should terminate your intestine strife and jealousies, warn you to turn
against him, and remove the pretexts of his hirelings for asserting, to
amuse you, that he makes no war upon Athens. O heavens! would any
rational being judge by words rather than by actions, who is at peace
with him and who at war? Surely none. Well then; Philip immediately
after the peace, before Diopithes was in command or the settlers in the
Chersonese had been sent out, took Serrium and Doriscus, and expelled
from Serrium and the Sacred Mount the troops whom your general had
stationed there. [Footnote: This general was Chares, to whom
Cersobleptes had intrusted the defense of those places. The Sacred Mount
was a fortified position on the northern coast of the Hellespont. It was
here that Miltocythes intrenched himself, when he rebelled against
Cotys; and Philip took possession of it just before the peace with
Athens was concluded, as being important to his operations against
Cersobleptes. The statement of Demosthenes, that the oaths had then been
taken, is, as Jacobs observes, incorrect; for they were sworn afterward
in Thessaly. But the argument is substantially the same, for the peace
had been agreed to, and the ratification was purposely delayed by
Philip, to gain time for the completion of his designs.] What do you
call such conduct? He had sworn the peace. Don't say--what does it
signify? how is the state concerned?--Whether it be a trifling matter,
or of no concernment to you, is a different question: religion and
justice have the same obligation, be the subject of the offense great or
small. Tell me now; when he sends mercenaries into Chersonesus, which
the king and all the Greeks have acknowledged to be yours, when he avows
himself an auxiliary and writes us word so, what are such proceedings?
He says he is not at war; I can not however admit such conduct to be an
observance of the peace; far otherwise: I say, by his attempt on Megara,
[Footnote: Not long before this oration was delivered, Philip was
suspected of a design to seize Megara. Demosthenes gives an account, in
his speech on the Embassy, of a conspiracy between two Megarians,
Ptaeodorus and Perilaus, to introduce Macedonian troops into the city.
Phocion was sent by the Athenians to Megara, with the consent of the
Megarian people, to protect them against foreign attack. He fortified
the city and port, connecting them by long walls, and put them in
security. The occupation of Megara by Philip must have been most
perilous to Athens, especially while Euboea and Thebes were in his
interest; he would thus have inclosed her as it were in a net.] by his
setting up despotism in Euboea, by his present advance into Thrace, by
his intrigues in Peloponnesus, by the whole course of operations with
his army, he has been breaking the peace and making war upon you; unless
indeed you will say, that those who establish batteries are not at war,
until they apply them to the walls. But that you will not say: for
whoever contrives and prepares the means for my conquest, is at war with
me, before he darts or draws the bow. What, if any thing should happen,
is the risk you run? The alienation of the Hellespont, the subjection of
Megara and Euboea to your enemy, the siding of the Peloponnesians with
him. Then can I allow, that one who sets such an engine at work against
Athens is at peace with her? Quite the contrary. From the day that he
destroyed the Phocians I date his commencement of hostilities. Defend
yourselves instantly, and I say you will be wise: delay it, and you may
wish in vain to do so hereafter. So much do I dissent from your other
counselors, men of Athens, that I deem any discussion about Chersonesus
or Byzantium out of place. Succor them--I advise that--watch that no
harm befalls them, send all necessary supplies to your troops in that
quarter; but let your deliberations be for the safety of all Greece, as
being in the utmost peril. I must tell you why I am so alarmed at the
state of our affairs: that, if my reasonings are correct, you may share
them, and make some provision at least for yourselves, however
disinclined to do so for others: but if, in your judgment, I talk
nonsense and absurdity, you may treat me as crazed, and not listen to
me, either now or in future.

That Philip from a mean and humble origin has grown mighty, that the