[24]
On an earlier occasion,
when Perdiccas,1 who was king of Macedonia at the time of the Persian
invasions, destroyed the barbarians who were retreating after their defeat at
Plataea and so completed the
discomfiture of the Great King, they did not vote him the citizenship, but only
gave him immunity from taxes; because, I presume, they regarded their own
country as great, glorious, and venerable, and as something greater than any
service rendered. But now, Athenians, you make citizens of the scum of mankind,
menial sons of menial fathers, charging a price for it as for any other
commodity.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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