Peace

The later years of his life had been chiefly devoted to plans for the establishment of peace in the religious world, whose dissensions gave him great distress of mind.

It was most fitting that an international congress called in the interest of peace should blend with the negotiation of conventions for the pacific settlement of disputes between nations by a permanent tribunal, and for the amelioration of the laws of war, a celebration of the distinguished writer whose great thought had at last borne such precious fruits.

The inspiration of his “De Jure Belli ac Pacis” was the love of peace, yet he was far from being one of those visionaries who totally condemn the use of armed force and proscribe all war as wrong and unnecessary.

For with free men I do not think that you would have any difficulty in making peace whenever you wished, but with an oligarchical state I do not believe that even friendly relations could be permanent, for the few can never be well disposed to the many, nor those who covet power to those who have chosen a life of equal privileges.

If, then, all the powers consent to keep peace, we will not help the Megalopolitans, for it will be unnecessary, so that there will be no question of our opposing our comrades in arms;

or if, while the Megalopolitans join our alliance in all sincerity, the Lacedaemonians refuse to keep the peace, then it will be equally obvious that the object of their activities is not merely to restore Thespiae, but to subjugate the Peloponnese while the Thebans are engrossed in the war.

I say that we must at the same time call upon them to destroy the pillars and upon the Lacedaemonians to keep the peace.

In the same way by agreement with Philip we have waived our claim to Amphipolis, and we are permitting Cardia to be excepted from the rest of the Chersonese, the Carian to occupy the islands of Chios, Cos, and Rhodes, and the Byzantines to detain our ships in harbor, obviously because we think that the respite which the peace affords is more productive of advantages than wrangling and coming to bl …

Yet I suppose that by this time you have all observed that after visiting the enemy, in order, as he alleged, to collect sums owing to him there which he might spend on public services here, and after making copious use of the argument that it was too bad to arraign men who were transferring wealth from Macedonia to Athens, he secured a safe conduct owing to the peace, converted into cash all the …

I do not mean that the peace is a glorious one or even creditable to you, but, whatever we may think of it, it would better suit our purpose never to have made it than to violate it when made, because we have now sacrificed many advantages which would have made war safer and easier for us then than now.

For if you had not been hoodwinked then, there would be no anxiety in Athens, because Philip could never, of course, have gained command of the sea and reached Attica with his fleet, nor could he have marched past Thermopylae and Phocis, but either he would have acted fairly and observed the Peace by keeping quiet, or he would have been instantly engaged in a war similar to that which made him so …

Because, I believe, guided in his calculations by ambition and the desire of universal dominion, regardless of the claims of peace and quietness and justice, he rightly saw that to our city and our national character he could offer nothing, he could do nothing, that would tempt you from selfish motives to sacrifice to him any of the other Greek states, but that you, reverencing justice, shrinking …

Then do you not see that Philip’s very titles are utterly irreconcilable with that?

Open of yourselves, you doors, for mighty Wealth will enter in, and with Wealth comes jolly Mirth and gentle Peace.

Rather, O blessed one, give you me boldness to abide within the harmless laws of peace, avoiding strife and hatred and the violent fiends of death.

And yet our allies have been only too zealous in advising you that you must give up Messene and make peace.

and, besides all that, they threaten that if we do not comply with these terms, they will make a separate peace.

And yet those who wish to be free ought to shun a peace whose terms are dictated by the enemy as being not far removed from slavery, and should make treaties only when they have defeated their adversaries, or when they have made their forces equal to those of the enemy;

But now I am addressing myself to you, not with the wish that I may prejudice you in the eyes of others, but with the desire that I may cause you to make an end of such a policy and that Athens and the rest of the Hellenes may form a lasting peace.

But I think we should not go forth from this assembly, having merely adopted resolutions in favor of the peace, without also taking counsel how we shall keep it, and not do what we are in the habit of doing—namely, getting ourselves involved again in the same disorders after a short interval of time —and how we shall devise, not merely a postponement, but some means of permanent deliverance from our present ills.

for the former put into our minds the expectation both of regaining our possessions in the several states and of recovering the power which we formerly enjoyed, while the latter hold forth no such hope, insisting rather that we must have peace and not crave great possessions contrary to justice, but be content with those we have —and that for the great majority of mankind is of all things the most difficult.

But these undivided goods, peace and liberty, belong whole both to all and to each one.

But just as a man judges that he owes more to Neptune, out of those who have enjoyed the same calm, who has carried more and more precious cargo over that sea — the vow is paid more spiritedly by the merchant than by the passenger, and of the merchants themselves he is more lavishly grateful who carried perfumes and purple and things to be weighed against gold than he who had heaped up the cheapes …

For there are many of these men in the toga to whom peace is more laborious than war.