Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Danger
Demosthenes, On the False Legation 296 (tr. C.A. Vince and J.H. Vince):
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Indeed, there is no danger, no danger whatsoever, that requires more anxious vigilance than allowing any man to become stronger than the people. Let no man be delivered, and let no man be destroyed, merely because this man or that so desires; let him who is delivered or destroyed by the evidence of facts be entitled to receive from this court the verdict that is his due. That is the democratic principle.
οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔσθ' ὅ τι τῶν πάντων μᾶλλον εὐλαβεῖσθαι δεῖ ἢ τὸ μείζω τινὰ τῶν πολλῶν ἐᾶν γίγνεσθαι. μή μοι σῳζέσθω μηδ ἀπολλύσθω μηδείς, ἐὰν ὁ δεῖνα ἢ ὁ δεῖνα βούληται, ἀλλ' ὃν ἂν τὰ πεπραγμένα σῴζῃ καὶ τοὐναντίον, τούτῳ τῆς προσηκούσης ψήφου παρ' ὑμῶν ὑπαρχέτω τυγχάνειν· τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι δημοτικόν.
