Now not only did we delay all the rest of that month, but it was MunichionThe next month after Elaphebolion. when we set out. As witness of this I will present the senate, for there is a decree of theirs which commands the ambassadors to set out in order to receive the oaths. Please read the decree of the senate.

Now read also the date of the decree.

You hear that the decree was passed on the third of Munichion. How many days before I set out was it that Cersobleptes lost his kingdom? According to Chares the general it occurred the month before—that is, if Elaphebolion is the month next before Munichion! Was it, then, in my power to save Cersobleptes, who was lost before I set out from home? And now do you imagine that there is one word of truth in his account of what was done in Macedonia or of what was done in Thessaly, when he gives the lie to the senate-house and the public archives, and falsifies the date and the meetings of the assembly?

and is it true, Demosthenes, that you at Athens tried to exclude Cersobleptes from the treaty, but pitied him when you got to Oreus? And do you today accuse me of having taken bribes, you who were once fined by the Senate of the Areopagus for not prosecuting your suit for assault, that time when you indicted your cousin Demomeles of Paeania for the cut on your head that you gave yourself with your own hand?The reference is to a family quarrel which grew out of the suit of the young Demosthenes against his guardian. And do you put on airs before these jurymen, as though they did not know that you are the bastard son of Demosthenes the cutler?A bastard in the sense that his mother was of a Scythian family, and so debarred from legitimate Athenian wedlock. See on Aeschin. 2.22.

But you undertook to say that I at first refused to serve on the embassy to the Amphictyons,The embassy was strictly to Philip, but as it was to deal largely with Amphictyonic business in the hands of Philip and allies of his who were in control of Amphictyonic affairs, Aeschines can speak of it as to the Amphictyons. and later went on the embassy and was guilty of misconduct, and you read the one decree and suppressed the other.The reference is to events after the return of the second embassy. After their report was accepted, a third embassy was appointed to go to Philip, extending the peace and alliance to his descendants, and declaring that if the Phocians would not submit to the Amphictyons, the Athenians would take the field against them. Most of the men appointed on this third embassy had served on the other two. Demosthenes was nominated, but he refused to serve. Aeschines was elected, but finally on the plea of illness he was excused by the senate, and his brother was appointed to take his place. The embassy had gone only as far as Euboea when they received the news that the Phocians had surrendered to Philip; they therefore immediately returned to Athens. The Athenians now reappointed the same men, including Aeschines, to go to meet Philip. Aeschines, now recovered in health, went on this fourth embassy. Demosthenes (Dem. 19.126) falsely declares that he went without having been elected. For the whole story from Demosthenes’ standpoint, see Dem. 19.121-133. In Dem. 19.172, Demosthenes betrays the fact that there really was a reelection for the fourth embassy, and so confirms Aeschines’ statement. I was, indeed, chosen one of the ambassadors to the Amphictyons, and even as I had shown myself zealous in reporting to you the embassy from which I had returned, so now, although I was in poor health, I did not refuse the new mission, but promised to serve, if I should have the strength. But as the ambassadors were on the point of setting out, I sent my brother and his son with my physician to the senate, not to decline service for me

(for the law does not permit men who have been elected by the assembly to decline before the senate), but merely to testify to my illness.

When now the ambassadors had been informed of the fate of the Phocians, they returned, and a meeting of the assembly was held. I had by this time recovered and was present. When the people insisted that we who had been originally elected should all go on with the embassy in spite of what had happened, I thought it my duty to speak the truth to the Athenians.That is, Aeschines felt that he ought now to say frankly that his health was such that he could not decline that service.