[21]
For, if it belongs to the original
conquerors, have not we a right to hold it? It was my ancestor, Alexander,1 who first
occupied the site, and, as the first-fruits of the Persian captives taken there,
set up a golden statue at Delphi. Or
if anyone disputes this and claims it for its later owners, here again the right
is mine, because I besieged and captured the city, after its inhabitants had
expelled you and accepted the Lacedaemonians as their founders.2
1 Readers of Herodotus will remember Alexander, who after Salamis tried to tempt the Athenians to desert the Greek cause （Hdt. 8.140）, but made amends by revealing to them the decision of the Persians before Plataea （Hdt. 9.44）; and also the statue erected at Delphi from the plunder of Salamis （Hdt. 8.121）. But Amphipolis was not in existence at the time, nor were the Persians in their retreat attacked by Macedonians but by Thracians （Hdt. 9.89）. Perhaps the Macedonians had their own history of the Persian invasion.
2 Brasidas, after his death in 422, was worshipped at Amphipolis as hero and founder in place of Hagnon （Thuc. 5.11）.
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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