the deeds are vile! Then as to courage I
have a word to say. If he denied his cowardice or if you were not
aware of it, the topic might have called for discussion, but since
he himself admits in the assemblies and you know it, it remains only
to remind you of the laws on the subject. Solon, our ancient
lawgiver, thought the coward should be liable to the same penalties
as the man who refuses to serve or who has quitted his post.
Cowardice, like other offenses, is indictable.

Some of you will, perhaps, ask in amazement: Is a man to be indicted
for his temperament? He is. And why? In order that every one of
us fearing the penalties of the law more than the enemy may be the
better champion of his country. Accordingly, the lawgiver excludes
alike the man who declines service, the coward, and the deserter of
his post, from the lustral limits in the market place, and suffers
no such person to receive a wreath of honor or to enter places of
public worship. But you, Ktesiphon, exhort us to set a crown on the
head to which the laws refuse it. You by your private edict call a
forbidden guest into the forefront of our solemn festival, and
invite into the temple of Dionysos that dastard by whom all temples
have been betrayed. ... Remember then, Athenians, that the city
whose fate rests with you is no alien city, but your own. Give the
prizes of ambition by merit, not by chance. Reserve your rewards
for those whose manhood is truer, whose characters are worthier.
Look at each other and judge not only with your ears but with your
eyes who of your number are likely to support Demosthenes. His
young companions in the chase or the gymnasium? No, by the Olympian
Zeus! He has not spent his life in hunting or in any healthful
exercise, but in cultivating rhetoric to be used against men of
property. Think of his boastfulness when he claims by his embassy
to have snatched Byzantium out of the hands of Philip, to have
thrown the Acharnians into revolt, to have astonished the Thebans
with his harangue! He thinks that you have reached the point of
fatuity at which you can be made to believe even this--as if your
citizen were the deity of persuasion instead of a pettifogging
mortal! And when at the end of his speech, he calls as his
advocates those who shared his bribes, imagine that you see upon
this platform where I now speak before you, an array drawn up to
confront their profligacy--the benefactors of Athens: Solon, who s