Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 1.djvu/266

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS period he computes from the time in which we enjoyed this peace down to that day when he put an end to a treaty that had till then subsisted and himself proposed the decree for war. The third, from the time when hostilities were commenced, down to the fatal battle of Chæronea. The fourth is this present time.

After this particular specification, as I am informed, he means to call on me, and to demand explicitly on which of these four periods I found my prosecution, and at what particular time I object to his administration as inconsistent with the public interest. Should I refuse to answer, should I attempt the least evasion or retreat, he boasts that he will pursue me and tear off my disguise; that he will haul me to the tribunal, and compel me to reply. That I may then at once confound this presumption, and guard you against such artifice, I thus explicitly reply: Before these your judges, before the other citizens spectators of this trial, before all the Greeks who have been solicitous to hear the event of this cause (and of these I see no small number, but rather more than ever yet known to attend on any public trial) I thus reply: I say, that on every one of these four periods which you have thus distinguished is my accusation founded.

You had the fairest opportunity, Athenians! of concluding this first peace in conjunction with