[14]
“But,” it will be urged
（for there is this excuse left）, “he was forced to
yield against his better judgement, finding himself hemmed in between the
Thessalian cavalry and the Theban heavy infantry.” Good! So they say
he is waiting to regard the Thebans with suspicion, and some circulate a rumor
that he will fortify Elatea.1
1 To rebuild the walls of Elatea, destroyed in 346, would be a check to the Thebans, as barring their way to Phocis. Philip's occupation of Elatea in 339 is the theme of the well-known passage in Dem. 18.169 ff. Demosthenes is playing on the two meanings of μέλλει, “he is likely to” and “he is delaying to.”
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.
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