[196]
It is also opportune, men of
Athens, to inquire how our
forefathers bestowed distinctions and rewards upon genuine benefactors, whether
they were citizens or strangers. If you find their practice better than yours,
you will do well to follow their example; if you prefer your own, it rests with
you to continue it. Take first Themistocles, who won the naval victory at
Salamis, Miltiades, who commanded
at Marathon, and many others, whose achievements were not on a level with those
of our commanders today.1 Our ancestors did not put up bronze
statues of these men, nor did they carry their regard for them to extremes.
1 By “not equal” Demosthenes seems here to mean “superior.”
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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