Funeral Oration (21-25)

The practices which even now we have to countenance are proof enough: sacrifices being made to men; images, altars, and temples carefully perfected in their honor, while those of the gods are neglected, and we ourselves are forced to honor as heroes the servants of these people.

If reverence for the gods has been removed by Macedonian insolence, what fate must we conclude would have befallen the rules of conduct towards man? Would they not have been utterly discounted? The more terrible therefore we think the consequences would have been, the greater must be the praise which we believe the dead have earned.

For no campaign has better shown the courage of the soldiers than this last, when they had daily to be arrayed for combat, to fight, on but one expedition, more battles than the combats which any soldier of the past endured,[*] and face extreme severities of weather and many hard privations in the daily needs of life with an endurance almost beyond description.

Such trials Leosthenes induced the citizens to brave undaunted, and they gave up their persons gladly to share the struggle with so great a leader. Should they not then be counted fortunate in their display of valor rather than unfortunate in their sacrifice of life? For in exchange for a mortal body they gained undying glory, safeguarding by their personal courage the universal liberty of Greece⋯[*]

If men are to be happy, the voice of law, and not a ruler’s threats, must reign supreme; if they are free, no groundless charge, but only proof of guilt, must cause them apprehension; nor must the safety of our citizens depend on those who slander them and truckle to their masters but on the force of law alone.