Demades, On the Twelve Years, ed. John Ormiston Burtt, 8

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[8] Penury may involve inconvenience and hardship but it carries with it no discredit, since poverty is frequently, I imagine, a mark not of weakness of character but of sheer misfortune. When I entered public life I did not concentrate on lawsuits or the perquisites to be derived from writing speeches but on speaking freely from the platform, a practice which makes the lives of orators dangerous but holds out the clearest opportunities of success, if men are careful¹; for, though they succumb to the speaker, their country’s safety must not also fall a victim.

On the Twelve Years. Demades. ed. John Ormiston Burtt. London. 1954.

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Current edition Perseus

On the Twelve Years (English) (Demades. Minor Attic Orators. Burtt, John Ormiston, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954 (1962 printing).)

Editions (1)

Ὑπὲρ τῆς δωδεκαετίας Perseus (Demades. Minor Attic Orators. Burtt, John Ormiston, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954 (1962 printing).) — 8 focus

[8] ἡ πενία δʼ ἴσως δύσχρηστον μὲν ἔχει τι καὶ χαλεπόν, κεχώρισται δʼ αἰσχύνης, ὡς ἄν, οἶμαι, τῆς ἀπορίας ἐπὶ πολλῶν οὐ τρόπου κακίαν ἀλλὰ τύχης ἀγνωμοσύνην ἐλεγχούσης. προσελθὼν δὲ τοῖς κοινοῖς, οὐκ εἰς δίκας καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς λογογραφίας ἐργασίαν ἔθηκα τὸν πόνον, ἀλλʼ εἰς τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ βήματος παρρησίαν ἣ τοῖς¹ μὲν λέγουσιν ἐπισφαλῆ παρέχεται τὸν βίον, τοῖς δʼ εὐλαβουμένοις² μεγίστην δίδωσιν ἀφορμὴν πρὸς κατόρθωσιν· οὐ γὰρ ἐν τῇ τοῦ λέγοντος χάριτι δεῖ συνεκπίπτειν τὴν τῆς πατρίδος σωτηρίαν.

Notes on the current edition

On the Twelve Years

1. εὐλαβουμένοις, too, clearly refers to the hearers, not to the orators, an therefore the sense is the same as that given by the words εὐλαβῶς ἀκροωμένοις, even if we do not adopt that emendation.

Demades On the Twelve Years 8

ed. John Ormiston Burtt

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