{297} Of this shameful and notorious conspiracy and wickedness--or rather
(to speak with all earnestness, men of Athens), of this treason against
the freedom of the Hellenes--Athens has been guiltless in the eyes of all
men, in consequence of my statesmanship, as I have been guiltless in your
eyes. And do you then ask me for what merits I count myself worthy to
receive honour? I tell you that at a time when every politician in Hellas
had been corrupted--beginning with yourself--[firstly by Philip, and now
by Alexander], {298} no opportunity that offered, no generous language, no
grand promises, no hopes, no fears, nor any other motive, tempted or
induced me to betray one jot of what I believed to be the rights and
interests of the city; nor, of all the counsel that I have given to my
fellow countrymen, up to this day, has any ever been given (as it has by
you) with the scales of the mind inclining to the side of gain, but all
out of an upright, honest, uncorrupted soul. I have taken the lead in
greater affairs than any man of my own time, and my administration has
been sound and honest throughout all. {299} That is why I count myself
worthy of honour. But as for the fortifications and entrenchments, for
which you ridiculed me, I judge them to be deserving, indeed, of gratitude
and commendation--assuredly they are so--but I set them far below my own
political services. Not with stones, nor with bricks, did I fortify this
city. Not such are the works upon which I pride myself most. But would you
inquire honestly wherein my fortifications consist? You will find them in
munitions of war, in cities, in countries, in harbours, in ships, in
horses, and in men ready to defend my fellow countrymen. {300} These are
the defences I have set to protect Attica, so far as by human calculation
it could be done; and with these I have fortified our whole territory--not
the circuit of the Peiraeus or of the city alone. Nor in fact, did _I
_prove inferior to Philip in calculations--far from it!--or in
preparations for war; but the generals of the confederacy,[n] and their
forces, proved inferior to him in fortune. Where are the proofs of these
things? They are clear and manifest. I bid you consider them.

{301} What was the duty of a loyal citizen--one who was acting with all
forethought and zeal and uprightness for his country's good? Was it not to
make Euboea the bulwark of Attica on the side of the sea, and Boeotia on
that of the mainland, and on that of the regions towards the Peloponnese,
our neighbours[n] in that direction? Was it not to provide for the corn-
trade, and to ensure that it should pass along a continuously friendly
coast all the way to the Peiraeus? {302} Was it not to preserve the places
which were ours--Proconnesus, the Chersonese, Tenedos--by dispatching
expeditions to aid them, and proposing and moving resolutions accordingly;
and to secure the friendship and alliance of the rest--Byzantium,
Tenedos, Euboea? Was it not to take away the greatest of the resources
which the enemy possessed, and to add what was lacking to those of the
city? {303} All this has been accomplished by my decrees and by the
measures which I have taken; and all these measures, men of Athens, will
be found by any one who will examine them without jealousy, to have been
correctly planned, and executed with entire honesty: the opportunity for
each step was not, you will find, neglected or left unrecognized or thrown
away by me, and nothing was left undone, which it was within the power and
the reasoning capacity of a single man to effect. But if the might of some
Divine Power, or the inferiority of our generals, or the wickedness of
those who were betraying your cities, or all these things together,
continuously injured our whole cause, until they effected its overthrow,
how is Demosthenes at fault? {304} Had there been in each of the cities of
Hellas one man, such as I was, as I stood at my own post in your midst--
nay, if all Thessaly and all Arcadia had each had but one man animated by
the same spirit as myself--not one Hellenic people, either beyond or on
this side of Thermopylae, would have experienced the evils which they now
suffer. {305} All would have been dwelling in liberty and independence,
free from all fears, secure and prosperous, each in their own land,
rendering thanks for all these great blessings to you and the rest of the
Athenian people, through me. But that you may know that in my anxiety to
avoid jealousy, I am using language which is far from adequate to the