Exordia

Now, if our interests were prospering, there would be no need to deliberate; but since, as you all observe, they are in straits, I shall try, on that assumption, to advise what I consider best. In the first place, you ought to recognize that none of the policies you pursued while engaged in the war are to be used henceforth, but quite their opposites.[*](Similar advice is given in Dem. 8.38. Cf. Dem. 2.23.) For if those policies have brought your fortunes low, it is very likely that their opposites will improve them.[*](This advice is satirically tendered to Dionysus by Euripides in Aristoph. Frogs 1446-1450.)