Chalcis[n] or Megara, just as he lately came to Oreus? Is it better to
resist him here, and to allow the war to come into Attica, or to provide
something to keep him busy there? The latter course is surely the better.

{19} Realizing these things, therefore, as you all must, and taking due
account of them, you must not, Heaven knows, look askance at the force
which Diopeithes is trying to provide for Athens, or attempt to disband
it. You must yourselves prepare another force to support it: you must help
him freely with money, and give him in all other respects your loyal
co-operation. {20} If Philip were asked to say whether he would wish these
soldiers who are now with Diopeithes--describe them as you will, for I in
no way dispute your description--to be prosperous and in high favour with
the Athenians, and to be augmented in numbers by the co-operation of the
city; or whether he would rather see them broken up and destroyed in
consequence of calumnious charges against them; he would prefer, I
imagine, the latter alternative. Can it then be, that there are men among
us here who are trying to bring about the very thing that Philip would
pray Heaven for? And if so, do you need to seek any further for the cause
of the total ruin of the city's fortunes?

{21} I wish, therefore, to examine without reserve the present crisis of
our affairs, to inquire what we ourselves are now doing, and how we are
dealing with it. We do not wish to contribute funds, nor to serve with the
forces in person; we cannot keep our hands from the public revenues;[n] we
do not give the contributions of the allies[n] to Diopeithes, nor do we
approve of such supplies as he raises for himself; {22} but we look
malignantly at him, we ask whence he gets them, what he intends to do, and
every possible question of that kind: and yet we are still not willing to
confine ourselves to our own affairs, in consequence of the attitude which
we have adopted; we still praise with our lips those who uphold the
dignity of the city, though in our acts we are fighting on the side of
their opponents. {23} Now whenever any one rises to speak, you always put
to him the question 'What are we to do?' I wish to put to _you_ the
question, 'What are we to _say_?' For if you will neither contribute, nor
serve in person, nor leave the public funds alone, nor grant him the
contributions, nor let him get what he can for himself, nor yet confine
yourselves to your own affairs, I do not know what I can say. For when you
give such licence to those who desire to make charges and accusations,
that you listen to them even when they denounce him by anticipation for
his alleged intentions--well, what _can_ one say?

{24} The possible effect of this is a matter which some of you require to
understand, and I will speak without reserve; for indeed I could not speak
otherwise. All the commanders who have ever yet sailed from Athens--if I
am wrong, I consent to any penalty that you please[n]--take money from the
Chians, from the Erythraeans,[n] from any people from whom they can
severally get it--I mean, any of the Asiatic settlers who are now in
question. {25} Those who have one or two ships take less, those who have a
larger force take more. And those who give to them do not give either
little or much for nothing; they are not so insane: in fact, with these
sums they buy immunity from injury for the merchants who sail from their
ports, freedom from piracy, the convoying of their vessels, and so on.
They call the gifts 'benevolences',[n] and that is the name given to the
sums thus obtained. {26} And in the present case, when Diopeithes is there
with his army, it is obvious that all these peoples will give him money.
From what other source do you imagine that a general can maintain his
troops, when he has received nothing from you, and has no resources from
which he can pay his men? Will money drop from the sky? Of course not. He
subsists upon what he can collect or beg or borrow. {27} The real effect,
therefore, of the accusations made against him here, is simply to warn
every one that they should refuse to give him anything, since he is to pay
the penalty for his very intentions, not to speak of any action that he
may have taken or any success that he may have achieved. That is the only
meaning of the cry that 'he is preparing a blockade', or 'he is