[3]
But such methods of
dealing with public affairs, familiar though they are to you, are the cause of
your calamities. I claim for myself, Athenians, that if I utter some home-truths
with freedom, I shall not thereby incur your displeasure. For look at it this
way. In other matters you think it is so necessary to grant general freedom of
speech to everyone in Athens that
you even allow aliens and slaves to share in the privilege, and many more
menials may be observed among you speaking their minds with more liberty than
citizens enjoy in other states; but from your deliberations you have banished it
utterly.
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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