9
I have, to bear me out, the burial of a thousand AtheniansIt is said that after Chaeronea in 338 B.C. Philip was insulting his prisoners, until Demades, by his frank speech, won him over to a better attitude towards Athens. Cf. Dio. Sic. 16.87. performed by the hands of our adversaries, hands which I won over from enmity to friendship towards the dead. Then, on coming to the fore in public life, I proposed the peace. I admit it. I proposed honors to Philip. I do not deny it. By making these proposals I gained for you two thousand captives free of ransom, a thousand Athenian dead, for whom no herald had to ask, and Oropus without an embassy.
10
The hand that wrote them was constrained, not by Macedonian gifts, as my accusers falsely allege, but by the need of the moment, the interest of my country, and the generosity of the king. For he entered the war as our foe but emerged from the struggle as a friend, awarding to the vanquished the prize of the victors.
11
Again, there came a second crisis for the city; for I deliberately ignore the intervening dangers. All other inhabitants of Greece were promoting Alexander to the rank of leader, and by remoulding him in their decrees they raised the aspirations of a young and ambitious man to an excessive pitch. We and the Spartans remained, with neither revenues nor armaments nor regiments of infantry to be the bulwark of our safety, yet fortified by a great desire, though our power was small and humble.
