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On the other hand when was their achievement despicable and unworthy of their spirit? When Timolaus,The three men mentioned in this sentence were Theban generals at the battle of Chaeronea. the friend of Demosthenes, was corrupted and took bribes from Philip, when the traitor Proxenus commanded the mercenaries enlisted at Amphissa and Theagenes was placed in command of the phalanx, a man of ill luck and, like the defendant here, open to bribes. Then, because of the three men whom I have mentioned, the whole city was destroyed and blotted from the face of Greece. Far from being false it is only too true that leaders are responsible for all the citizens' good fortunes and for the reverse.
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Think again, this time of Athens, with the same points in mind. Our city was great, renowned in Greece, and worthy of our forbears, apart from the well-known exploits of the past, at the time when Conon triumphed, as our elders tell us, in the naval battle at Cnidus; when Iphicrates destroyed the Spartan company, when Chabrias defeated the Spartan triremes at sea off Naxos, when Timotheus won the sea battle off Corcyra.For the exploits of Conon and Timotheus compare Din. 1.14 and note. In 391 B.C. the Athenian general Iphicrates, on going to the relief of Corinth, surprised and almost annihilated a Spartan company. The defeat of the Spartan fleet by Chabrias took place in 376 and won supremacy in the Aegean for Athens for over fifty years (Xen. Hell. 5.4.61; Dem. 20.77).
