92
But if we have any regard for our country, if we hate wicked and corrupt men and want our fortune to change for the better, you must not surrender yourselves, Athenians, to the prayers of this accursed juggler or lend an ear to his laments and quackeries. You have had enough experience of him, his speeches, his actions, and his luck.
93
Which of you is so hopeful, Athenians, or so irrational, which of you is so unversed in past or present history, as to expect that a man who reduced the city, through whatever fault or fortune,—I am not concerned with that,—from such great prosperity to such utter disgrace, will save us now by serving as a counsellor and administrator? For besides the other difficulties and dangers which beset us we have now corruption also, of men right in the city, and are one and all striving to clear ourselves of a shameful charge, lest the people be thought to hold in their own name the money which certain individuals are keeping for themselves.
94
I am not citing other instances of his continual change of policy or of the pernicious speeches which he has consistently made. At one time he made a proposal forbidding anyone to believe in any but the accepted gods and at another said that the people must not question the grant of divine honors to AlexanderDemosthenes had merely said: “Let him be the son of Zeus and Poseidon too if he likes.” Cf. Hyp. 5 col. 31.; and again when he was on the point of being tried before you, he impeached Callimedon for consorting with the exilesAthens, unlike most Greek cities, refused to obey Alexander's order for the restoration of exiles (cf. note on Din. 1.81). Callimedon, a politician with pro-Macedonian sympathies, nicknamed the Crab, is mentioned several times by Plutarch (e.g. Plut. Dem. 27). in Megara with intent to overthrow the democracy,
