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Alternatively, if it was your wish to forgive Demosthenes for these offences and to have in the city a large number of people who would take bribes against you, the council ought, having tested your wishes in the previous cases, to have refused to undertake an investigation over the payments of money recently reported. For despite the excellence and the justice of this recent report, which incriminates Demosthenes and the rest of them, and despite the fact that the Areopagus has not deferred to the power of Demosthenes or Demades but has regarded justice and truth as more important,
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Demosthenes goes round none the less maligning the council and telling the same stories about himself with which he will probably try to mislead you presently. “I made the Thebans your allies.”In making this claim Demosthenes was referring to events just before the battle of Chaeronea when he won Thebes over to Athens by offering her more liberal terms than Philip. For his defence of this policy see Dem. 18.153 sq. No, Demosthenes, you impaired the common interest of both our states. “I brought everyone into line at Chaeronea.” On the contrary you yourself were the only one to leave the line at Chaeronea.The charge of cowardice in battle is often brought against Demosthenes by Aeschines (e.g. Aeschin. 3.175); it is mentioned by Plutarch (Plut. Dem. 855 A) and in the Lives of the Ten Orators (Plut. Vit. 845 F). “I served on many embassies on your behalf.”
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One wonders what he would have done or what he would have said if the course that he had recommended on these missions had proved successful, when, after touring the whole Greek world to negotiate such disasters and mistakes, he still claims to have been granted the greatest privileges, namely those of accepting bribes against his country and saying and doing whatever he wishes against the public interest.
