On The Crown   

me with good reason. But in fact, I am declaring that such principles as
these are your own; I am showing that _before_ my time the city displayed
this spirit, though I claim that I, too, have had some share, as your
servant, in carrying out your policy in detail. {207} But in denouncing
the policy as a whole, in bidding you be harsh with me, as one who has
brought terrors and dangers upon the city, the prosecutor, in his
eagerness to deprive me of my distinction at the present moment, is trying
to rob you of praises that will last throughout all time. For if you
condemn the defendant on the ground that my policy was not for the best,
men will think that your own judgement has been wrong, and that it was not
through the unkindness of fortune that you suffered what befell you. {208}
But it cannot,[n] it cannot be that you were wrong, men of Athens, when
you took upon you the struggle for freedom and deliverance. No! by those
who at Marathon bore the brunt of the peril--our forefathers. No! by those
who at Plataeae drew up their battle-line, by those who at Salamis, by
those who off Artemisium fought the fight at sea, by the many who lie in
the sepulchres where the People laid them, brave men, all alike deemed
worthy by their country, Aeschines, of the same honour and the same
obsequies--not the successful or the victorious alone! And she acted
justly. For all these have done that which it was the duty of brave men to
do; but their fortune has been that which Heaven assigned to each. {209}
Accursed, poring pedant![n] if you, in your anxiety to deprive me of the
honour and the kindness shown to me by my countrymen, recounted trophies
and battles and deeds of long ago--and of which of them did this present
trial demand the mention?--what spirit was I to take upon me, when I
mounted the platform, I who came forward to advise the city how she should
maintain her pre-eminence? Tell me, third-rate actor! The spirit of one
who would propose things unworthy of this people? {210} I should indeed
have deserved to die! For you too, men of Athens, ought not to judge
private suits and public in the same spirit. The business transactions of
everyday life must be viewed in the light of the special law and practice
associated with each; but the public policy of statesmen must be judged by
the principles that your forefathers set before them. And if you believe
that you should act worthily of them, then, whenever you come into court
to try a public suit, each of you must imagine that with his staff[n] and
his ticket there is entrusted to him also the spirit of his country.

{211} But I have entered upon the subject of your forefathers'
achievements, and have passed over certain decrees and transactions. I
desire, therefore, to return to the point from which I digressed.

When we came to Thebes, we found envoys there from Philip, and from the
Thessalians and his other allies--our friends in terror, his full of
confidence. And to show you that I am not saying this now to suit my own
purpose, read the letter which we, your envoys, dispatched without delay.
{212} The prosecutor, however, has exercised the art of misrepresentation
to so extravagant a degree, that he attributes to circumstances, not to
me, any satisfactory result that was achieved; but for everything that
fell out otherwise, he lays the blame upon me and the fortune that attends
me. In his eyes, apparently, I, the counsellor and orator, have no share
in the credit for what was accomplished as the result of oratory and
debate; while I must bear the blame alone for the misfortunes which we
suffered in arms, and as a result of generalship. What more brutal, more
damnable misrepresentation can be conceived? (_To the clerk_.) Read the
letter.

[_The letter is read_.]

{213} When they had convened the Assembly, they gave audience to the other
side first, on the ground that they occupied the position of allies; and
these came forward and delivered harangues full of the praises of Philip
and of accusations against yourselves, recalling everything that you had
ever done in opposition to the Thebans. The sum of it all was that they
required the Thebans to show their gratitude for the benefits which they