[277]
By the terms
of this decree, men of Athens, you
condemned to death the ambassadors named. One of them was Epicrates, who, as I
am informed by persons older than myself, was an honest, useful, and popular
politician, and one of the men who marched from Peiraeus and restored the
democracy.1 No such consideration availed him; and that was right,
for a man who accepts so important a mission is not to be virtuous by halves. He
must not use the public confidence he has earned as an opportunity for knavery;
his duty is simply to do you no wilful wrong at all.
1 restored the democracy: under Thrasybulus [Dem. 19.280], 403 B.C. （Grote, ch. 65.）.
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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