Was it not for lack of money, nay, for lack of five talents, that the mercenaries failed to deliver up the citadel to the Thebans?1 And when all the Arcadians were mobilized and their leaders were ready to bring aid, did not the negotiations fail for want of nine talents of silver?2 But you are a rich man, you serve as choregus3—to your own lusts. In a word, the king's gold stays with Demosthenes, the dangers, fellow citizens, with you.
1 After Thebes revolted from Alexander, her citadel was still held by a garrison of his mercenaries.
2 This accusation is elaborated in Deinarchus' speech against Demosthenes （Dein. 1.18-21）. He says that the Arcadians came up as far as the Isthmus, and that their general offered their services for ten talents, but that Demosthenes refused to furnish the money to the Thebans, who were conducting the negotiations, and so the Arcadian general sold out to the Macedonians and led his troops home.
3 The rich Athenian took his turn in serving the city as choregus, contributing to meet the expenses of some state festival. Demosthenes, too, is a rich man of the choregus class, but all his contributions are to serve his own lusts.
Aeschines. Aeschines with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.
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