Against Demosthenes (26-30)

This man who fraternizes, as he will presently tell you, with our allies, behaved very differently; he would not part with any of the money which he had received for their protection. Remember these things, gentlemen; consider the disasters caused by traitors in the downfall of Olynthus and of Thebes; decide wisely now in your interest; destroy those who are ready to take bribes against their country and so rest your hopes of safety on yourselves and on the gods.

For there is only one way, Athenians, in which you will reform the rest of mankind, only one way: to expose those criminals who are notable men and punish them as their crimes deserve. In the case of the average defendant no one knows or troubles to inquire, when he is convicted, what has been his sentence. But with men of note everyone hears the news and praises the jury, when they have not sacrificed the interests of justice in deference to the reputation of the defendants. Read the Theban decree. Cite the evidence. Read the letters.

Decree. Evidence. Letters

This man is a hireling, Athenians, a hireling of long standing. It was he who summoned from Thebes the embassy coming to us from Philip and was responsible for finishing the first war.[*] He helped to defend Philocrates who proposed the peace with Philip and was exiled by you in consequence, he hired a carriage for the envoys who came here with Antipater, and by attaching them to himself, first introduced into the city the custom of flattering Macedon.

Do not acquit him, Athenians. Do not let go unpunished this man who has endorsed the misfortunes of his country and the rest of Greece, when he has been caught with bribes against the city in his very hands. Now that good fortune is improving your lot and, after expelling from the city one of the two who have defiled their country, has surrendered this other to you for execution, do not oppose all our interests yourselves but rather bring happier omens to our state affairs and divert our misfortunes on to the heads of these leaders.

Against what occasion will you reserve Demosthenes in the belief that he will prove useful to you? Could any one of you, or of the bystanders, say what public or private affairs he has not ruined by his contact with them? After gaining access to the home of Aristarchus[*] and planning with him the death of Nicodemus which they contrived, an affair of which you all know the details, did he not banish Aristarchus on the most shameful charges? And did not Aristarchus find in Demosthenes such a friend as to make him think that this was some evil spirit which had visited him and the originator of all his misfortunes?