§69πόλεως γὰρ ἔγωγε πλοῦτον ἡγοῦμαι συμμάχους, πίστιν, εὔνοιαν, ὧν πάντων ὑμεῖς ἔστʼ ἄποροι.
For my part, I consider a city's wealth to consist of allies, trust, and goodwill, of all of which you are destitute.
ἐκ δὲ τοῦ τούτων ὀλιγώρως ὑμᾶς ἔχειν καὶ ἐᾶν τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον φέρεσθαι, ὁ μὲν εὐδαίμων καὶ μέγας καὶ φοβερὸς πᾶσιν Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις, ὑμεῖς δʼ ἔρημοι καὶ ταπεινοί, τῇ μὲν κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν εὐετηρίᾳ λαμπροί, τῇ δʼ ὧν προσῆκε παρασκευῇ καταγέλαστοι.
Because of your disregard for these things and your allowing matters to drift in this way, Philip has become prosperous, great, and fearsome to all Greeks and barbarians, while you are isolated and humble, splendid indeed in the abundance of your market, but ridiculous in the preparation of what is necessary.
§70οὐ τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ τρόπον περί θʼ ὑμῶν καὶ περὶ αὑτῶν ἐνίους τῶν λεγόντων ὁρῶ βουλευομένους· ὑμᾶς μὲν γὰρ ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν φασὶ δεῖν, κἄν τις ὑμᾶς ἀδικῇ, αὐτοὶ δʼ οὐ δύνανται παρʼ ὑμῖν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν οὐδενὸς αὐτοὺς ἀδικοῦντος.
But I do not see some of the speakers deliberating in the same way about you and about themselves; for they say that you ought to keep quiet, even if someone wrongs you, but they themselves cannot keep quiet among you, even though no one is wronging them.
καίτοι λοιδορίας εἴ τις χωρὶς ἔροιτο
εἰπέ μοι, τί δὴ γιγνώσκων ἀκριβῶς, Ἀριστόμηδες, (οὐδεὶς γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτʼ ἀγνοεῖ) τὸν μὲν τῶν ἰδιωτῶν βίον ἀσφαλῆ καὶ ἀπράγμονα καὶ ἀκίνδυνον ὄντα, τὸν δὲ τῶν πολιτευομένων φιλαίτιον καὶ σφαλερὸν καὶ καθʼ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀγώνων καὶ κακῶν μεστόν, οὐ τὸν ἡσύχιον, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἐν τοῖς κινδύνοις αἱρεῖ; §71τί ἂν εἴποις;
And yet, if someone were to ask, apart from abuse: "Tell me, Aristomedes, with what precise knowledge (for no one is ignorant of such things) do you choose not the quiet life, but the one in the midst of dangers, knowing that the life of private citizens is safe, untroubled, and free from danger, while that of politicians is liable to accusation, precarious, and full of struggles and evils every day?" What would you say?
εἰ γὰρ ὃ βέλτιστον εἰπεῖν ἂν ἔχοις, τοῦτό σοι δοίημεν ἀληθὲς λέγειν, ὡς ὑπὲρ φιλοτιμίας καὶ δόξης ταῦτα πάντα ποιεῖς, θαυμάζω τί δήποτε σαυτῷ μὲν ὑπὲρ τούτων ἅπαντα ποιητέον εἶναι νομίζεις καὶ πονητέον καὶ κινδυνευτέον, τῇ πόλει δὲ προέσθαι ταῦτα μετὰ ῥᾳθυμίας συμβουλεύεις.
For if we should grant that you speak the truth in what would be the best thing you could say, namely, that you do all these things for the sake of honor and glory, I wonder why on earth you think that for yourself, for the sake of these things, everything must be done, laboured for, and risked, but you advise the city to abandon these things with apathy.
οὐ γὰρ ἐκεῖνό γʼ ἂν εἴποις, ὡς σὲ μὲν ἐν τῇ πόλει δεῖ τινὰ φαίνεσθαι, τὴν πόλιν δʼ ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησι μηδενὸς ἀξίαν εἶναι.
For surely you would not say this, that you ought to appear as someone of importance in the city, but the city should be worth nothing among the Greeks.
§72καὶ μὴν οὐδʼ ἐκεῖνό γʼ ὁρῶ, ὡς τῇ μὲν πόλει ἀσφαλὲς τὸ τὰ αὑτῆς πράττειν, σοὶ δὲ κίνδυνος, εἰ μηδὲν τῶν ἄλλων πλέον περιεργάσει, ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον σοὶ μὲν ἐξ ὧν ἐργάζει καὶ περιεργάζει τοὺς ἐσχάτους ὄντας κινδύνους, τῇ πόλει δʼ ἐκ τῆς ἡσυχίας.
Moreover, I do not see this either, that for the city it is safe to mind its own business, but for you there is danger if you do not busy yourself further with other things; but on the contrary, for you extreme dangers arise from what you do and busy yourself with, but for the city they arise from its inactivity.
§73ἀλλὰ νὴ Δία παππῴα σοι καὶ πατρῴα δόξʼ ὑπάρχει, ἣν αἰσχρόν ἐστιν ἐν σοὶ καταλῦσαι· τῇ πόλει δʼ ὑπῆρξεν ἀνώνυμα καὶ φαῦλα τὰ τῶν προγόνων.
But, by Zeus, you have ancestral and paternal glory, which it is shameful to destroy in your time, whereas for the city, the deeds of its ancestors were nameless and paltry.
ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ τοῦθʼ οὕτως ἔχει· σοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἦν κλέπτης ὁ πατήρ, εἴπερ ἦν ὅμοιος σοί, τῇ πόλει δʼ ἡμῶν οὓς πάντες ἴσασιν οἱ Ἕλληνες ἐκ τῶν μεγίστων κινδύνων σεσωσμένοι.
But this is not the case either; for your father was a thief, if indeed he was like you, but our city has ancestors whom all the Greeks know as having been saved from the greatest dangers through them.
§74ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ ἴσως οὐδὲ πολιτικῶς ἔνιοι τὰ καθʼ αὑτοὺς καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν πολιτεύονται· πῶς γάρ ἐστιν ἴσον τούτων μέν τινας ἐκ τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου ἥκοντας ἑαυτοὺς ἀγνοεῖν, τὴν πόλιν δʼ, ἣ προειστήκει τῶν Ἑλλήνων τέως καὶ τὸ πρωτεῖον εἶχε, νῦν ἐν ἀδοξίᾳ πάσῃ καὶ ταπεινότητι καθεστάναι;
But indeed, some people do not conduct their own affairs and those of the city in an equal or civic manner; for how is it equal that some of these men, who have come from prison, should not know themselves, while the city, which hitherto stood at the head of the Greeks and held the primacy, is now established in all dishonor and humility?
§75πολλὰ τοίνυν ἔχων ἔτι καὶ περὶ πολλῶν εἰπεῖν παύσομαι· καὶ γὰρ οὐ λόγων ἐνδείᾳ μοι δοκεῖ τὰ πράγματʼ οὔτε νῦν οὔτʼ ἄλλοτε πώποτε φαύλως ἔχειν, ἀλλʼ ὅταν πάντʼ ἀκούσαντες ὑμεῖς τὰ δέοντα, καὶ ὁμογνώμονες ὡς ὀρθῶς λέγεται γενόμενοι, τῶν λυμαίνεσθαι καὶ διαστρέφειν ταῦτα βουλομένων ἐξ ἴσου κάθησθʼ ἀκροώμενοι, οὐκ ἀγνοοῦντες αὐτούς (ἴστε γὰρ εὐθὺς ἰδόντες ἀκριβῶς, τίς μισθοῦ λέγει καὶ ὑπὲρ Φιλίππου πολιτεύεται, καὶ τίς ὡς ἀληθῶς ὑπὲρ τῶν βελτίστων), ἀλλʼ ἵνʼ αἰτιασάμενοι τούτους καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμʼ εἰς γέλωτα καὶ λοιδορίαν ἐμβαλόντες μηδὲν αὐτοὶ τῶν δεόντων ποιῆτε.
Therefore, although I still have many things to say and about many subjects, I will stop; for indeed it does not seem to me that affairs are in a bad state either now or at any other time through a lack of speeches, but rather when, after you have heard all that is necessary and have agreed that it is rightly said, you sit listening on equal terms to those who wish to ruin and distort these things, not being ignorant of them (for you know precisely at first sight who speaks for pay and conducts politics for Philip, and who truly acts for the best), but so that, having blamed them and turned the matter into laughter and abuse, you yourselves may do nothing of what is necessary.
§76ταῦτʼ ἐστὶ τἀληθῆ, μετὰ πάσης παρρησίας, ἁπλῶς εὐνοίᾳ τὰ βέλτιστʼ εἰρημένα, οὐ κολακείᾳ βλάβης καὶ ἀπάτης λόγος μεστός, ἀργύριον τῷ λέγοντι ποιήσων, τὰ δὲ πράγματα τῆς πόλεως τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ἐγχειριῶν.
These are the truths, spoken with all frankness, simply out of goodwill as the best things, not a speech full of harm and deception through flattery, which is going to make money for the speaker but will deliver the affairs of the city to its enemies.
ἢ οὖν παυστέον τούτων τῶν ἐθῶν, ἢ μηδένʼ ἄλλον αἰτιατέον τοῦ πάντα φαύλως ἔχειν ἢ ὑμᾶς αὐτούς.
Either, then, you must put an end to these habits, or you must blame no one else but yourselves for everything being in a bad state.