[172]
It would
therefore have been too bad to break my word and abandon fellow-creatures and
fellow-citizens in misfortune. Had I declined on oath, a private excursion to
Macedonia would have been neither
decent nor safe. Except for my strong desire to liberate those men, may I die
miserably before my time1 if any reward would have induced me to accept an embassy
with these men as my colleagues. I proved that by twice excusing myself when you
twice appointed me to the third embassy, and also by my constant opposition to
them on this journey.
1 The Greek phrase, which occurs also at the end of the De corona, suggests by its jingle the formula of some curse, but cannot be well reproduced in English.
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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