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[27]
Now those who seem to argue most
fairly demand of the Megalopolitans that they shall destroy the pillars1 that record their treaty with the
Thebans, if they are to be our trusted allies. But they reply that with them
friendship is based, not on inscribed pillars, but on mutual advantage, and they
count as their allies those who are their helpers. But, granting the fairness of
these speakers, my own view is this. I say that we must at the same time call
upon them to destroy the pillars and upon the Lacedaemonians to keep the peace.
If they refuse—whichever of the two it may be—then at once
we side with those who consent.
1 The terms of an alliance were inscribed on a slab or pillar, set up in some public place, and to take down the pillar was symbolically to dissolve the alliance （cf. Dem. 20.37）. The Arcadians are unwilling to risk a complete rupture with the Thebans.
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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