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§ 47-50 You must establish a direct connexion with your troops by sending out citizens among them. At present your generals face death in the law-court more often than in the field (47). Meanwhile we repeat to one another the latest rumours about Philip's intentions (48). Now however ambitious his projects, he is not so mad as to reveal them to the greatest fools in Athens (49). Neglect such tales and bear in mind simply that he is our successful enemy, that our policy has failed, and that we must fight him at once or suffer for it (50). ἀποδείξητε, ‘shew to be,’ here as often means little more than ‘make’; the object is τοὺς αὐτοὺς and the following substantives are predicative. οἴκαδ᾽ ἐλθόντας, ‘after their return,’ with δικαστὰς only. εὐθυνῶν, the regular examination to which Athenian magistrates had to submit at the end of their year of office. Charges brought in connexion with this examination were tried before a heliastic court, which might contain members of the army and would in any case be representative of the whole people. εἰς τοῦθ᾽ ἥκει. Cf. § 9 οἷ προελήλυθ᾽ ἀσελγείας. κρίνεται is usually accompanied by the simple genitive: here περὶ is added to emphasise by repetition the contrast between κρίνεσθαι περὶ θ. and ἀγωνίσασθαι περὶ θ. Cases of such trials are those of Autocles and Cephisodotus (Dem. 23. 104, 153), Callisthenes and Chares (Aeschin. 2. 30, 71) and Leosthenes (Diod. XV. 95).
Demosthenes: Philippics I, II, III with Introduction and Notes. Gilbert A. Davies, M.A. 1949. Cambridge University Press.
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