state and the treasury, was answerable to no one and able to respond to any situation
with efficiency, singlemindedness and speed. But more than this, Demosthenes
believed that he was living in a period of national decline when the communal spirit
and civic pride that had sustained Athens in the period of her greatness had been
gravely undermined.
Your predecessors had no flattery from speakers, and no love from them, as you
do. But for forty-five years [between the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars] they
were the accepted leaders of the Greek states. They amassed over ten thousand
talents on the Acropolis. The king of this district of Thrace was their subordinate,
and stood in the right relation for a non-Greek to a Greek state. Many and great
were the victories they won by land and sea as citizen fighters, and they were alone
of mankind in leaving by their achievements a reputation high above carping envy.
Such they proved in the sphere of Hellenic affairs. Look now at the character they
bore in our city itself, in public and private relations alike. In the first the architectural
beauty they created in sacred buildings and their adornment was of a quality and
an extent unsurpassable by later generations. Their private lives were of such
restraint, and so well in keeping with the character of the community, that if the
type of house lived in by Aristides or Militiades or any of the great men of that day
is known nowadays, it can be seen to be no grander than neighbours. No one then
made capital out of public affairs. It was felt that the community should be the
gainer. But their integrity in the conduct of Hellenic affairs, their devotion in that of
religion, their equity in that of private concerns, gained them the highest happiness.
So stood the state in the past under the leaders I have mentioned. What is the
position now under our present splendid administrators? Is there any similarity, any
comparison with the past? I cut short the long list of instances. You can all see the
degree of helplessness to which we have come. Sparta is finished. Thebes is fully
occupied. No other state is strong enough to bid for the supremacy. We could
retain our position in safety and hold the scales of justice for the Hellenic world.
And yet we have lost territory of our own, we have spent over fifteen hundred
talents to no purpose, the allies we made in the war have brought us down in the
peace, and we have brought an adversary of such magnitude on the stage against
us. I invite any man present to tell me here and now, what other source there is of
Philip’s power than ourselves. ‘Well,’ I am told, ‘that may be very unfortunate, but
at home, at least, we are better off’ What is the evidence of this? Plaster on the
battlements; new streets, water supplies. These are trivialities. Turn your eyes on
the pursuers of these political ends. They have risen from beggary to riches, from
obscurity to prominence, and in some cases have houses which outshine public
buildings themselves, while their consequence rises with the decline of the nation.
(Olynthiac,3, 23)HISTORY 77