42
Force does not enable a man to master even the smallest things. It was inventiveness and system that made him yoke the ox to the plough for the tilling of the land, bridle the horse, set a rider on the elephant, and cross the boundless sea in boats of wood. The engineer and craftsman of all these things is mind, and we must use it as our guide, not always seeking to follow the subtleties of our own plans but rather the natural changes of events. This was the method by which I tamed Alexander, like some fearful beast, with flattering words and made him tractable for the future.
43
A manly utterance and a frankness worthy of the name Athenian.
44
I hate the popular leaders because they disturb the people and shatter the peace, the fruit of my administration, with a decree in favour of war.
45
Our ancestors left Athens and held the sea as a city, and the naval disaster shattered the land army also.
46
Freedom is not on guard against a spy.
47
The changes to which events are subject are treacherous and unceasing.
48
For it is by a resolution of goodwill that the altar of immortality has been erected.Apparently a reference to the deification of Alexander in 324 B.C.
49
You will set over them time speaking as a herald.
50
Alexander who framed his hopes to gain world dominion.
51
Demosthenes, a little man made up of syllables and a tongue.
52
For those words as it were lulled to sleep the king’s anger.
53
For the powers of the city and the pride of Greece were still at their height, and fortune favoured the people. But now every element of value in the political world has been ostracized and the cities’ hamstrings removed men’s lives have inclined to relaxation and luxury, the means of concord are no longer there, and the hopes of our friends have proved vain.
54
War, like a cloud, was threatening Europe from every quarter, suppressing my right to speak my mind in the assembly and taking away all power of free and noble utterance.
