What is the freedom greek?

Demosthenes, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Demosthenes answers

The question, put plainly, is what freedom means to a Greek — and I can tell you what it meant to the men I argued before, and what I argued it required of them. Freedom is not a condition you simply possess; it is a condition you can lose while you are still congratulating yourself on having it. The Olynthians possessed it, and Philip gave them Potidaea, expelled the Athenian colonists there on their behalf, took their quarrel with Athens onto his own shoulders — and they enjoyed all of this, and would not hear a word against him.¹

Then, after enjoying territory not their own for a very short time, they were robbed of their own by him for a great while to come, driven out not merely by conquest but betrayed by one another and sold.² That is the first thing freedom means to a Greek: it is the thing you have already lost when you discover you have lost it. The second thing is this: freedom and law are inseparable, and a king — a tyrant — is always the enemy of both.³

When I spoke to the Messenians and Argives, I put the question directly: you desire freedom, and yet the very titles Philip bears are utterly alien to it. To seek peace with such a man by accommodating him is not to preserve freedom; it is to exchange war for slavery under a milder name. That milder name is exactly what I described in On the Embassy — the prosecution of Aeschines for his conduct on the embassy to Philip, a speech in which I showed how this disease spreads.

Men who claim to lead in public affairs betray their own liberty and bring upon themselves a self-chosen servitude, calling it friendship and companionship with Philip.⁴ The Thessalians lost first their paramount position and dignity as a state, and then their liberty outright, with Macedonian garrisons in their citadels.⁵ The Arcadians erected his image in bronze and crowned him.⁶

Freedom, once you have begun to sell it in instalments, does not stop at the price you named. The third thing — and this is what I argued in On the Chersonese, the speech urging action to defend Diopeithes and our position in the north — is that freedom is not passive. Philip is the irreconcilable enemy of your constitution and of democracy, and unless you are inwardly convinced of this, you will not be willing to take an active interest in the situation.⁷

Wherever any one resists him, he resists him on behalf of Athens, because Athens is what he is ultimately moving against — her harbours, her dockyards, her ships, her silver-mines, her revenues.⁸ Freedom requires a force in readiness to preserve and succour those who would otherwise be enslaved.⁹ And there is one natural safeguard, which I named to the Messenians: distrust.

Guard this possession and cleave to it; preserve it, and you need never fear disaster.¹⁰ Not the distrust of paranoia, but the sober refusal to believe that a tyrant's gifts come without a price — the price being, always, the thing you valued most.

Sources

1. when he was expelling the Athenian colonists from Poteidaea and presenting it to the Olynthians; when he had taken upon his own shoulders their quarrel with Athens, and given them the enjoyment of that territory? Did they expect, do you think, to suffer as they have done?

   The Public Orations, Vol 1

2. after enjoying territory not their own for a very short time, they are robbed of their own by him for a great while to come; they are foully driven forth--not conquered merely, but betrayed by one another and sold

   The Public Orations, Vol 1

3. the very titles that Philip bears are utterly alien to freedom? For a king, a tyrant, is always the foe of freedom and the enemy of law.

   The Public Orations, Vol 1

4. claim to lead in public affairs, are betraying their own liberty--unhappy men!--and bringing upon themselves a self-chosen servitude, under the milder names of friendship and companionship with Philip, and other such phrases

   The Public Orations, Vol 1

5. the Thessalians, who up to yesterday or the day before had lost thereby only their paramount position and their dignity as a state, are now already being stripped of their very liberty; for there are Macedonian garrisons in some of their citadels.

   The Public Orations, Vol 1

6. many of the Arcadians...are declaring their admiration for Philip, erecting his image in bronze, and crowning him

   The Public Orations, Vol 1

7. the first essential point, therefore, is this--that you conceive him to be the irreconcilable foe of your constitution and of democracy: for unless you are inwardly convinced of this, you will not be willing to take an active interest in the situation.

   The Public Orations, Vol 2

8. the harbours and the dockyards, and the ships of the Athenians, the produce of your silver-mines, and your huge revenue, have no attraction for him, or that he will leave you in possession of these

   The Public Orations, Vol 2

9. as Philip has the force in readiness that is to injure and enslave all the Hellenes, you may have in readiness that which shall preserve and succour them.

   The Public Orations, Vol 2

10. there is one safeguard which all sensible men possess by nature...It is distrust. Guard this possession and cleave to it; preserve this, and you need never fear disaster.

    The Public Orations, Vol 1