First, let us prepare for our own defense; provide ourselves, I mean, with ships, money, and troops--for surely, though all other people consented to be slaves, we at least ought to struggle for freedom.
In a call to action for Athenian defense, Demosthenes asserts that even if all others yield to slavery, Athenians must fight for their own freedom.
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You can not surely allege, that Aristodemus ought to be of importance at Athens, and Athens to be of no account among the Greeks.
He is convinced, you will not submit to be slaves; if you were inclined, you would not know how, having been accustomed to command: you will be able, should occasion offer, to give him more trouble than any people in the world.
For this reason he will show us no mercy, if he get us into his power: and therefore you must make up your minds, that the struggle will be one for life and death.
But I suppose, you inherit a reputation from your father and grandfather, which it were disgraceful in your own person to extinguish, whereas the ancestry of the state was ignoble and mean.
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