17
All this is a necessary provision against Philip’s sudden raids from Macedonia against Thermopylae, the Chersonese, Olynthus, or where he will. You must present to his mind the consideration that you may possibly shake off your excessive apathy and strike out as you did at Euboea, and before that, as we are told, at Haliartus, and quite recently at Thermopylae.The Athenians sent a force to Euboea in 357 (cf. Dem. 1.8). They helped the Thebans to defeat Lysander at Haliartus in Boeotia in 395. In 352, when Philip tried to march from Thessaly against Phocis, he was checked by the dispatch of an Athenian fleet to Thermopylae.
18
That, even if you should not act as I, personally, think you ought, is not an altogether trivial matter; for its purpose is that he may either hold his hand through fear, knowing that you are on the alert—he will know it sure enough, for there are some on our side, yes, too many, who report everything to him—or that he may overlook it and so be taken off his guard, provided there is nothing to hinder you from sailing against his country, if he gives you the chance.
