[9]
Then again
he says that he has sent envoys to arrange with you an inter-state legal
compact, and that this compact will be valid, not as soon as it is ratified by
the body of Athenian jurors, as the law directs, but only after it has been
referred to him, thus constituting himself a court of appeal from your
decision.1 His object,
of course, is to steal a march on you, and to insert in the compact an admission
on your part that none of the wrongs committed at Potidaea are charged against him by you as the injured party,
but that you confirm his seizure and retention of that city as lawful.
1 Agreements between two Greek states, laying down the conditions under which their nationals might mutually obtain legal redress, were calledσύμβολα. The cases were tried in the courts of the defendant's state. The terms of the compact with Macedonia were to be ratified by the heliastic court of Athens, but Philip claimed the right of final ratification. Others explain it to mean that Philip demanded that the verdicts of the Athenian juries in cases under this pact （δίκαι ἀπὸ συμβόλων） should be confirmed by him.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.
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