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beaten.

"Certainly," said Demosthenes, ".othing of the kind can have happened to you." Upon which the other, raising his voice, exclaimed loudly, "What, Demosthenes, nothing has been done to me?" “Ah,"

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replied Demosthenes, now I hear the voice of one that has been injured and cruelly treated." Of such consequence towards gaining belief did he esteem the tone and action of the speaker. The action which he used himself was wonderfully pleasing to the common people; but persons of taste and education, as for example Demetrius the Phalerian, looked upon his intonation as something undignified, servile, and effeminate. And Hermippus says that Esion was asked his opinion of the ancient orators compared with those of his own time, and his answer was that in the actual speaking it was impossible not to admire them for the composure and the high style in which they reasoned with the people; but that the speeches of Demosthenes, when they are read, certainly appear to be superior in point of construction, and more effective.* His written speeches beyond all question are characterised by a most austere tone and by their severity: though in mere extempore retorts and rejoinders he did not abstain from mockery. When Demades said, "Demosthenes teach me! might the sow teach Minerva !" "Was it this Minerva," he replied, "that was lately found playing the harlot in Collytus ? "+ When the thief, who had the nickname

So

Esion was a fellow-scholar with Demosthenes. The comparison in his remarks gives the superiority in manner to the old speakers, whom he remembered in his youth, but in construction to Demosthenes his cotemporary.

"Sus Minervam," the proverb. Collytus, together with Melite, formed the south-west, and apparently the more agree

The

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Phocian

B.C. 357,

to 346. Thefirst

of the Brazen, was attempting to say something about his sitting up late and writing by candlelight, "I know very well," said he, "that you had rather have all lights out; and wonder not, O men of Athens, at the many robberies which are committed, since we have thieves of brass and walls of clay." But on these points, though we have more to mention, we will add nothing at present. We proceed to take an estimate of his character from his actions and his life as a statesman.

His first entering into public business was during the time of the Phocian war, as he himself tells us, war, and as may be collected from his Philippic orations; of which some were made after that action was over, and Philip the earliest refer to its concluding events. It is clear pic, B.C. that he engaged in the accusation of Midias when two and thirty years old, and that at that time he had no interest or reputation as a politician. And this it was, I imagine, that induced him to withdraw the action and accept a sum of money as a compromise. For of himself

352.

He was no easy or good-natured man,*

but of a determined disposition and resolute to see himself righted; however, finding it a hard matter and above his strength to deal with Midias, a man so fortified with money, eloquence, and friends, he yielded to

able part of Athens. Plutarch, consoling a friend who was banished from his native city, tells him people cannot all live where they like best; it is not every Athenian can live in Collytus, nor does a man consider himself a miserable exile, who has to leave a house in Melite and take one in Diomea.

*Said of Achilles in battle after the death of Patroclus. Iliad xx. 467.

the intercession made on his behalf. But had he felt himself likely and able to gain the day, I cannot believe that the three thousand drachmas could have taken off

the edge of his revenge. The object which he chose for himself in political action was noble and just, to plead the cause of Greece against Philip; and so well and worthily did he do it, that he soon grew famous, and excited attention everywhere for his eloquence and courage in speaking. He was admired through all Greece, the king of Persia courted him, by Philip himself he was more regarded than all the other orators; and his very enemies were forced to confess that they had to do with a man of mark; even Eschines and Hyperides say so, when they accuse and speak against him.

So that I cannot imagine what ground Theopom- 13 pus had to say, that Demosthenes was of a fickle unsettled disposition and could not long continue firm either to the same men or the same affairs. Whereas the contrary is most apparent; for the same party and post in politics which he took from the beginning, to these he kept constant to the end; and was so far from leaving them while he lived, that he chose rather to forsake his life than his purpose. He was never heard to apologise for shifting sides, like Demades, who would say, he often spoke against himself but never against the city; or as Melanopus, who being generally against Callistratus but being often bribed off with money, was wont to tell the people, "The man is indeed my enemy, but we must submit for the good of our country; or as Nicodemus the Messenian, who having first appeared on Cassander's

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side, and afterwards taken part with Demetrius, said the two things were not in themselves contrary, it being always most advisable to obey the conqueror. We have nothing of this kind to allege against Demosthenes, as one who would turn aside or prevaricate, either in word or deed. There could not have been less variation in his public acts if they had all been played, so to say, from first to last, from the same score. Panatius the philosopher says that most of his orations are written, as if they were to prove this one conclusion, that what is honest and virtuous is for itself only to be chosen; as that of the Crown, that against Aristocrates, that for the Immunities*, and the Philippics; in all which he persuades his fellow-citizens to pursue, not that which seems most pleasant, easy, or profitable; but repeatedly tells them to prefer what is just and honourable before their own safety and preservation. So that if he had kept his hands unsoiled on all occasions, if his courage in war had been answerable to the generosity of his principles and the dignity of his orations, he might deservedly have his name placed, not in the number of such orators as Morocles, Polyeuctus, and Hyperides, but in the highest rank with Cimon, Thucydides, and Pericles.

Certainly amongst those cotemporary with him, Phocion, though he appeared on the less commendable side in the commonwealth and was counted as one of the Macedonian party, nevertheless by his courage and his honesty procured himself a name not inferior to those of Ephialtes, Aristides, and Cimon. But Demo

* More commonly known as the oration against Leptines.

sthenes, being neither to be relied upon, as Demetrius says, in arms, nor wholly on all sides inaccessible to offers (for how invincible soever he was against the gifts of Philip and the Macedonians, yet elsewhere he lay open to assault and was carried away by the stream of gold which came down from Susa and Ecbatana), proved himself better able to recommend than to imitate the virtues of past times. And yet (excepting only Phocion) in his life and manners he far surpassed the orators of his time. None of them addressed the

people so boldly; he attacked unceasingly the faults, and opposed himself to the unreasonable desires of the multitude, as may be seen in his orations. Theopompus writes that the Athenians having called upon him to accuse a certain person, he refused to do it; upon which a great outcry following, he rose and said, "Your counsellor, whether you will or no, O men of Athens, you shall always have me; but a sycophant or false accuser, though you would have me, I shall never be." And his conduct in the case of Antiphon was perfectly aristocratical; whom, after he had been acquitted in the assembly, he took and brought before the court of Areopagus, and, setting at naught the displeasure of the people, convicted him there of having promised Philip to burn the arsenal; whereupon the man was condemned by that court and suffered for it. He accused also Theoris the priestess, amongst other misdemeanours, of having instructed and taught the slaves to deceive and cheat their masters, for which the sentence of death was passed upon her, and she was executed.

Demosthenes is said to have written for Apollodorus 15

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