[3]
After some time had elapsed
Apollodorus was chosen by lot as a member of the senate; and when he had passed
the scrutiny and had sworn the customary oath, there came upon the city a
war1 and a crisis so
grave that, if victors, you would be supreme among the Greek peoples, and would
beyond possibility of dispute have recovered your own possessions and have
crushed Philip in war; but, if your help arrived too late and you abandoned your
allies,2 allowing your army to be
disbanded for want of money, you would lose these allies, forfeit the confidence
of the rest of the Greeks, and risk the loss of your other possessions,
Lemnos and Imbros, and Scyros and
the Chersonese.3
1 Due to Philip's aggressive actions in the Chersonese in 343-340 B.C.
2 That is, especially Byzantium and the states in the Chersonese and in Thrace.
3 Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, all islands in the Aegean. The Chersonese was the peninsula of Gallipoli.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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