Demosthenes, Philippic 3, James Herbert Vince (Translator), 48

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[48] For in the first place I am informed that in those days the Lacedaemonians, like everyone else, would spend the four or five months of the summer season in invading and laying waste the enemy’s territory with heavy infantry and levies of citizens, and would then retire home again; and they were so old-fashioned, or rather such good citizens,¹ that they never used money to buy an advantage from anyone, but their fighting was of the fair and open kind.

Philippic 3. Demosthenes. James Herbert Vince (Translator). London. 1930.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Third Philippic (English) (Demosthenes, Vol. I: Olynthiacs, Philippics, Minor Public Speeches, Speech Against Leptines, I-XVII, XX. Vince, J. H., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930 (printing).)

Editions (1)

κατὰ Φιλίππου γ΄ Perseus (Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. I. Butcher, S. H., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.) — 48 focus

[48] πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ἀκούω Λακεδαιμονίους τότε καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἄλλους, τέτταρας μῆνας ἢ πέντε, τὴν ὡραίαν αὐτήν, ἐμβαλόντας ἂν καὶ κακώσαντας τὴν χώραν ὁπλίταις καὶ πολιτικοῖς στρατεύμασιν ἀναχωρεῖν ἐπʼ οἴκου πάλιν· οὕτω δʼ ἀρχαίως εἶχον, μᾶλλον δὲ πολιτικῶς, ὥστʼ οὐδὲ χρημάτων ὠνεῖσθαι παρʼ οὐδενὸς οὐδέν, ἀλλʼ εἶναι νόμιμόν τινα καὶ προφανῆ τὸν πόλεμον.

Notes on the current edition

Philippic 3

1. The Greek means true to the spirit of a free, constitutional state. Aristotle describes the πολιτικὸν πλῆθος as one which is naturally warlike and qualified to rule or be ruled according to laws which distribute offices by merit ( Aristot. Pol. 3.17.4 ).

Demosthenes Philippic 3 48

James Herbert Vince (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers