[63]
Perhaps you wonder why
the people of Olynthus and
Eretria and Oreus were more
favorably inclined to Philip's advocates than to their own. The explanation is
the same as at Athens, that the
patriots, however much they desire it, cannot sometimes say anything agreeable,
for they are obliged to consider the safety of the state; but the others by
their very efforts to be agreeable are playing into Philip's hands. The patriots
demanded a war-subsidy, the others denied its necessity; the patriots bade them
fight on and mistrust Philip, the others bade them keep the peace, until they
fell into the snare.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.
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