Athenians

but afterwards the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, having quarrelled, waged war against each other with their allies:

Now the Athenians were the first who laid down their armour, and by a more easy style of life changed to greater luxury.

For such as by war or sedi tion were driven out of the rest of Greece, the most powerful of them retired to Athens, as to a place of security;

"And I should have been glad," said Philip in jest, "to cede Amphipolis to the Athenians in exchange for Demosthenes' formidable power.

"Indeed, I do not so much envy the Athenians for the expenditure and extravagance lavished upon their city and temples as I admire the deeds their ancestors performed.

For there, when one of the citizens must be put to death publicly for a crime, his name is first erased.

The law of Moses too, for the sanction of capital punishments, gives reasons which operate no less with other nations, than with the Jewish people.

From whence Thucydides gives the name of infinite space to unoccupied lands, and Isocrates speaking of that occupied by the Athenians calls it that which has been measured by us into alloted parts.

Thus Ilioneus in Virgil calls heaven to witness the injustice of the Africans in driving him and his shipwrecked companions from the hospitable use of the shore, and we are informed by Plutarch in his life of Pericles that all the Grecians approved of the complaint, which the Megarensians made against the Athenians, who had prohibited them from setting foot upon the soil of their territories, or c …

And when the Athenian day-watcher described him, he signalled to the generals, and they put out against him with twenty ships;

Meanwhile the Athenians at Sestus, learning that Mindarus was planning to sail against them with sixty ships, withdrew by night to Cardia.

When he sailed in, the common crowd of Piraeus and of the city gathered to his ships, filled with wonder and desiring to see the famous Alcibiades.

Taken in, the Athenian people gave him a guard of chosen citizens, whom Pisistratus made clubmen instead of spearmen:

“Athenians, give a hearty welcome to Pisistratus, whom Athena herself honors above all men and is bringing back to her own acropolis.

Now of these two peoples, Croesus learned that the Attic was held in subjection and divided into factions by Pisistratus, son of Hippocrates, who at that time was sovereign over the Athenians.

For, in the first place, as long as the Lacedaemonians were at war with the Athenians, he bore his part with them;

And while they had vowed to Artemis that for every man they might slay of the enemy they would sacrifice a goat to the goddess, they were unable to find goats enough;

For when the Persians and their followers came with a vast array to blot Athens out of existence, the Athenians dared, unaided, to withstand them, and won the victory.

But when the Athenians inquire of them by divination and they reply, do you not suppose that to you, too, the answer is given?

Which do you think are the more united?

Yes, in these respects too the Athenians need not fear criticism.

Agamemnon went his way rejoicing, and presently found Menestheus, son of Peteos, tarrying in his place, and with him were the Athenians loud of tongue in battle.

The chosen men of the Athenians were in the van, led by Menestheus son of Peteos, with whom were also Pheidas, Stichios, and stalwart Bias:

Stichios and Menestheus, leaders of the Athenians, bore away Amphimakhos to the host of the Achaeans, while the two brave and impetuous Ajaxes did the like by Imbrios.

nay, by themselves they made ready to battle for freedom, while they forgave the rest for choosing bondage.

when no light of deliverance could be glimpsed in any quarter, but, on the contrary, the Athenians had been abandoned by their allies and cheated of their every hope;

in our public assemblies even to this day, before any other business is transacted, the Athenians call down curses upon any citizen who proposes friendly overtures to the Persians;

This was done by vote of the people.

For by his politics army and navy and peoples have been utterly destroyed.

Nay, fellow citizens, it is just here that you have been most wronged and most deceived.

Laws.

to the end that the Athenians may live in all security both now and hereafter.

But of the laws only those passed since the archonship of Eucleides shall be enforced.

Spectators, I will freely declare to you the truth, by Bacchus, who nurtured me!

When we had got ready to set out hither, the Moon met us, and commanded us first to greet the Athenians and their allies;

And I, although so excellent a poet, do not give myself airs, nor do I seek to deceive you by twice and thrice bringing forward the same pieces;

And the power of the Athenian people itself over all things—not to seek others—turned to the frenzy and licence of the multitude, a plague .

"And—to return now to the author of my discourse—from this excessive licence, which they alone think liberty, he says that a tyrant springs up, as it were, from a certain stock and is, as it were, born.

And so in no other state, save in that where the power of the people is supreme, has liberty any dwelling—than which surely nothing can be sweeter, and which, if it is not equal, is not even liberty at all.

And Diotima the Mantinean, the Athenians having sacrificed before the plague, made a ten-year postponement of the disease for them;

For the Athenians used to cry out:

The harvest-wreath bears figs and rich loaves, and honey in a cup, and oil to anoint oneself.

We have many well-conceived laws, men of Athens;

In all these provisions, men of Athens, the law is right.

When under arrest he will suffer no injury in jail until after his trial;

The Athenian Will was, no doubt, indigenous, but then, as will appear presently, it was only an inchoate Testament.

Thus, when Athenian citizens were empowered for the first time by the Laws of Solon to execute Testaments, they were forbidden to disinherit their direct male descendants.

The classical scholar does not require to be reminded that in exactly the same manner the Athenian Bill of Pains and Penalties, or εἰσαγγελία, survived the establishment of regular tribunals.

But, in fact, some of our people are extremely unreasonable.

This ought to fill all Athenians with pride and make them appreciate at their worth those who have given to the city this reputation.

and Pericles studied under two of the sophists, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and Damon, the latter in his day reputed to be the wisest among the Athenians.

Indeed, you have caused the orators to practice and study, not what will be advantageous to the state, but how they may discourse in a manner pleasing to you.

For while they waged war without ceasing in behalf of the Hellenes against the barbarians, we removed from their homes those who derive their livelihood from Asia and led them against the Hellenes;

I observe, however, that you do not hear with equal favor the speakers who address you, but that, while you give your attention to some, in the case of others you do not even suffer their voice to be heard.

And I imagine that when the Athenians and Spartans and Boeotians lost their men at Tanagra, and later at Coronea, among whom your own father perished, the difference that caused their deaths and fights was solely on a question of just and unjust, was it not?

You think that if you come shortly before the Athenian Assembly—which you expect to occur in a very few days—you will stand forth and prove to the people that you are more worthy of honor than either Pericles or anyone else who has ever existed, and that having proved this you will have the greatest power in the state;

Of Athenian gentlemen.

When Ctesiphon had said this and had also told of the marked kindness of his reception, the people eagerly accepted his report and passed a vote of praise for Ctesiphon.

Now when we presented the report of our embassy before the assembly, Ctesiphon came for ward first and spoke, including in his account the points that he was to make according to his agreement with Demosthenes, I mean about Philip’s social accomplishments, his personal appearance, and his doughty deeds at the cups.

After we had spoken, last of all Demosthenes arose, and with that imposing air of his, and rubbing his forehead, when he saw that the people approved my report and were satisfied with it, he said that he was amazed at both parties, as well the listeners as the ambassadors, for they were carelessly wasting time—the listeners wasting the time for taking counsel, the ambassadors the time for giving i …

restore me my rights under that decree.

This decree to which you have been listening, gentlemen, was passed by you in my favour, but afterwards revoked to oblige another.

If they hold that when the state is prospering they are better off individually, they are showing extreme stupidity in advocating today a policy which directly conflicts with their own interests;

Did the Athenian democracy ever fall during this peace?

They arranged a thirty years’ peace with Sparta for us.

It was, was it not, that peace has never yet caused the fall of the Athenian democracy.

Are you dicasts?

No, if anything, we are anti-dicasts.

for, to get a public funeral, we shall tell the Strategi that we fell at Orneae, fighting the country's foes.

if any rise up to be tyrants, or help to establish the tyranny, both he and his family shall be without civic rights.

When these had been taken, they made an agreement for the safety of the children, and within five days, having removed their possessions, surrendered the Acropolis to the Athenians in the archonship of Harpactides, having held the tyranny after their father's death about seventeen years, and altogether, with the years their father ruled, forty-nine all but one.