On The Chersonese   

want to bring about war. {58} That is the real point of these allegations
of responsibility. But this I know beyond all doubt--that without waiting
for any one in Athens to propose the declaration of war, Philip has not
only taken many other possessions of ours, but has just now sent an
expedition to Cardia. If, in spite of this, we wish to pretend that he is
not making war on us, he would be the most senseless man living, were he
to attempt to convince us of our error. {59} But what shall we say, when
his attack is made directly upon ourselves? He of course will say that he
is not at war with us--just as he was not at war with Oreus,[n] when his
soldiers were in the land; nor with the Pheraeans,[n] before that, when he
was assaulting their walls; nor with the Olynthians, first of all, until
he and his army were actually within their territory. Or shall we still
say that those who urge resistance are bringing about war? If so, all that
is left to us is slavery. If we may neither offer resistance, nor yet be
suffered to remain at peace, no other compromise[n] is possible. {60} And
further, the issues at stake are not for you merely what they are for
other states. What Philip desires is not your subjection, but your utter
annihilation. For he knows full well that you will never consent to be his
slaves, and that even if you were willing, you would not know the way,
accustomed as you are to govern; and he knows that you will be able to
give him more trouble, if you get the opportunity, than all the rest of
the world. {61} The struggle, then, is a struggle for existence; and as
such you ought to think of it: and you should show your abhorrence of
those who have sold themselves to Philip by beating them to death. For it
is impossible, utterly impossible, to master your enemies outside the
city, before you punish your enemies in the city itself. {62} Whence comes
it, think you, that he is insulting us now (for his conduct seems to me to
be nothing less than this), and that while he at least deceives all other
peoples by doing them favours, he is using threats against you without
more ado? For instance, he enticed the Thessalians by large gifts into
their present servitude; and words cannot describe how greatly he deceived
the Olynthians at first by the gift of Poteidaea and much beside. {63} At
this moment he is alluring the Thebans, by delivering up Boeotia to them,
and ridding them of a long and arduous campaign. Each of these peoples has
first reaped some advantage, before falling into those calamities which
some of them have already suffered, as all the world knows, and some are
destined to suffer whenever their time comes. But as for yourselves, to
pass over all that you have been robbed of at an earlier period,[n] what
deception, what robbery have been practised upon you in the very act of
making the Peace! {64} Have not the Phocians, and Thermopylae, and the
Thracian seaboard--Doriscus, Serrhium, Cersobleptes himself--been taken
from you? Does not Philip at this moment occupy the city of the Cardians,
and avow it openly? Why is it then, that he behaves as he does to all
others, and so differently to you? Because yours is the one city in the
world where men are permitted to speak on behalf of the enemy without
fear; because here a man may take bribes, and still address you with
impunity, even when you have been robbed of your own. In Olynthus it was
only safe to take Philip's side when the people of Olynthus as a whole had
shared Philip's favours, and was enjoying the possession of Poteidaea.
{65} In Thessaly it was only safe to take Philip's side when the
Thessalian commons had shared Philip's favours; for he had expelled the
tyrants for them, and restored to them their Amphictyonic position. In
Thebes it was not safe, until he had restored Boeotia to Thebes and
annihilated the Phocians. {66} But at Athens--though Philip has not only
robbed you of Amphipolis and the territory of the Cardians, but has turned
Euboea into a fortress overlooking your country, and is now on his way to
attack Byzantium--at Athens it _is_ safe to speak in Philip's interest.
Aye, and you know that, of such speakers, some who were poor are rapidly
growing rich; and some who were without name or fame are becoming famous
and distinguished, while you, on the other hand, are becoming inglorious
instead of famous, bankrupt instead of wealthy. For a city's wealth
consists, I imagine, in allies, confidence, loyalty--and of all these you
are bankrupt. {67} And because you are indifferent to these advantages,
and let them drift away from you, he has become prosperous and powerful,