On the Twelve Years (11-15)

Again, there came a second crisis for the city; for I deliberately ignore the intervening dangers. All other inhabitants of Greece were promoting Alexander to the rank of leader, and by remoulding him in their decrees they raised the aspirations of a young and ambitious man to an excessive pitch. We and the Spartans remained, with neither revenues nor armaments nor regiments of infantry to be the bulwark of our safety, yet fortified by a great desire, though our power was small and humble.

The Spartans had been deprived of their strength by the battle of Leuctra[*], and the Eurotas, which had never yet heard an enemy trumpet, saw Boeotians camping in Laconia. For the Theban had cut off the bloom of Sparta, enveloping in ashes the flower of her young men, the established boundaries of Laconia. Our own resources were spent with war and the hopes of the survivors were oppressed by the fate of the dead.

The Thebans were suffering the closest restriction in the Macedonian garrison[*] which bound their hands together and had even deprived them of their freedom of speech. Time buried the power of Thebes with the body of Epaminonidas. The Macedonians had reached their full strength, and in their aspirations Fortune was already leading them across the sea against the throne and treasuries of Persia.

Then too Demosthenes decided upon war, offering to his compatriots counsel which, though seemingly prudent, was in reality fraught with danger.[*] When the enemy was encamped near Attica and the country was being confined in the town, when the city, worthy to be striven for and marvelled at by all, was being filled like a stable with oxen, sheep and flocks and there was no hope of help from any quarter, I proposed the peace.

I admit it and I maintain that it is an honorable and expedient course to have taken. For it is better to shun the cloud as it approaches than to be swept away in the rush of the flood. I ask, Athenians, that the grief occasioned by events shall not engender in you any bitterness against me. For I have no mastery over Fortune; it is Fortune which controls life and gives it its danger. The counsellor, like the doctor, must not take blame for the disease; he must be thanked for the cure.