered;[*](The clause excluding the Phocians from the benefit of the peace had been rescinded by the Assembly (See Dem. 19.159). Aeschines and his friends were therefore acting ultra vires in restoring the clause, when they administered the oath. Had they been really convinced that Philip intended to spare the Phocians, they would have retained the more general phrase,the Athenians and their allies. It is more probable that Philip himself insisted on excluding the Phocians, and the ambassadors were as powerless as the Roman senators before Alaric.) and secondly because none of the ambassadors from Philip, nor Philip’s own letter, but only Aeschines, mentioned the promises.