Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/363

 THIRD OLYNTHIAC. 337 " The talk which I hear about punishing Philip (says Demos- thenes, in substance) is founded on a false basis. The real facts of the case teach us a very different lesson. 1 They bid us look well to our own security, that we be not ourselves the sufferers, and that we preserve our allies. There was indeed a time and that too within my remembrance not long ago when we might have held our own and punished Philip besides ; but now, our first care must be to preserve our own allies. After we have made this sure, then it will be time to think of punishing others. The present juncture calls for anxious deliberation. Do not again commit the same error as you committed three years ago. When Philip was besieging Herceum in Thrace, you passed an energetic decree to send an expedition against him : presently came reports that he was sick, and that he was dead : this good news made you fancy that the expedition was unnecessary, and you let it drop. If you had executed promptly what you resolved, Philip would have been put down then, and would have given you no further trouble. 2 " Those matters indeed are past, and cannot be mended. But I advert to them now, because the present war-crisis is very sim- ilar, and I trust you will not make the like mistake again. If you do not send aid to Olynthus with all your force and means, you will play Philip's game for him now, exactly as you did then. You have been long anxious and working to get the Olynthians into war with Philip. This has now happened : what choice re- mains, except to aid them heartily and vigorously ? You will be covered with shame, if you do not. But this is not all. Your own security at home requires it of you also ; for there is noth- ing to hinder Philip, if he conquers Olynthus, from invading At- tica. The Phokians are exhausted in funds and the Thebans are your enemies. oovvraf. T^E-yuv KaTETrZrjffaev (Perikles) ele rb tyopda-dai K.al uAoywf fiVTiKa&iaTri TTu7.iv knl TO dapaeiv. Compare the Argument of the third Olynthiac by Libanius. 1 Demosth. Olynth. iii. p. 28, 29. Toi>f p.lv yap Myovf irepi TOV ffacdat $tt.7itmrov dpa yt-yvo/j.evovc, ra 6s Trpu.yfj.aTa etc TOVTO UITTE OTTW? fj.r) TrEiadjj.e&a avTOi TtpoTepov KdKtif CKeifjaadai dsov. ..... roCi?' iKavbv irpo^afteiv r]filv elvat T%V TTOUTIJV, OTrwf rodf fUdOfJLEV. 2 Demosth. Olynth. iii. p. 30. VOL. xi. 29