Athenian envoys

Well, if the present defendants have omitted any single one of the misdeeds for which those persons were sentenced to death, execute me on the spot.

When I was drafting the provisional resolution of the Council respecting the earlier embassy, and again in addressing the people at the Assemblies that were held to discuss the terms of peace, I followed the usual custom, and included a vote of thanks and an invitation to the public mess-table;

All this took place before the country had suffered wrong, and before it was evident that the envoys had sold themselves, immediately after the first return of the envoys, when the people had still to hear their report, and when it was not yet known that Aeschines would support Philocrates, or that Philocrates would move such a resolution.

But you must make sure, men of Athens, that our envoys do not confine themselves to words;

To the Thessalians you must send an embassy to inform some of them of our intentions and to stir up the others;

It would indeed have been fair, men of Athens, to call upon those who conveyed to you Philip’s promises, on the strength of which you were induced to conclude the Peace.

and they heard many other speeches from the envoys, both in my presence and again later, as it seems;

Yes, I am afraid that, since the ambassadors have kept silence about the services for which they know they have been bribed, those who are trying to repair some of the losses that these men have caused may chance to fall under your displeasure;

Demochares, surnamed Parrhesiastes for his too free and saucy tongue, had come among the other Athenian envoys.

"But you," he said, "the rest of the envoys, report to the Athenians that those who say such things are far prouder than he who hears them said and lets them go unpunished.