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The middle of the fourth century was marked by the war between Athens and the most powerful cities of the Second Athenian Confederacy and by the rapid rise of Philip II of Macedon. On the basis of speeches written between 356 and 348, this paper studies how Athenians were advising their fellow citizens to adapt to these new challenges during a time when their hegemonic relationships with other political entities were called into question. I will consider in particular, in the line of argument of Demosthenes, the exhortation to a type of behavior based on virtues that Athenians had traditionally assigned to themselves since the Medic Wars: prothumia, eunoia, megalopsuchia. By turning the memory of the city into a means of action, Demosthenes as adviser aimed to inspire a dynamic politics of identity within the sovereign demos of Athens, which would allow Athenians, by “taking their examples from their home turf,” to fully realize what he considered to be their calling ( Third Olynthiac, 23).