[297]
Furthermore, at Athens many men
have upon occasion risen to power—the great Callistratus, for
instance, Aristophon, Diophantus, and others of earlier date. But what was the
field of their supremacy? The popular assembly. In courts of justice no man to
this day has ever been superior to the people, or to the laws, or to the
judicial oath. Then permit no such superiority to Aeschines today. To enforce
the warning that it is better to take those precautions than to be credulous, I
will read to you an oracle of the gods,—to whom Athens owes her salvation far more than to
her most prominent politicians. Read the oracles.“
Oracles
”
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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