Thesauros Literature Oratory ὑπὲρ Κτησιφῶντος περὶ τοῦ στεφάνου

ὑπὲρ Κτησιφῶντος περὶ τοῦ στεφάνου

ὑπὲρ Κτησιφῶντος περὶ τοῦ στεφάνου Demosthenes
77 Philip, King of Macedonia, to the Council and People of Athens, greeting.—Your ambassadors, Cephisophon and Democritus and Polycritus, visited me and discussed the release of the vessels commanded by Leodamas. Now, speaking generally, it seems to me that you will be very simple people if you imagine that I do not know that the vessels were sent ostensibly to convey corn from the Hellespont to Lemnos, but really to help the Selymbrians, who are being besieged by me and are not included in the articles of friendship mutually agreed upon between us.
78 These instructions were given to the admiral, without the cognizance of the Athenian People, by certain officials and by others who are now out of office, but who were anxious by every means in their power to change the present friendly attitude of the people towards me to one of open hostility, being indeed much more zealous for this consummation than for the relief of the Selymbrians. They conceive that such a policy will be a source of income to themselves; it does not, however, strike me as profitable either for you or for me. Therefore the vessels now in my harbors I hereby release to you; and for the future, if, instead of permitting your statesmen to pursue this malicious policy, you will be good enough to c ensure them, I too will endeavor to preserve the peace. Farewell.
79 In this letter there is no mention of the name of Demosthenes, nor any charge against me. Why does he forget my acts, when he blames others? Because he could not mention me without recalling his own transgressions, on which I fixed my attention, and which I strove to resist. I began by proposing the embassy to Peloponnesus, when first he tried to get a footing there; then the embassy to Euboea, when he was tampering with Euboea; then an expedition— not an embassy—to Oreus, and again to Eretria, when he had set up tyrants in those cities.

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