Aeschines Against Ctesiphon 67

[67] stole away the opportunities of the city by making the motion that the prytanes call an assembly for the eighth day of Elaphebolion, the day of the sacrifice to Asclepius, and the introductory day of the festival ¹ —the sacred day—a thing that no man remembers ever to have been done before. And what was his pretext? In order, he says, that if Philip’s ambassadors shall by that time have arrived, the people may most speedily deliberate on their relations with Philip. He thus appropriates the assembly for the ambassadors in advance, before their arrival, cutting short your time, and hurrying on the whole business; and this was in order that you might make the peace, not in cooperation with the other Greeks, on the return of your ambassadors, ² but alone.