[147]
I shall not be
surprised if he finds courage to tell you that we could not make an honorable
peace, such as I required, because the generals mismanaged the war. If so, I beg
that you will not forget to ask him whether he represented Athens or some other city. If another city,
of which he can say that it had competent generals and has won the war, he has
received bribes with some reason; but if he represented this city, how comes it
that by terms of treaty the city that sent him has lost property and he has
increased his property by his rewards?1 In common justice, the city
and its representatives should have fared alike.
1 An ambassador on the winning side can only be bribed to gain concessions for the losers—a natural and comparatively harmless proceeding: an ambassador on the losing side is bribed by the winners to make their gain, and his country's loss, more complete.
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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