Read this decree also to the court.“ Decree ”
[54]
And afterwards, when peace, the peace of Antalcidas,1 was concluded with the Lacedaemonians, the
latter requited their acts with exile. But you, in giving them shelter, acted
like good men and true; for you decreed them all that they needed. Yet now are
we actually debating whether those decrees should remain valid? No! The bare
statement is a disgrace, if it should be reported that Athenians are debating
whether they ought to let their benefactors keep what they have given them; for
that question ought to have been debated, yes, and decided, long ago.
1 In 387. Antalcidas was the Spartan diplomatist. The Greeks acknowledged the King of Persia as the arbiter of their disputes, and abandoned to him their cities in Asia. All other Greek states were to be independent, except Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, which were to be retained by Athens. Sparta's main object was to break up the power of Thebes over the other Boeotian cities.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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