Wherefore what is there, strange and unexpected, that has not happened in our time!1 For it is not the life of men we have lived, but we were born to be a tale of wonder to posterity. Is not the king of the Persians—he who channelled Athos, he who bridged the Hellespont, he who demanded earth and water of the Greeks, he who dared to write in his letters that he was lord of all men from the rising of the sun unto its setting—is he not struggling now, no longer for lordship over others, but already for his life?2 And do we not see this glory and the leadership against the Persians bestowed on the same men who liberated the temple of Delphi?
1 Athens and Thebes, in the old days god-fearing states of Hellas, have refused the service due the Delphic god, and have suffered every disaster; Philip, the barbarian, undertook the service of the god, and has received as his reward unheard-of power.
2 The Persian king was already dead when this speech was delivered, but the news had not yet reached Athens.
Aeschines. Aeschines with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.
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