Philip II of Macedon

(Philip’s Letter is read)

Now read the letter sent to Athens afterwards by Philip.

These persons Philip adopted as his satellites and accomplices.

Then the letter from Philip was read.

They surrendered themselves to Philip;

Philip, however, did send you two letters of summons.

for no one can reconcile the parties to a quarrel while their wrath is rising;

and, sending word to the generals of the Persian king, he promised that he would do this.

the Lacedaemonians have conferred upon his descendants the kingship and the power of command for all time;

now ordaining the worship of the Macedonian from Pella, Philip son of Amyntas, in the Cynosarges — him with the broken collar-bone and the maimed leg, who had his eye knocked out;

For it is with the political as with the bodily constitution.

Philip’s resources include mercenary soldiers, and also, observe!

From this you can gauge the feelings of the great body of the Macedonians towards Philip;

No, men of Athens;

For observe, Athenians, the height to which the fellow’s insolence has soared;

It was precisely by acting on this principle that he has mastered and now holds them all.

Is, then, Philip any the worse off for that, or Athens any the better?

for if Philip can be won over, your share of the compact is ready to hand.

and if he gave up Amphipolis and Potidaea, even Macedonia would be no safe place for him.

see whether it is about a trifle.

Apparently those who inhabited Amphipolis, before Philip took it, were holding Athenian territory;

And this letter was actually commended by some Athenians, who merit your hatred much more than Philip.

Is not Philip now holding the city of the Cardians, and admitting that he holds it?

And then again we are not certain of another thing, that he will not attack the Chersonese.

the Thebans he is now misleading, having handed over Boeotia to them and relieved them of a long and trying war.

for they would presumably have gained nothing if Philip had not passed Thermopylae.

But the Thessalians aimed at the aggrandizement neither of Thebes nor of Philip, because they felt that all that would tell against them;

and if the Thessalians dislike us because we protect the Phocian fugitives, and Philip because we are trying to exclude him from the Amphictyonic Council;

Yes, men of Athens, this is the turning point of Philip’s career.

There is no vestige of these today in the power that Philip has built up.

Hence it is not difficult to see how the majority of the Macedonians regard Philip.

And what of the Thessalians?

What did Philip first get under his control after the Peace?

we prefer to dilate on Philip’s shocking behavior and the like topics;

Is not Philip our enemy?

and the position of affairs was that Philip did not trust them, nor they Philip.

If not, let someone come forward and tell me who but ourselves has made Philip powerful.

For look at it this way.

and let no one say, What of all this?

Yet the Greeks see all this and suffer it.

but I wished to write to you also regarding the action which I think should be taken after the conclusion of peace, and while this advice is similar to that in my discourse, it is, however, expressed much more concisely.

On hearing this, all entreated me to encourage you and to exhort you to hold fast to this same resolution, since they believe that no achievement could be more glorious, more useful to the Greeks, or more timely than this will be.

To have an insatiate desire for anything else in the world is ignoble—for moderation is generally esteemed—but to set the heart upon a glory that is great and honorable, and never to be satiated with it, befits those men who have far excelled all others.

Not content with the wreck of so many cities which Philip had either conquered or bought, he throws down some in one place, some in another, and carries his arms round the whole world, nor does his cruelty stop anywhere, weary, after the manner of savage beasts that bite more than hunger demands.