[_Introduction_. In 371 B.C. the Thebans under Epaminondas defeated the
Spartans at Leuctra, and, assisted by Thebes, the Arcadians and
Messenians threw off the Spartan yoke. The former founded Megalopolis
as their common centre, the latter Messene. But after the death of
Epaminondas in 362, Thebes was left without a leader; and when, in 355,
she became involved in the 'Sacred War' with the Phocians, the new
Peloponnesian states turned towards Athens, and Messene received a
solemn promise of Athenian assistance, if ever she was attacked by
Sparta. In 353 Thebes was suffering considerably from the Sacred War,
and the Spartans made an ingenious attempt to recover their power, in
the form of a proposal for the restoration of territory to its original
owners. This meant that Athens would recover Oropus, which had been in
the hands of Thebes since 366, and had previously been the subject of a
long-standing dispute; that Orchomenus, Thespiae, and Plataeae, which
had all been overthrown by Thebes, would be restored; and that Elis and
Phlius would also recover certain lost possessions. All these states
would then be morally bound (so the Spartans thought) to help Sparta to
reconquer Arcadia and Messenia.
On the occasion of this speech (delivered in 353) the Megalopolitans
had appealed to Athens, and an Arcadian and a Spartan embassy had each
had an audience of the Assembly, and had each received strong support
from Athenian speakers. The principal motives of the supporters of
Sparta were their hostility to Thebes, and their desire not to break
with the Spartans, whom Athens had assisted at Mantineia in 362 against
the Thebans and Megalopolitans. Demosthenes supports the Arcadians, and
lays great stress on the desirability of maintaining a balance of power
between Sparta and Thebes, so that neither might become too strong. To
allow Sparta to reconquer Arcadia, and, as the next step, Messenia,
would be to render her too formidable; and to reject the proposal of
Sparta would not preclude Athens from recovering Oropus and demanding
the restoration of the Boeotian towns. But the promise of assistance to
the Arcadians should be accompanied by a request for the termination of
their alliance with Thebes.
Demosthenes' advice was not followed. In fact Athens was hardly in a
position to risk becoming entangled in a war with Sparta, particularly
in view of the danger to her northern possessions from Philip. She
therefore remained neutral, while the Thebans, relieved from the
pressure of the Sacred War owing to the defeat of the Phocian leader
Onomarchus by Philip, were able to send aid to Megalopolis. A truce
between Sparta and Megalopolis was made about 350. It was, however, a
result of the neutrality of Athens, that she was unable, a few years
later, to secure the support of the Arcadians against Philip, whose
allies they subsequently became.
Lord Brougham describes the oration as 'one of extraordinary subtlety
and address in handling delicate topics'; and, after quoting the
passage in which Demosthenes urges the necessity of maintaining a
balance of power between rival states, adds that 'this is precisely the
language of modern policy'. At the same time, the speech has in places
a somewhat academic and theoretical air: it is much occupied with the
weighing of hypothetical considerations and obligations against one
another: and though it enunciates some plain and reasonable political
principles, and makes an honest attempt to satisfy those who wished to
help the Arcadians, but at the same time desired to regain ground
against Thebes, it is not always convincing, and the tone is more
frankly opportunist than is usually the case with Demosthenes.]
{1} I think, men of Athens, that those who have spoken on the Arcadian side and
those who have spoken on the Spartan, are alike making a mistake. For
their mutual accusations and their attacks upon one another would
suggest that they are not, like yourselves, Athenians, receiving the
two embassies, but actually delegates of the two states. Such attacks
it was for the two deputations to make. The duty of those who claim to
advise you here was to discuss the situation impartially, and to
inquire, in an uncontentious spirit, what course is best in your
interests. {2} As it is, if one could alter the fact that they are
known to us, and that they speak the dialect of Attica, I believe that
many would imagine that those on the one side actually were Arcadians,
and those on the other, Spartans. For my part, I see plainly enough the
difficulty of offering the best advice. For you, like them, are
deluded, in your desire for one extreme or the other: and one who
endeavours to propose an intermediate course, which you will not have
the patience to understand, will satisfy neither side and will forfeit
the confidence of both. {3} But in spite of this, I shall prefer, for
my own part, to risk being regarded as an idle chatterer (if such is
really to be my lot), rather than to abandon my conviction as to what
is best for Athens, and leave you to the mercy of those who would
deceive you. And while I shall deal with all other points later, by
your leave, I shall take for my starting-point, in explaining the
course which I believe to be best, those principles which are admitted
by all.
{4} There can be no possible question that it is to the interest of the
city that both the Spartans and these Thebans should be weak; and the
present situation, if one may judge at all from what has constantly
been asserted in your presence, is such, that if Orchomenus, Thespiae,
and Plataeae[n] are re-established, Thebes becomes weak; and that if
the Spartans can reduce Arcadia to subjection and destroy Megalopolis,
Sparta will recover her former strength. {5} We must, therefore, take
care not to allow the Spartans to attain a formidable degree of
strength, before the Thebans have become insignificant, lest there
should take place, unobserved by us, such an increase in the power of
Sparta as would be out of proportion to the decrease in the power of
Thebes which our interests demand. For it is, of course, out of the
question that we should desire merely to substitute the rivalry of
Sparta for that of Thebes: that is not the object upon which we are
bent. Our object is rather that neither people shall be capable of
doing us any injury. That is what will best enable us to live in
security.
{6} But, granted that this is what ought to be, still, we are told, it
is a scandalous thing to choose for our allies the men against whom we
were arrayed at Mantineia, and further, to help them against those
whose perils we shared that day. I agree; but I think that we need to
insert the condition, 'provided that the two parties are willing to act
rightly.' {7} For if all alike prove willing to keep the peace, we
shall not go to the aid of the Megalopolitans, since there will be no
need to do so; and so there will be no hostility whatever on our part
towards our former comrades in battle. They are already our allies, as
they tell us; and now the Arcadians will become our allies as well.
What more could we desire? {8} But suppose they act wrongfully and
think fit to make war. In that case, if the question before us is
whether we are to abandon Megalopolis to Sparta or not, then I say
that, wrong though it is, I will acquiesce in our permitting this, and
declining to oppose our former companions in danger. But if you all
know that, after capturing Megalopolis, they will march against
Messene, let me ask any of those who are now so harshly disposed
towards Megalopolis to say what action he will _then_ advise. No answer
will be given. {9} In fact you all know that, whether they advise it or
not, we _must_ then go to the rescue, both because of the oath which we
have sworn to the Messenians, and because our interests demand the
continued existence of that city. Ask yourselves, then, on which
occasion you can most honourably and generously interpose to check the
aggressions of Sparta--in defence of Megalopolis, or in defence of
Messene? {10} On the present occasion it will be understood that you
are succouring the Arcadians, and are anxious that the Peace, which you
fought for and risked your lives to win, may be secure. But if you
wait, all the world will see plainly that it is not in the name of
right that you desire the existence of Messene, but because you are
afraid of Sparta. And while we should always seek and do the right, we
should at the same time take good care that what is right shall also be
advantageous.
{11} Now an argument is used by speakers on the other side to the
effect that we ought to attempt to recover Oropus,[n] and that if we
make enemies of those who might come to our assistance against it we
shall have no allies. I too say that we should try to recover Oropus.
But the argument that the Spartans will be our enemies now, if we make
alliance with those Arcadians who desire our friendship, is an argument
which no one has less right even to mention, than those who induced you
to help the Spartans when they were in danger. {12} Such was not their
argument, when all the Peloponnesians came to you,[n] entreating you to
support them in their campaign against Sparta, and they persuaded you
to reject the entreaty, with the result that the Peloponnesians took
the only remaining course and applied to Thebes--when they bade you
contribute funds and imperil your lives for the deliverance of the
Spartans. Nor, I presume, would you have been willing to protect them,
had they warned you that you must expect no gratitude for their
deliverance, unless, after saving them, you allowed them once more to
do as they pleased and commit fresh aggressions. {13} And further,
however antagonistic it may be to the designs of the Spartans, that we
should make the Arcadians our allies, they are surely bound to feel a
gratitude towards us for saving them when they were in the utmost
extremity, which will outweigh their vexation at our preventing their
present wrongdoing. Must they not then either assist us to recover
Oropus, or else be regarded as the basest of mankind? For, by Heaven, I
can see no other alternative.
{14} I am astonished, also, to hear it argued that if we make the
Arcadians our allies, and carry out my advice, it will seem as though
Athens were changing her policy, and were utterly unreliable. I believe
that the exact reverse of this is the case, men of Athens, and I will
tell you why. I suppose that no one in the world can deny that when
this city saved the Spartans,[n] and before them the Thebans,[n] and
finally the Euboeans,[n] and subsequently made them her allies, she had
one and the same end always in view. {15} And what was this? It was to
deliver the victims of aggression. And if this is so, it is not we that
should be changing, but those who refuse to adhere to the right; and it
will be manifest that, although circumstances change from time to time
with the ambitious designs of others, Athens does not change.
{16} I believe that the Spartans are playing a very unscrupulous part.
At present they tell us that the Eleans are to recover part of
Triphylia,[n] and the Phliasians, Tricaranum;[n] other Arcadians are to
recover their own possessions, and we ourselves are to recover
Oropus--not that they have any desire to see every state enjoying its
own--far from it!-- such generosity on their part would be late indeed
in showing itself. {17} They wish rather to present the appearance of
co-operating with each separate state in the recovery of the territory
that it claims, in order that when they themselves march against
Messene, all may take the field with them, and give them their hearty
assistance, on pain of seeming to act unfairly, in refusing to return
an equivalent for the support which each of them received from Sparta
in regard to their own several claims. {18} My own view is that, even
without the tacit surrender of some of the Arcadians to Sparta, we can
recover Oropus, aided not only by the Spartans, if they are ready to
act honourably, but by all who disapprove of allowing Thebes to retain
what is not her own. But even if it were made quite plain to us, that
without allowing Sparta to subdue the Peloponnese, we should not be
able to take Oropus, I should still think it preferable, if I may dare
to say so, to let Oropus go, rather than sacrifice Messene and the
Peloponnese to Sparta. For our quarrel with them would not, I believe,
be confined to this; since--I will not say what occurs to me; but there
are many risks which we should run.
{19} But, to pass on, it is a monstrous thing to use the hostile
actions which, they say, the Megalopolitans committed against us, under
the influence of Thebes, as a ground of accusation against them to-day;
and, when they wish to be friends and so atone for their action by
doing us good, to look askance at them, to seek for some way of
avoiding their friendship, to refuse to recognize that in proportion to
the zeal which my opponents can prove the Megalopolitans to have shown
in supporting Thebes will be the resentment to which my opponents
themselves will deservedly be exposed, for depriving the city of such
allies as these, when they have appealed to you before appealing to
Thebes. {20} Such a policy is surely the policy of men who wish to make
the Arcadians for the second time the allies of others. And so far as
one can forecast the future by calculation, I am sure, and I believe
that most of you will agree with me, that if the Spartans take
Megalopolis, Messene will be in peril; and if they take Messene also,
then I predict that we shall find ourselves allies of Thebes.[n] {21}
It is a far more honourable, a far better, course that we should
ourselves take over the Theban confederacy,[n] refusing to leave the
field open to the cupidity of the Spartans, than that we should be so
afraid of protecting the allies of Thebes, as first to sacrifice them,
and then to save Thebes itself; and, in addition, to be in a state of
apprehension for our own safety. {22} For if the Spartans capture
Megalopolis and become a great power once more, the prospect, as I
conceive it, is not one which this city can view without alarm. For I
can see that even now they are determining to go to war, not to prevent
any evil which threatens them, but to recover their own ancient power:
and what their aims were when they possessed that power, you, I think,
know[n] perhaps better than I, and with that knowledge may well be
alarmed.
{23} Now I should be glad if the speakers who profess their hatred for
Thebes on the one side, or for Sparta on the other, would tell me if
their professed hatred is based on consideration for you and your
interests, or whether the one party hates Thebes from an interest in
Sparta, and the other Sparta from an interest in Thebes. If the latter
is the case, you should not listen to either, but treat them as insane:
but if the former, why this inordinate exaltation of one side or the
other? {24} For it is possible, perfectly possible, to humiliate Thebes
without rendering Sparta powerful. Indeed, it is by far the easier
course; and I will try to tell you how it can be done. We all know
that, however unwilling men may be to do what is right, yet up to a
certain point they are ashamed not to do so, and that they withstand
wrongdoers openly, particularly if there are any who receive damage
through the wrong done: and we shall find that what ruins everything
and is the source of all evil is the unwillingness to do what is right
without reserve. {25} Now in order that no such obstacle may stand in
the way of the humiliation of Thebes, let us demand the
re-establishment of Thespiae, Orchomenus, and Plataeae, co-operating
with their citizens ourselves, and requiring others to do so; for the
principle of refusing to allow ancient cities to lie desolate is a
right and honourable one. But let us at the same time decline to
abandon Megalopolis and Messene to the aggressors, or to suffer the
destruction of existing and inhabited cities, on the pretext of
restoring Plataeae and Thespiae. {26} Then, if our policy is made plain
to all, there is no one who will not wish to terminate the Thebans'
occupation of territory not their own. But if it is not, not only will
our designs be opposed by the Arcadians, in the belief that the
restoration of these towns carries with it their own ruin, but we shall
have troubles without end. For, honestly, where can we expect to reach
an end, when we permit the annihilation of existing cities, and require
the restoration of those that have been annihilated?
{27} It is demanded by those whose speeches display the strongest
appearance of fairness, that the Megalopolitans shall take down the
pillars[n] which commemorate their alliance with Thebes, if they are to
be trustworthy allies of Athens. The Megalopolitans reply that for them
it is not pillars, but interest, that creates friendship; and that it
is those who help them, that they consider to be their allies. Well,
that may be their attitude. Nevertheless, my own view is, roughly
speaking, this:--I say that we should simultaneously require the
Megalopolitans to take down the pillars, and the Spartans to keep the
peace: and that in the event of either side refusing to fulfil our
request, we should at once take the part of those who are willing to
fulfil it. {28} For if the Megalopolitans obtain peace, and yet adhere
to the Theban alliance, it will be clear to all that they prefer the
grasping policy of Thebes to that which is right. If, on the other
hand, Megalopolis makes alliance frankly with us, and the Spartans then
refuse to keep the peace, it will surely be clear to all that what the
Spartans desire so eagerly is not the re-establishment of Thespiae, but
an opportunity of subduing the Peloponnese while the Thebans are
involved in the war.[n] {29} And I am surprised to find that there are
some who are alarmed at the prospect of the enemies of Sparta becoming
allies of Thebes, and yet see nothing to fear in the subjugation of
these enemies by Sparta herself; whereas the experience of the past can
teach us that the Thebans always use such allies against Sparta, while,
when Sparta had them, she used to use them against us.
{30} There is another point which I think you should consider. Suppose
that you reject the overtures of the Megalopolitans. If they are
annihilated and dispersed, Sparta can recover her power at once. If
they actually survive--for things have happened before now beyond all
hope--they will quite rightly be the firm allies of Thebes. But suppose
you receive them. Then the immediate result, so far as they are
concerned, is that they are saved by you: and as to the future, let us
now transfer our calculation of possible risks to the case of the
Thebans and Spartans. {31} If the Thebans are crushed, as they ought to
be, the Spartans will not be unduly powerful, for they will always have
these Arcadians at their doors to hold them in check. But if the
Thebans actually recover and survive the attack, they will at least be
weaker; for the Arcadians will have become our allies, and will owe
their preservation to us. Thus on every ground it is to our interest
not to sacrifice the Arcadians, nor to let them think that their
deliverance, if they are really saved, is due to themselves, or to any
other people than you.
{32} And now, men of Athens, I solemnly declare that what I have said
has been prompted by no personal feeling, friendly or hostile, towards
either side. I have told you only what I believe to be expedient for
you; and I exhort you not to sacrifice the people of Megalopolis, and
to make it your rule, never to sacrifice a smaller power to a greater.