On The Crown   

like these is ever present to wise men. Lasthenes[n] was called his
'friend'; but only until he had betrayed Olynthus. And Timolaus;[n] but
only until he had destroyed Thebes. And Eudicus and Simus[n] of Larissa;
but only until they had put Thessaly in Philip's power. And now,
persecuted as they are, and insulted, and subjected to every kind of
misery, the whole inhabited world has become filled with such men. And
what of Aristratus[n] at Sicyon? what of Perillus[n] at Megara? Are they
not outcasts? {49} From these instances one can see very clearly, that it
is he who best protects his own country and speaks most constantly against
such men, that secures for traitors and hirelings like yourselves,
Aeschines, the continuance of your opportunities for taking bribes. It is
the majority of those who are here, those who resist your will, that you
must thank for the fact that you live and draw your pay; for, left to
yourselves, you would long ago have perished.

{50} There is still much that I might say about the transactions of that
time, but I think that even what I have said is more than enough. The
blame rests with Aeschines, who has drenched me with the stale dregs[n] of
his own villainy and crime, from which I was compelled to clear myself in
the eyes of those who are too young to remember the events; though perhaps
you who knew, even before I said a single word, of Aeschines' service as a
hireling, may have felt some annoyance as you listened. {51} He calls it,
forsooth, 'friendship' and 'guest-friendship'; and somewhere in his speech
just now he used the expression, 'the man who casts in my teeth my guest-
friendship with Alexander.' _I_ cast in your teeth your guest-friendship
with Alexander? How did you acquire it? How came you to be thought worthy
of it? Never would I call you the guest-friend of Philip or the friend of
Alexander--I am not so insane--unless you are to call harvesters and other
hired servants the friends and guest-friends of those who have hired them.
[But that is not the case, of course. Far from it!] {52} Nay, I call you
the hireling, formerly of Philip, and now of Alexander, and so do all who
are present. If you disbelieve me, ask them--or rather I will ask them for
you. Men of Athens, do you think of Aeschines as the hireling or as the
guest-friend of Alexander? You hear what they say.

{53} I now wish, without more delay, to make my defence upon the
indictment itself, and to go through my past acts, in order that Aeschines
may hear (though he knows them well) the grounds on which I claim to have
a right both to the gifts which the Council have proposed, and even to far
greater than these. (_To the clerk_.) Now take the indictment and read it.

{54, 55} [The indictment is read.]

{56} These, men of Athens, are the points in the resolution which the
prosecutor assails; and these very points will, I think, afford me my
first means of proving to you that the defence which I am about to offer
is an absolutely fair one. For I will take the points of the indictment in
the very same order as the prosecutor: I will speak of each in succession,
and will knowingly pass over nothing. {57} Any decision upon the statement
that I 'consistently do and say what is best for the People, and am eager
to do whatever good I can', and upon the proposal to vote me thanks for
this, depends, I consider, upon my past political career: for it is by an
investigation of my career that either the truth and the propriety, or
else the falsehood, of these statements which Ctesiphon has made about me
will be discovered. {58} Again, the proposal to crown me, without the
addition of the clause 'when he has submitted to his examination', and the
order to proclaim the award of the crown in the theatre, must, I imagine,
stand or fall with my political career; for the question is whether I
deserve the crown and the proclamation before my fellow countrymen or not.
At the same time I consider myself further bound to point out to you the
laws under which the defendant's proposal could be made. In this honest
and straightforward manner, men of Athens, I have determined to make my
defence; and now I will proceed to speak of my past actions themselves.
{59} And let no one imagine that I am detaching my argument from its