Demosthenes, On the Treaty with Alexander, James Herbert Vince (Translator), 23

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[23] But they are in luck, because they can make the most of your supineness, which prefers to take no advantage even of your due rights.

The greatest humiliation, however, that we have suffered is that all the other Greeks and barbarians dread your enmity, but these upstarts¹ alone can make you despise yourselves, sometimes by persuasion, sometimes by force, as if Abdera or Maronea,² and not Athens , were the scene of their political activities.

On the Treaty with Alexander. Demosthenes. James Herbert Vince (Translator). London. 1930.

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Current edition Perseus

On the Treaty with Alexander (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)

περὶ τῶν πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον συνθηκῶν Perseus (Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. I. Butcher, S. H., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.) — 23 focus

[23] ἀλλʼ εὐτυχοῦσιν, ὅτι ἐναποχρῶνται τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ ῥᾳθυμίᾳ τῇ οὐδὲ τῶν δικαίων ἀπολαύειν προαιρουμένῃ. ὃ καὶ ὑβριστικώτατον συμβέβηκεν, εἰ οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι Ἕλληνες καὶ βάρβαροι ἅπαντες τὴν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἔχθραν φοβοῦνται, οὗτοι δʼ οἱ νεόπλουτοι μόνοι καταφρονεῖν ὑμᾶς ὑμῶν αὐτῶν ἀναγκάζουσι, τὰ μὲν πείθοντες, τὰ δὲ βιαζόμενοι, ὥσπερ ἐν Ἀβδηρίταις ἢ Μαρωνείταις, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐν Ἀθηναίοις πολιτευόμενοι.

Notes on the current edition

On the Treaty with Alexander

1. Literally nouveaux riches, another word condemned by Libanius as un-Demosthenic.

2. Two cities of Thrace . The former was the Greek Gotham.

Demosthenes On the Treaty with Alexander 23

James Herbert Vince (Translator)

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