20
Now I want you, Athenians, to consider the possibilities of the case, and see how you can both serve and receive your pay. Surely it is not like men of sense and spirit to shirk your military duty because the pay is not forthcoming, thinking lightly of the shame of it all; or to snatch up arms and march against Corinth or Megara,Generally explained of the attacks on Corinth in 458 and on Megara in 431 (Thuc. 1.105;Thuc. 2.31); but probably the reference is to some later and obscurer events. but to let Philip enslave Greek cities, because you are short of rations for a campaign.
21
I am not talking for the idle purpose of quarrelling with anyone here. I am not such a misguided fool as to pick a quarrel deliberately when I see no advantage from it. But I consider it right as a citizen to set the welfare of the state above the popularity of an orator. Indeed I am given to understand—and so perhaps are you—that the orators of past generations, always praised but not always imitated by those who address you, adopted this very standard and principle of statesmanship. I refer to the famous Aristides, to Nicias, to my own namesake,Demosthenes, the general, who perished with Nicias in the Sicilian expedition. He is not elsewhere described as an orator. and to Pericles.
