War between Philip and Athens
event · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
war · late war · active hostilities · at war with me · declaration of war · make war on me · settle the dispute by arms · war by sea
in the texts
Answer to Philip’s Letter
The armed conflict or renewed state of war between Philip and Athens.
Bearing this in mind, Athenians, and reflecting that it is not even in our power to pretend that we are at peace, for Philip has already issued a declaration of war and followed it up by active hostilities, it is necessary to spare no expense, public or private, to take the field eagerly and in full force, wherever the opportunity occurs, and to employ abler generals than before.
It is not a strange thing, then, that he has gained ground at our expense in the late war, but rather that we, performing no single duty of a nation at war, think that we are going to defeat one who does everything that a grasping ambition demands.
I shall, however, try to prove to you that you must not quail before his power nor offer a half-hearted resistance, but must enter the war with an unsparing provision of men, money, and ships—in a word, with all your resources.
Philip’s Letter
The actual or threatened armed conflict between Philip and Athens, contrasted with arbitration and peace.
Yet consider which is the more honorable—to settle the dispute by arms or by arguments, to be yourselves the umpires or to win the verdict from others.
for, before the king reduced Egypt and Phoenicia, you passed a decree calling on me to make common cause with the rest of the Greeks against him, in case he attempted to interfere with us.
As you were the aggressors and, thanks to my forbearance, are making still further attacks on my interests and doing me all the harm in your power, I shall defend myself, with justice on my side, and, calling the gods to witness, I shall bring my dispute with you to an issue.
Ways and Means
Recent and possible warfare, presented as financially burdensome and inferior to peace for revenue.
he will conclude on consideration that in our own time the effect of the late war on our revenues was that many of them ceased, while those that came in were exhausted by the multitude of expenses;
On the other hand, if you think that the burdens imposed during the late war make it impossible for you to contribute anything at all—well, keep down the cost of administration during the next year to the amount that the taxes yielded before the peace;
if the people will be maintained in comfort and the rich no more burdened with the expenses of war;