NOTES

To the Third Olynthiac Oration

*(1) Ulpian finds out a particular propriety in this exordium. He observes, that, as the orator intends to recommend to them to give up their theatrical appointments, he prepares them for it by this observation; and while he is endeavoring to persuade them to a just disregard of money, appears as if he only spoke their sentiments.

*(2) M. Tourreil admires the greatness of mind of Demosthenes, who, though he gloried in the pains and labors his orations cost him, was yet superior to that low and malignant passion which oftentimes prompts us to decry those talents which we do not possess. I suspect, however, that this passage was occasioned by some particular circumstance in the debate. Perhaps some speaker, who opposed Demosthenes, might have urged his opinion somewhat dogmatically, as the result of mature reflection and deliberation.

*(3) Although his promises could by no means be relied on.

*(4) This refers to the expedition in favor of the Euboeans against the Thebans. The Athenians prepared for this expedition in three days, according to Demosthenes; in five, according to Aeschines: and their success was as sudden as their preparation.

*(5) In the original, touti to BEMA; that eminence where all the public speakers were placed, and from whence the people were addressed on all occasions.

*(6) Thrace was inhabited by an infinite number of different peoples, whose names Herodotus has transmitted. And he observes, that could they have united under a single chief, or connected themselves by interest or sentiment, they would have formed a body infinitely superior to all their neighbors. After Teres, the Thracians had diverse kings. This prince had two sons, Sitalces and Sparadocus, among whose descendants various contests arose, till, after a series of usurpations and revolutions, Seuthes recovered part of the territory of his father Maesades, and transmitted the succession peaceably to Cotis the father of Cersobleptes (as Demosthenes says; not his brother, as Diodorus). At the death of Cotis the divisions recommenced, and in the place of one king Thrace had three, Cersobleptes, Berisades, and Amadocus. Cersobleptes dispossessed the other two, and was himself dethroned by Philip. Frontinus reports, that Alexander, when he had conquered Thrace, brought the princes of that country with him in his expedition into Asia, to prevent their raising any commotions in his absence; a proof that Philip and Alexander had established several petty kings in Thrace, who were vassals to Macedon.

*(7) He was the son of Alcetas, King of Epirus, and brother to Neoptolemus, whose daughter Olympias Philip married. About three years before the date of this oration the death of their father produced a dispute between the brothers about the succession. Arymbas was the lawful heir; yet Philip obliged him, by force of arms, to divide the kingdom with Neoptolemus: and not contented with this, at the death of Arymbas, he found means by his intrigues and menaces, to prevail on the Epirots to banish his son, and to constitute Alexander, the son of Neoptolemus, sole monarch.

*(8) Hitherto the orator has painted Philip in all his terrors. He is politic, and vigilant, and intrepid: he has risen gradually to the highest pitch of power; and is now ready to appear before the walls of Athens, if he is not instantly opposed: but, lest this description should dispirit the Athenians, he is now represented in a quite different manner. His power is by no means real and solid; his allies are prepared to revolt; his kingdom is threatened with war and desolation; and he is just ready to be crushed by the very first effort that is made to distress him: but as it was necessary that the danger to which they were exposed should make the deepest impression on the minds of his hearers, he returns to his former description, and concludes with the dreadful image of a formidable enemy ravaging their territory, and shutting them up within their walls.

*(9) This people had a bad character from the earliest times, so as to become even proverbial; and Greece, and Athens particularly, had experienced their want of faith on very important occasions. They invited Xerxes into Greece, and were not ashamed to join Mardonius after the battle of Salamis, and to serve him as guides in his invasion of Attica; and in the heat of a battle between Athens and Sparta, they on a sudden deserted their allies, the Athenians, and joined the enemy.

*(10) The reasons of Thebes’s hatred to Athens have been already assigned.

*(11) The Phocians were at this time reduced to a very low state, by a continued series of ill-success in the Sacred War. Philomelus and Onomarchus had perished; Phayllus and Phalecus, their successors, had been frequently defeated; and the Thebans were continually gaining advantages over them.

*(12) He avoids all mention of the Thessalians; because he had just shown that they were ill-affected to Philip, and therefore might be supposed willing to join with the Athenians.

*(13) That is, their expedition into Thrace, in order to recover Amphipolis, which, according to the calculation of Aeschines, cost them one thousand five hundred talents.