81
That is the character of your adviser. Demosthenes has made only these two journeys abroad in his lifeThis statement is wholly incorrect and Dinarchus appears to be contradicting himself, since in Din. 1.12 of this speech he does not attempt to refute Demosthenes' claim to have served on many embassies. By excluding the words “in his life” and placing a colon after “battle” Maetzner would alter the sense to: “Demosthenes has made only these two journeys abroad since the battle of Chaeronea.”: one after the battle when he ran away from the city, and another just recently to Olympia when he wanted to use the presidency of the sacred embassy as a means of meeting Nicanor.Demosthenes was the chief Athenian religious envoy at the Olympic games in 324 B.C. when Nicanor presented Alexander's decree demanding that exiles should be allowed to return to all Greek cities except Thebes. Cf. Dio. Sic. 18.8; Hyp. 5 col. 18. A right thing indeed to entrust the city to this man's charge, when danger confronts us! When it was time to fight against the enemy, side by side with his fellows, he left his post and made for home; yet when he should have stayed at home to face danger with them, he offered himself as an envoy and ran away and left the city.
82
When ambassadors were needed for the peace he said he would not move a foot to leave the city; yet when it was reported that Alexander was restoring the exiles and Nicanor came to Olympia he offered himself to the council as president of the sacred embassy. These are the parts he plays: on the field of battle he is a stay-at-home, when others stay at home he is an ambassador, among ambassadors he is a runaway.
