On the Crown (86-90)

Therefore, up to the date of those transactions it is shown by common consent that my conduct was entirely beneficial to the commonwealth. The proofs are, that my speeches and motions were successful at your deliberations; that my resolutions were carried into effect; that thereby decorations came to the city and to all of you as well as to me; and that for these successes you thanked the gods with sacrifices and processions.

When Philip was driven out of Euboea by your arms, and also,—though these men choke themselves with their denials,—by my policy and my decrees, he cast about for a second plan of attack against Athens; and observing that we consume more imported corn than any other nation, he proposed to get control of the carrying trade in corn. He advanced towards Thrace, and the first thing he did was to claim the help of the Byzantines as his allies in the war against you. When they refused, declaring with entire truth that the terms of alliance included no such obligation, he set up a stockade against their city, planted artillery, and began a siege.

I will not further ask what was your proper course in those circumstances,—the answer is too obvious. But who sent reinforcements to the Byzantines and delivered them? Who prevented the estrangement of the Hellespont at that crisis? You, men of Athens; and when I say you, I mean the whole city. Who advised the city, moved the resolutions, took action, devoted himself wholeheartedly and without stint to that business?

I did; and I need not argue how profitable my policy was, for you know it by experience. The war in which we then engaged, apart from the renown it brought to you, made all the necessaries of life more abundant and cheaper than the peace we now enjoy, the peace which these worthies cherish to the disadvantage of the city, in view of future expectations! May those expectations fail! May they share only the blessings for which you men of honest intent supplicate the gods! And may they never bestow upon you any share in the principles they have chosen! Now read of the crowns of the Byzantines and of the Perinthians, conferred by them upon the city for these services.

(The Decree of the Byzantines is read)

In the recordership of Bosporichus, Damagetus proposed in the Assembly, with the sanction of the Council, that, whereas the Athenian People in former times have been constant friends of the Byzantines and of their allies and kinsmen the Perinthians, and have conferred many great services upon them, and recently, when Philip of Macedon attacked their land and city to exterminate the Byzantines and Perinthians, burning and devastating the land, they came to our aid with a hundred and twenty ships and provisions and arms and infantry, and extricated us from great dangers, and restored our original constitution and our laws and our sepulchres,