[320]
I take it he was perfectly well aware that now, with Thessaly at variance with him—the
Pheraeans, for example, refusing to join his following—with the
Thebans getting the worst of the war, defeated in an engagement, and a trophy
erected at their expense, he would be unable to force the passage if you sent
troops to Thermopylae, and that
he could not even make the attempt without serious loss unless he should also
resort to some trickery. “How, then,” he thought,
“shall I escape open falsehood, and attain all my objects without
incurring the charge of perjury? Only if I can find Athenians to hood-wink the
Athenian people, for then I shall have no share in the ensuing
dishonor.”
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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