[52]
These letters,
then, do summon you,—yes, indeed, at last!1 But if there had been any honesty in the letters, it was
clearly the duty of these men to exhort you to take the field, and to propose
that Proxenus, whom they knew to be in those parts, should at once march to the
aid of Philip. Their actual policy was very different. Naturally; for they did
not apply their minds to the phrasing of the letter; they were in the secret of
the intention with which it was written, and with that intention they concurred
and cooperated.
1 The force of the ἤδη γεis not clear. Kennedy translates it “for the first time,” presumably meaning the first time that Athens has ever taken instructions from Macedonia. The previous paragraph suggests that Dem. is insinuating that Philip, whose aim was to keep the Athenians inactive, deferred the invitation till it was too late for them to put a force in the field, whether to support Philip or the Phocians.
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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