On The Crown   

'Tis God's alone from failure free to live;[n]
Escape from Fate to no man doth He give.

{290} Do you hear, Aeschines [in these very lines], 'Tis God's alone from
failure free to live'? Not to the statesman has he ascribed the power to
secure success for those who strive, but to the gods. Why then, accursed
man, do you revile _me_, for our failure, in words which I pray the gods
to turn upon the heads of you and yours?

{291} But, even after all the other lying accusations which he has brought
against me, the thing which amazed me most of all, men of Athens, was that
when he mentioned what had befallen the city, he did not think of it as a
loyal and upright citizen would have thought. He shed no tears; he felt no
emotion of sorrow in his heart: he lifted up his voice, he exulted, he
strained his throat, evidently in the belief that he was accusing me,
though in truth he was giving us an illustration, to his own discredit, of
the utter difference between his feelings and those of others, at the
painful events which had taken place. {292} But surely one who professes,
as Aeschines professes now, to care for the laws and the constitution,
ought to show, if nothing else, at least that he feels the same griefs and
the same joys as the People, and has not, by his political profession,
ranged himself on the side of their opponents. That you have done the
latter is manifest today, when you pretend that the blame for everything
is mine, and that it is through me that the city was plunged in trouble:
though it was not through my statesmanship or my policy, gentlemen, {293}
that you began to help the Hellenes: for were you to grant me this--that
it was through me that you had resisted the dominion which was being
established over the Hellenes--you would have granted me a testimonial
which all those that you have given to others together could not equal.
But neither would I make such an assertion; for it would be unjust to you;
nor, I am sure, would you concede its truth: and if Aeschines were acting
honestly, he would not have been trying to deface and misrepresent the
greatest of your glories, in order to satisfy his hatred towards me.

{294} But why do I rebuke him for this, when he has made other lying
charges against me, which are more outrageous by far? For when a man
charges me--I call Heaven and Earth to witness!--with philippizing, what
will he not say? By Heracles and all the gods, if one had to inquire
truthfully, setting aside all calumny and all expression of animosity, who
are in reality the men upon whose heads all would naturally and justly lay
the blame for what has taken place, you would find that it was those in
each city who resemble Aeschines, not those who resemble me. {295} For
they, when Philip's power was weak and quite insignificant--when we
repeatedly warned and exhorted you and showed you what was best--they, to
satisfy their own avarice, sacrificed the interests of the community, each
group deceiving and corrupting their own fellow citizens, until they
brought them into bondage. Thus the Thessalians were treated by Daochus,
Cineas, and Thrasydaeus; the Arcadians by Cercidas, Hieronymus and
Eucampidas; the Argives by Myrtis, Teledamus, and Mnaseas; the Eleans by
Euxitheus, Cleotimus and Aristaechmus; the Messenians by the sons of the
godforsaken Philiadas--Neon and Thrasylochus; the Sicymians by Aristratus
and Epichares; the Corinthians by Deinarchus and Demaretus; the Megareans
by Ptoeodorus, Helixus and Perillus; the Thebans by Timolaus, Theogeiton,
and Anemoetas; the Euboeans by Hipparchus and Sosistratus. {296} Daylight
will fail me before the list of the traitors is complete. All these, men
of Athens, are men who pursue the same designs in their own cities, as my
opponents pursue among you--abominable men, flatterers, evil spirits, who
have hacked the limbs each of his own fatherland, and like boon companions
have pledged away their freedom, first to Philip and now to Alexander; men
whose measure of happiness is their belly, and their lowest instincts;
while as for freedom, and the refusal to acknowledge any man as lord--the
standard and rule of good to the Hellenes of old--they have flung it to
the ground.