143
To the commonwealth the result has been the loss of all those possessions and all those allies, and a sworn promise to Philip that if any man shall at any time attempt to recover them, you will thwart him, and treat the man who would restore to you your own as an enemy and an adversary, and the man who robbed you as an ally and a friend.
144
Such are the terms that Aeschines supported and his accomplice Philocrates proposed. On the first day I had the upper hand and persuaded you to confirm the decision of your allies and to summon Philip’s ambassadors, but Aeschines forced an adjournment to the following day, and then persuaded you to adopt Philocrates’ resolution, which included all these proposals and others still more objectionable.
145
That is what the peace has brought to the city: you could not easily invent anything more dishonorable. What has it brought to the ambassadors who contrived that dishonor? I say nothing of the wealth that lies before your eyes—houses, timber, grain; but in the country of our ruined allies there are estates and extensive farms bringing in a rental of a talent to Philocrates and half a talent to Aeschines.
146
Surely, men of Athens, it is strange and intolerable that the disasters of your allies have become the emolument of your envoys, and that one and the same peace should have brought, to the city sending ambassadors, the destruction of allies, dispossession of property, ignominy in exchange for honor, and to the ambassadors themselves who intrigued against the city, revenues, property, estates, and opulence in exchange for penury. To prove the truth of my statement, call the witnesses from Olynthus.
146
(Evidence of the Olynthian witnesses)