A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

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The Greeks
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CHAPTER XXIV
RISE OF MACEDON
I. Philip threatens Greece
That Philip from a mean and humble origin o has grown o
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mighty, that the Greeks are jealous and quarrelling among
cesV.^ ^ ^^^' themselves, that it was far more wonderful for him to rise
from that insignificance than it would be now, after so
many acquisitions, to conquer what is left; these and
similar matters, which I might dwell upon, I pass over.
-^"^^ -^ observe that all people, beginning with you, have
'ru^Tph'^^^'
lippk. conceded to him a right, which in former times has been
Greece, 2^-]^.; the subject of contcst in every Grecian war. And what
Ancient . , .
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World, 271 f. IS this? ihe right of doing as he pleases, openly fleecing
and pillaging the Greeks, one after another, attacking and
enslaving their cities. You were at the head of the Greeks
for seventy-three years,
the Lacedaemonians for twentynine;
and the Thebans had some power in these latter
times after the battle of Leuctra. Yet neither you, my
countrymen, nor Thebans nor Lacedaemonians, were ever
licensed by the Greeks to act as you pleased;
far otherwise.
When you or rather the Athenians of that time
appeared to be dealing harshly with certain people, all
the rest
even such as had no complaint against Athens,
thought proper to side with the injured parties in a war
against her.
So, when the Lacedaemonians became masters
and succeeded to your empire, on their attempting to
encroach and make oppressive innovations, a general war
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