Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Demosthenes
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
Demosthenes
(legendary, died 322 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
Whoever it was, Sosius, that wrote the poem in honour of Alcibiades, upon
his winning the chariot-race at the Olympian Games, whether it were Euripides,
as is most commonly thought, or some other person, he tells us that to
a man's being happy it is in the first place requisite he should be born
in "some famous city." But for him that would attain to true happiness,
which for the most part is placed in the qualities and disposition of the
mind, it is, in my opinion, of no other disadvantage to be of a mean, obscure
country, than to be born of a small or plain-looking woman. For it were
ridiculous to think that Iulis, a little part of Ceos, which itself is
no great island, and Aegina, which an Athenian once said ought to be removed,
like a small eyesore, from the port of Piraeus should breed good actors
and poets, and yet should never be able to produce a just, temperate, wise,
and high-minded man. Other arts, whose end it is to acquire riches or honour,
are likely enough to wither and decay in poor and undistinguished towns;
but virtue, like a strong and durable plant, may take root and thrive in
any place where it can lay hold of an ingenuous nature, and a mind that
is industrious. I, for my part, shall desire that for any deficiency of
mine in right judgment or action, I myself may be, as in fairness, held
accountable, and shall not attribute it to the obscurity of my
birthplace.
But if any man undertake to write a history that has to be collected
from materials gathered by observation and the reading of works not easy
to be got in all places, nor written always in his own language, but many
of them foreign and dispersed in other hands, for him, undoubtedly, it
is in the first place and above all things most necessary to reside in
some city of good note, addicted to liberal arts, and populous; where he
may have plenty of all sorts of books, and upon inquiry may hear and inform
himself of such particulars as, having escaped the pens of writers, are
more faithfully preserved in the memories of men, lest his work be deficient
in many things, even those which it can least dispense
with.
But for me, I live in a little town, where I am willing to continue,
lest it should grow less; and having had no leisure, while I was in Rome
and other parts of Italy, to exercise myself in the Roman language, on
account of public business and of those who came to be instructed by me
in philosophy, it was very late, and in the decline of my age, before I
applied myself to the reading of Latin authors. Upon which that which happened
to me may seem strange, though it be true; for it was not so much by the
knowledge of words that I came to the understanding of things, as by my
experience of things I was enabled to follow the meaning of words. But
to appreciate the graceful and ready pronunciation of the Roman tongue,
to understand the various figures and connection of words, and such other
ornaments, in which the beauty of speaking consists, is, I doubt not, an
admirable and delightful accomplishment; but it requires a degree of practice
and study which is not easy, and will better suit those who have more leisure,
and time enough yet before them for the occupation.
And so in this fifth book of my Parallel Lives, in giving an account
of Demosthenes and Cicero, my comparison of their natural dispositions
and their characters will be formed upon their actions and their lives
as statesmen, and I shall not pretend to criticize their orations one against
the other, to show which of the two was the more charming or the more powerful
speaker. For there, as Ion says-
"We are but like a fish upon dry land;" a proverb which Caecilius
perhaps forgot, when he employed his always adventurous talents in so ambitious
an attempt as a comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero; and, possibly, if
it were a thing obvious and easy for every man to know himself, the precept
had not passed for an oracle.
The divine power seems originally to have designed Demosthenes
and Cicero upon the same plan, giving them many similarities in their natural
characters, as their passion for distinction and their love of liberty
in civil life, and their want of courage in dangers and war, and at the
same time also to have added many accidental resemblances. I think there
can hardly be found two other orators, who, from small and obscure beginnings,
became so great and mighty; who both contested with kings and tyrants;
both lost their daughters, were driven out of their country, and returned
with honour; who, flying from thence again, were both seized upon by their
enemies, and at last ended their lives with the liberty of their countrymen.
So that if we were to suppose there had been a trial of skill between nature
and fortune, as there is sometimes between artists, it would be hard to
judge whether that succeeded best in making them alike in their dispositions
and manners, or this in the coincidences of their lives. We will speak
of the eldest first.
Demosthenes, the father of Demosthenes, was a citizen of good rank
and quality, as Theopompus informs us, surnamed the Sword-maker, because
he had a large workhouse, and kept servants skilful in that art at work.
But of that which Aeschines the orator said of his mother, that she was
descended of one Gylon, who fled his country upon an accusation of treason,
and of a barbarian woman, I can affirm nothing, whether he spoke true,
or slandered and maligned her. This is certain, that Demosthenes, being
as yet but seven years old was left by his father in affluent circumstances,
the whole value of his estate being little short of fifteen talents, and
that he was wronged by his guardians, part of his fortune being embezzled
by them, and the rest neglected; insomuch that even his teachers were defrauded
of their salaries. This was the reason that he did not obtain the liberal
education that he should have had; besides that, on account of weakness
and delicate health, his mother would not let him exert himself, and his
teachers forbore to urge him. He was meagre and sickly from the first,
and hence had his nickname of Batalus given him, it is said, by the boys,
in derision of his appearance; Batalus being, as some tell us, a certain
enervated flute-player, in ridicule of whom Antiphanes wrote a play. Others
speak of Batalus as a writer of wanton verses and drinking songs. And it
would seem that some part of the body, not decent to be named, was at that
time called batalus by the Athenians. But the name of Argas, which also
they say was a nickname of Demosthenes, was given him for his behaviour,
as being savage and spiteful, argas being one of the poetical words for
a snake; or for his disagreeable way of speaking, Argas being the name
of a poet who composed very harshly and disagreeably. So much, as Plato
says, for such matters.
The first occasion of his eager inclination to oratory, they say,
was this. Callistratus, the orator, being to plead in open court for Oropus,
the expectation of the issue of that cause was very great, as well for
the ability of the orator, who was then at the height of his reputation,
as also for the fame of the action itself. Therefore, Demosthenes, having
heard the tutors and school-masters agreeing among themselves to be present
at this trial, with much importunity persuades his tutor to take him along
with him to the hearing; who, having some acquaintance with the doorkeepers,
procured a place where the boy might sit unseen, and hear what was said.
Callistratus having got the day, and being much admired, the boy began
to look upon his glory with a kind of emulation, observing how he was courted
on all hands, and attended on his way by the multitude; but his wonder
was more than all excited by the power of his eloquence, which seemed able
to subdue and win over anything. From this time, therefore, bidding farewell
to other sorts of learning and study, he now began to exercise himself,
and to take pains in declaiming, as one that meant to be himself also an
orator. He made use of Isaeus as his guide to the art of speaking, though
Isocrates at that time was giving lessons; whether, as some say, because
he was an orphan, and was not able to pay Isocrates his appointed fee of
ten minae or because he preferred Isaeus's speaking, as being more businesslike
and effective in actual use. Hermippus says that he met with certain memoirs
without any author's name, in which it was written that Demosthenes was
a scholar to Plato, and learnt much of his eloquence from him; and he also
mentions Ctesibius, as reporting from Callias of Syracuse and some others,
that Demosthenes secretly obtained a knowledge of the systems of Isocrates
and Alcidamas, and mastered them thoroughly.
As soon, therefore, as he was grown up to man's estate, he began
to go to law with his guardians, and to write orations against them; who,
in the meantime, had recourse to various subterfuges and pleas for new
trials, and Demosthenes, though he was thus, as Thucydides says, taught
his business in dangers, and by his own exertions was successful in his
suit, was yet unable for all this to recover so much as a small fraction
of his patrimony. He only attained some degree of confidence in speaking,
and some competent experience in it. And having got a taste of the honour
and power which are acquired by pleadings, he now ventured to come forth,
and to undertake public business. And, as it is said of Laomedon, the Orchomenian,
that, by advice of his physician, he used to run long distances to keep
off some disease of his spleen, and by that means having, through labour
and exercise, framed the habit of his body, he betook himself to the great
garland games, and became one of the best runners at the long race; so
it happened to Demosthenes, who, first venturing upon oratory for the recovery
of his own private property, by this acquired ability in speaking, and
at length, in public business, as it were in the great games, came to have
the pre-eminence of all competitors in the assembly. But when he first
addressed himself to the people, he met with great discouragements, and
was derided for his strange and uncouth style, which was cumbered with
long sentences and tortured with formal arguments to a most harsh and disagreeable
excess. Besides, he had, it seems, a weakness in his voice, a perplexed
and indistinct utterance and a shortness of breath, which, by breaking
and disjointing his sentences, much obscured the sense and meaning of what
he spoke. So that in the end being quite disheartened, he forsook the assembly;
and as he was walking carelessly and sauntering about the Piraeus, Eunomus,
the Thriasian, then a very old man, seeing him, upbraided him, saying that
his diction was very much like that of Pericles, and that he was wanting
to himself through cowardice and meanness of spirit, neither bearing up
with courage against popular outcry, nor fitting his body for action, but
suffering it to languish through mere sloth and negligence.
Another time, when the assembly had refused to hear him, and he
was going home with his head muffled up, taking it very heavily, they relate
that Satyrus, the actor, followed him, and being his familiar acquaintance,
entered into conversation with him. To whom, when Demosthenes bemoaned
himself, that having been the most industrious of all the pleaders, and
having almost spent the whole strength and vigour of his body in that employment,
he could not yet find any acceptance with the people, that drunken sots,
mariners, and illiterate fellows were heard, and had the husting's for
their own, while he himself was despised, "You say true, Demosthenes,"
replied Satyrus, "but I will quickly remedy the cause of all this, if you
will repeat to me some passage out of Euripides or Sophocles." Which when
Demosthenes had pronounced, Satyrus presently taking it up after him, gave
the same passage, in his rendering of it, such a new form, by accompanying
it with the proper mien and gesture, that to Demosthenes it seemed quite
another thing. By this, being convinced how much grace and ornament language
acquires from action, he began to esteem it a small matter, and as good
as nothing for a man to exercise himself in declaiming, if he neglected
enunciation and delivery. Hereupon he built himself a place to study in
under ground (which was still remaining in our time), and hither he would
come constantly every day to form his action and to exercise his voice;
and here he would continue, oftentimes without intermission, two or three
months together, shaving one half of his head, that so for shame he might
not go abroad, though he desired it ever so much.
Nor was this all, but he also made his conversation with people
abroad, his common speech, and his business, subservient to his studies,
taking from hence occasions and arguments as matter to work upon. For as
soon as he was parted from his company, down he would go at once into his
study, and run over everything in order that had passed, and the reasons
that might be alleged for and against it. Any speeches, also, that he was
present at, he would go over again with himself, and reduce into periods;
and whatever others spoke to him, or he to them, he would correct, transform,
and vary several ways. Hence it was that he was looked upon as a person
of no great natural genius, but one who owed all the power and ability
he had in speaking to labour and industry. Of the truth of which it was
thought to be no small sign that he was very rarely heard to speak upon
the occasion, but though he were by name frequently called upon by the
people, as he sat in the assembly, yet he would not rise unless he had
previously considered the subject, and came prepared for it. So that many
of the popular pleaders used to make it a jest against him; and Pytheas
once, scoffing at him, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp. To which
Demosthenes gave the sharp answer, "It is true, indeed, Pytheas, that your
lamp and mine are not conscious of the same things." To others, however,
he would not much deny it, but would admit frankly enough, that he neither
entirely wrote his speeches beforehand, nor yet spoke wholly extempore.
And he would affirm that it was the more truly popular act to use premeditation,
such preparation being a kind of respect to the people; whereas, to slight
and take no care how what is said is likely to be received by the audience,
shows something of an oligarchical temper, and is the course of one that
intends force rather than persuasion. Of his want of courage and assurance
to speak offhand, they make it also another argument that, when he was
at a loss and discomposed, Demades would often rise up on the sudden to
support him, but he was never observed to do the same for
Demades.
Whence then, may some say, was it, that Aeschines speaks of him
as a person so much to be wondered at for his boldness in speaking? Or,
how could it be, when Python, the Byzantine, with so much confidence and
such a torrent of words inveighed against the Athenians, that Demosthenes
alone stood up to oppose him? Or when Lamarchus, the Myrinaean, had written
a panegyric upon King Philip and Alexander, in which he uttered many things
in reproach of the Thebans and Olynthians, and at the Olympic Games recited
it publicly, how was it that he, rising up, and recounting historically
and demonstratively what benefits and advantages all Greece had received
from the Thebans and Chalcidians, and, on the contrary, what mischiefs
the flatterers of the Macedonians had brought upon it, so turned the minds
of all that were present that the sophist, in alarm at the outcry against
him, secretly made his way out of the assembly? But Demosthenes, it should
seem, regarded other points in the character of Pericles to be unsuited
to him; but his reserve and his sustained manner, and his forbearing to
speak on the sudden, or upon every occasion, as being the things to which
principally he owed his greatness, these he followed, and endeavoured to
imitate, neither wholly neglecting the glory which present occasion offered,
nor yet willing too often to expose his faculty to the mercy of chance.
For, in fact, the orations which were spoken by him had much more of boldness
and confidence in them than those that he wrote, if we may believe Eratosthenes,
Demetrius the Phalerian, and the Comedians. Eratosthenes says that often
in his speaking he would be transported into a kind of ecstasy, and Demetrius,
that he uttered the famous metrical adjuration to the
people-
"By the earth, the springs, the rivers, and the streams," as a
man inspired and beside himself. One of the comedians calls him a rhopoperperethras,
and another scoffs at him for his use of antithesis:-
"And what he took, took back; a phrase to please,
The very fancy of Demosthenes." Unless, indeed, this also is meant
by Antiphanes for a jest upon the speech on Halonesus, which Demosthenes
advised the Athenians not to take at Philip's hands, but to take
back.
All, however, used to consider Demades, in the mere use of his
natural gifts, an orator impossible to surpass, and that in what he spoke
on the sudden, he excelled all the study and preparation of Demosthenes.
And Ariston, the Chian, has recorded a judgment which Theophrastus passed
upon the orators; for being asked what kind of orator he accounted Demosthenes,
he answered, "Worthy of the city of Athens;" and then what he thought of
Demades, he answered, "Above it." And the same philosopher reports that
Polyeuctus, the Sphettian, one of the Athenian politicians about that time,
was wont to say that Demosthenes was the greatest orator, but Phocion the
ablest; as he expressed the most sense in the fewest words. And, indeed,
it is related that Demosthenes himself, as often as Phocion stood up to
plead against him, would say to his acquaintance, "Here comes the knife
to my speech." Yet it does not appear whether he had this feeling for his
powers of speaking, or for his life and character, and meant to say that
one word or nod from a man who was really trusted would go further than
a thousand lengthy periods from others.
Demetrius, the Phalerian, tells us that he was informed by Demosthenes
himself, now grown old, that the ways he made use of to remedy his natural
bodily infirmities and defects were such as these; his inarticulate and
stammering pronunciation he overcame and rendered more distinct by speaking
with pebbles in his mouth; his voice he disciplined by declaiming and reciting
speeches or verses when he was out of breath, while running or going up
steep places; and that in his house he had a large looking-glass, before
which he would stand and go through his exercises. It is told that some
one once came to request his assistance as a pleader, and related how he
had been assaulted and beaten. "Certainly," said Demosthenes, "nothing
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," replied Demosthenes, "now I hear the voice of one that has been injured
and beaten." Of so great consequence towards the gaining of 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 by well-educated
people, as, for example, by Demetrius, the Phalerian, it was looked upon
as mean, humiliating, and unmanly. And Hermippus says of Aesion, that,
being asked his opinion concerning the ancient orators, and those of his
own time, he answered that it was admirable to see with what composure
and in what high style they addressed themselves to the people; but that
the orations 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 characterized by austere tone and by their severity.
In his extempore retorts and rejoinders, he allowed himself the use of
jest and mockery. When Demades said, "Demosthenes teach me! So might the
sow teach Minerva!" he replied, "Was it this Minerva, that was lately found
playing the harlot in Collytus?" When a thief, who had the nickname of
the Brazen, was attempting to upbraid him for sitting up late, and writing
by candle-light, "I know very well," said he, "that you had rather have
all lights out; and wonder not, O ye 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 much more to mention, we will add nothing
at present. We will proceed to take an estimate of his character from his
actions and his life as a statesmen.
His first entering into public business was much about the time
of the Phocian war, as himself affirms, and may be collected from his Philippic
orations. For of these, some were made after that action was over, and
the earliest of them refer to its concluding events. It is certain that
he engaged in the accusation of Midias when he was but two-and-thirty years
old, having as yet no interest or reputation as a politician. And this
it was, I consider, that induced him to withdraw the action, and accept
a sum of money as a compromise. For of himself-
"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 well secured on all
sides with money, eloquence, and friends, he yielded to the entreaties
of those who interceded for him. But had he seen any hopes or possibility
of prevailing, I cannot believe that three thousand drachmas could have
taken off the edge of his revenge. The object which he chose for himself
in the commonwealth was noble and just, the defence of the Grecians against
Philip; and in this he behaved himself so worthily 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, and
by Philip himself he was more esteemed than all the other orators. His
very enemies were forced to confess that they had to do with a man of mark;
for such a character even Aeschines and Hyperides give him, where they
accuse and speak against him.
So that I cannot imagine what ground Theopompus 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 held
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 apologize for shifting sides like
Demades, who would say he often spoke against himself, but never against
the city; nor as Melanopus, who being generally against Callistratus, but
being often bribed off with money, was wont to tell the people, "The man
indeed is my enemy, but we must submit for the good of our country;" nor
again as Nicodemus, the Messenian, who having first appeared on Cassander's
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 say 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. Panaetius,
the philosopher, said that most of his orations are so 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 declares, over and over again, that they ought in the
first place to prefer that which is just and honourable before their own
safety and preservation. So that if he had kept his hands clean, if his
courage for the wars 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 Moerocles, Polyeuctus, and Hyperides,
but in the highest rank with Cimon, Thucydides, and
Pericles.
Certainly amongst those who were contemporary 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 these of Ephialtes,
Aristides, and Cimon. But Demosthenes, being neither fit to be relied on
for courage in arms, as Demetrius says, nor on all sides inaccessible to
bribery (for how invincible soever he was against the gifts of Philip and
the Macedonians, yet elsewhere he lay open to assault, and was overpowered
by the gold which came down from Susa and Ecbatana), was therefore esteemed
better able to recommend than to imitate the virtues of past times. And
yet (excepting only Phocion), even in his life and manners, he far surpassed
the other orators of his time. None of them addressed the people so boldly;
he attacked 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 by name selected Demosthenes, and called upon him
to accuse a certain person, he refused to do it; upon which the assembly
being all in an uproar, he rose up and said, "Your counsellor, whether
you will or no, O ye 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.
The oration which Apollodorus made use of, and by it carried the
cause against Timotheus, the general, in an action of debt, it is said
was written for him by Demosthenes; as also those against Phormion and
Stephanus, in which latter case he was thought to have acted dishonourably,
for the speech which Phormion used against Apollodorus was also of his
making; he, as it were, having simply furnished two adversaries out of
the same shop with weapons to wound one another. Of his orations addressed
to the public assemblies, that against Androtion and those against Timocrates
and Aristocrates, were written for others, before he had come forward himself
as a politician. They were composed, it seems, when he was but seven or
eight and twenty years old. That against Aristogiton, and that for the
Immunities, he spoke himself, at the request, as he says, of Ctesippus,
the son of Chabrias, but, as some say, out of courtship to the young man's
mother. Though, in fact, he did not marry her, for his wife was a woman
of Samos, as Demetrius, the Magnesian, writes, in his book on Persons of
the same Name. It is not certain whether his oration against Aeschines,
for Misconduct as Ambassador, was ever spoken; although Idomeneus says
that Aeschines wanted only thirty voices to condemn him. But this seems
not to be correct, at least so far as may be conjectured from both their
orations concerning the Crown; for in these, neither of them speaks clearly
or directly of it, as a cause that ever came to trial. But let others decide
this controversy.
It was evident, even in time of peace, what course Demosthenes
would steer in the commonwealth; for whatever was done by the Macedonian,
he criticized and found fault with, and upon all occasions was stirring
up the people of Athens, and inflaming them against him. Therefore, in
the court of Philip, no man was so much talked of, or of so great account
as he; and when he came thither, one of the ten ambassadors who were sent
into Macedonia, though all had audience given them, yet his speech was
answered with most care and exactness. But in other respects, Philip entertained
him not so honourably as the rest, neither did he show him the same kindness
and civility with which he applied himself to the party of Aeschines and
Philocrates. So that, when the others commended Philip for his able speaking,
his beautiful person, nay, and also for his good companionship in drinking,
Demosthenes could not refrain from cavilling at these praises; the first,
he said, was a quality which might well enough become a rhetorician, the
second a woman, and the last was only the property of a sponge; no one
of them was the proper commendation of a prince.
But when things came at last to war, Philip on the one side being
not able to live in peace, and the Athenians, on the other side, being
stirred up by Demosthenes, the first action he put them upon was the reducing
of Euboea, which, by the treachery of the tyrants, was brought under subjection
to Philip. And on his proposition, the decree was voted, and they crossed
over thither and chased the Macedonians out of the island. The next was
the relief of the Byzantines and Perinthians, whom the Macedonians at that
time were attacking. He persuaded the people to lay aside their enmity
against these cities, to forget the offences committed by them in the Confederate
War, and to send them such succours as eventually saved and secured them.
Not long after, he undertook an embassy through the states of Greece, which
he solicited and so far incensed against Philip that, a few only excepted,
he brought them all into a general league. So that, besides the forces
composed of the citizens themselves, there was an army consisting of fifteen
thousand foot and two thousand horse, and the money to pay these strangers
was levied and brought in with great cheerfulness. On which occasion it
was, says Theophrastus, on the allies requesting that their contributions
for the war might be ascertained and stated, Crobylus, the orator, made
use of the saying, "War can't be fed at so much a day." Now was all Greece
up in arms, and in great expectation what would be the event. The Euboeans,
the Achaeans, the Corinthians, the Megarians, the Leucadians, and Corcyraeans,
their people and their cities, were all joined together in a league. But
the hardest task was yet behind, left for Demosthenes, to draw the Thebans
into this confederacy with the rest. Their country bordered next upon Attica,
they had great forces for the war, and at that time they were accounted
the best soldiers of all Greece, but it was no easy matter to make them
break with Philip, who, by many good offices, had so lately obliged them
in the Phocian war; especially considering how the subjects of dispute
and variance between the two cities were continually renewed and exasperated
by petty quarrels, arising out of the proximity of their
frontiers.
But after Philip, being now grown high and puffed up with his good
success at Amphissa, on a sudden surprised Elatea and possessed himself
of Phocis, and the Athenians were in a great consternation, none durst
venture to rise up to speak, no one knew what to say, all were at a loss,
and the whole assembly in silence and perplexity, in this extremity of
affairs Demosthenes was the only man who appeared, his counsel to them
being alliance with the Thebans. And having in other ways encouraged the
people, and, as his manner was, raised their spirits up with hopes, he,
with some others, was sent ambassador to Thebes. To oppose him, as Marsyas
says, Philip also sent thither his envoys, Amyntas and Clearchus, two Macedonians,
besides Daochus, a Thessalian, and Thrasydaeus. Now the Thebans, in their
consultations, were well enough aware what suited best with their own interest,
but every one had before his eyes the terrors of war, and their losses
in the Phocian troubles were still recent: but such was the force and power
of the orator, fanning up, as Theopompus says, their courage, and firing
their emulation, that, casting away every thought of prudence, fear, or
obligation, in a sort of divine possession, they chose the path of honour,
to which his words invited them. And this success, thus accomplished by
an orator, was thought to be so glorious and of such consequence, that
Philip immediately sent heralds to treat and petition for a peace: all
Greece was aroused, and up in arms to help. And the commanders-in-chief,
not only of Attica, but of Boeotia, applied themselves to Demosthenes,
and observed his directions. He managed all the assemblies of the Thebans,
no less than those of the Athenians; he was beloved both by the one and
by the other, and exercised the same supreme authority with both; and that
not by unfair means, or without just cause, as Theopompus professes, but
indeed it was no more than was due to his merit.
But there was, it would seem, some divinely ordered fortune, commissioned,
in the revolution of things, to put a period at this time to the liberty
of Greece, which opposed and thwarted all their actions, and by many signs
foretold what should happen. Such were the sad predictions uttered by the
Pythian priestess, and this old oracle cited out of the Sibyl's
verses:-
"The battle on Thermodon that shall be
Safe at a distance I desire to see,
Far, like an eagle, watching in the air,
Conquered shall weep, and conqueror perish there."
This Thermodon, they say, is a little rivulet here in our country
in Chaeronea, running into the Cephisus. But we know of none that is so
called at the present time, and can only conjecture that the streamlet
which is now called Haemon, and runs by the Temple of Hercules, where the
Grecians were encamped, might perhaps in those days be called Thermodon,
and after the fight, being filled with blood and dead bodies, upon this
occasion, as we guess, might change its old name for that which it now
bears. Yet Duris says that this Thermodon was no river, but that some of
the soldiers, as they were pitching their tents and digging trenches about
them, found a small stone statue, which, by the inscription, appeared to
be the figure of Thermodon, carrying a wounded Amazon in his arms; and
that there was another oracle current about it, as follows:-
"The battle on Thermodon that shall be,
Fail not, black raven, to attend and see;
The flesh of men shall there abound for thee."
In fine, it is not easy to determine what is the truth. But of
Demosthenes it is said that he had such great confidence in the Grecian
forces, and was so excited by the sight of the courage and resolution of
so many brave men ready to engage the enemy, that he would by no means
endure they should give any heed to oracles, or hearken to prophecies,
but gave out that he suspected even the prophetess herself, as if she had
been tampered with to speak in favour of Philip. The Thebans he put in
mind of Epaminondas, the Athenians of Pericles, who always took their own
measures and governed their actions by reason, looking upon things of this
kind as mere pretexts for cowardice. Thus far, therefore, Demosthenes acquitted
himself like a brave man. But in the fight he did nothing honourable, nor
was his performance answerable to his speeches. For he fled, deserting
his place disgracefully, and throwing away his arms, not ashamed, as Pytheas
observed, to belie the inscription written on his shield, in letters of
gold, "With good fortune."
In the meantime Philip, in the first moment of victory, was so
transported with joy, that he grew extravagant, and going out after he
had drunk largely to visit the dead bodies, he chanted the first words
of the decree that had been passed on the motion of
Demosthenes-
"The motion of Demosthenes, Demosthenes's son," dividing it metrically
into feet, and marking the beats.
But when he came to himself, and had well considered the danger
he was lately under, he could not forbear from shuddering at the wonderful
ability and power of an orator who had made him hazard his life and empire
on the issue of a few brief hours. The fame of it also reached even to
the court of Persia, and the king sent letters to his lieutenants commanding
them to supply Demosthenes with money, and to pay every attention to him,
as the only man of all the Grecians who was able to give Philip occupation
and find employment for his forces near home, in the troubles of Greece.
This, afterwards came to the knowledge of Alexander, by certain letters
of Demosthenes which he found at Sardis, and by other papers of the Persian
officers, stating the large sums which had been given
him.
At this time, however, upon the ill-success which now happened
to the Grecians, those of the contrary faction in the commonwealth fell
foul upon Demosthenes and took the opportunity to frame several informations
and indictments against him. But the people not only acquitted him of these
accusations, but continued towards him their former respect, and still
invited him, as a man that meant well, to take a part in public affairs.
Insomuch that when the bones of those who had been slain at Chaeronea were
brought home to be solemnly interred, Demosthenes was the man they chose
to make the funeral oration. They did not show, under the misfortunes which
befell them, a base or ignoble mind, as Theopompus writes in his exaggerated
style, but on the contrary, by the honour and respect paid to their counsellor,
they made it appear that they were noway dissatisfied with the counsels
he had given them. The speech, therefore, was spoken by Demosthenes. But
the subsequent decrees he would not allow to be passed in his own name,
but made use of those of his friends, one after another, looking upon his
own as unfortunate and inauspicious; till at length he took courage again
after the death of Philip, who did not long outlive his victory at Chaeronea.
And this, it seems, was that which was foretold in the last verse of the
oracle-
"Conquered shall weep, and conqueror perish there." Demosthenes
had secret intelligence of the death of Philip, and laying hold of this
opportunity to prepossess the people with courage and better hopes for
the future, he came into the assembly with a cheerful countenance, pretending
to have had a dream that presaged some great good fortune for Athens; and,
not long after, arrived the messengers who brought the news of Philip's
death. No sooner had the people received it, but immediately they offered
sacrifice to the gods, and decreed that Pausanias should be presented with
a crown. Demosthenes appeared publicly in a rich dress, with a chaplet
on his head, though it were but the seventh day since the death of his
daughter, as is said by Aeschines, who upbraids him upon this account,
and rails at him as one void of natural affection towards his children.
Whereas, indeed, he rather betrays himself to be of a poor, low spirit,
and effeminate mind, if he really means to make wailings and lamentation
the only signs of a gentle and affectionate nature, and to condemn those
who bear such accidents with more temper and less passion. For my own part,
I cannot say that the behaviour of the Athenians on this occasion was wise
or honourable, to crown themselves with garlands and to sacrifice to the
gods for the death of a prince who, in the midst of his success and victories,
when they were a conquered people, had used them with so much clemency
and humanity. For besides provoking fortune, it was a base thing, and unworthy
in itself, to make him a citizen of Athens, and pay him honours while he
lived, and yet as soon as he fell by another's hand, to set no bounds to
their jollity, to insult over him dead, and to sing triumphant songs of
victory, as if by their own valour they had vanquished him. I must at the
same time commend the behaviour of Demosthenes, who, leaving tears and
lamentations and domestic sorrows to the women, made it his business to
attend to the interests of the commonwealth. And I think it the duty of
him who would be accounted to have a soul truly valiant, and fit for government,
that, standing always firm to the common good, and letting private griefs
and troubles find their compensation in public blessings, he should maintain
the dignity of his character and station, much more than actors who represent
the persons of kings and tyrants, who, we see, when they either laugh or
weep on the stage, follow, not their own private inclinations, but the
course consistent with the subject and with their position. And if, moreover,
when our neighbour is in misfortune, it is not our duty to forbear offering
any consolation, but rather to say whatever may tend to cheer him, and
to invite his attention to any agreeable objects, just as we tell people
who are troubled with sore eyes to withdraw their sight from bright and
offensive colours to green, and those of a softer mixture, from whence
can a man seek, in his own case, better arguments of consolation for afflictions
in his family, than from the prosperity of his country, by making public
and domestic chances count, so to say, together, and the better fortune
of the state obscure and conceal the less happy circumstances of the individual.
I have been induced to say so much, because I have known many readers melted
by Aeschines's language into a soft and unmanly tenderness.
But now to turn to my narrative. The cities of Greece were inspirited
once more by the efforts of Demosthenes to form a league together. The
Thebans, whom he had provided with arms, set upon their garrison, and slew
many of them; the Athenians made preparations to join their forces with
them; Demosthenes ruled supreme in the popular assembly, and wrote letters
to the Persian officers who commanded under the king in Asia, inciting
them to make war upon the Macedonian, calling him child and simpleton.
But as soon as Alexander had settled matters in his own country, and came
in person with his army into Boeotia, down fell the courage of the Athenians,
and Demosthenes was hushed; the Thebans, deserted by them, fought by themselves,
and lost their city. After which, the people of Athens, all in distress
and great perplexity, resolved to send ambassadors to Alexander, and amongst
others, made choice of Demosthenes for one; but his heart failing him for
fear of the king's anger, he returned back from Cithaeron, and left the
embassy. In the meantime, Alexander sent to Athens, requiring ten of their
orators to be delivered up to him, as Idomeneus and Duris have reported,
but as the most and best historians say, he demanded these eight only,-
Demosthenes, Polyeuctus, Ephialtes, Lycurgus, Moerocles, Demon, Callisthenes,
and Charidemus. It was upon this occasion that Demosthenes related to them
the fable in which the sheep are said to deliver up their dogs to the wolves;
himself and those who with him contended for the people's safety being,
in his comparison, the dogs that defended the flock, and Alexander "the
Macedonian arch-wolf." He further told them, "As we see corn-masters sell
their whole stock by a few grains of wheat which they carry about with
them in a dish, as a sample of the rest, so you by delivering up us, who
are but a few, do at the same time unawares surrender up yourselves all
together with us so we find it related in the history of Aristobulus, the
Cassandrian. The Athenians were deliberating, and at a loss what to do,
when Demades, having agreed with the persons whom Alexander had demanded,
for five talents, undertook to go ambassador, and to intercede with the
king for them; and, whether it was that he relied on his friendship and
kindness, or that he hoped to find him satiated, as a lion glutted with
slaughter, he certainly went, and prevailed with him both to pardon the
men, and to be reconciled to the city.
So he and his friends, when Alexander went away, were great men,
and Demosthenes was quite put aside. Yet when Agis, the Spartan, made his
insurrection, he also for a short time attempted a movement in his favour;
but he soon shrunk back again, as the Athenians would not take any part
in it, and, Agis being slain, the Lacedaemonians were vanquished. During
this time it was that the indictment against Ctesiphon, concerning the
crown, was brought to trial. The action was commenced a little before the
battle in Chaeronea, when Chaerondas was archon, but it was not proceeded
with till about ten years after, Aristophon being then archon. Never was
any public cause more celebrated than this, alike for the fame of the orators,
and for the generous courage of the judges, who, though at that time the
accusers of Demosthenes were in the height of power, and supported by all
the favour of the Macedonians, yet would not give judgment against him,
but acquitted him so honourably, that Aeschines did not obtain the fifth
part of their suffrages on his side, so that, immediately after, he left
the city, and spent the rest of his life in teaching rhetoric about the
island of Rhodes, and upon the continent in Ionia.
It was not long after that Harpalus fled from Alexander, and came
to Athens out of Asia; knowing himself guilty of many misdeeds into which
his love of luxury had led him, and fearing the king, who was now grown
terrible even to his best friends. Yet this man had no sooner addressed
himself to the people, and delivered up his goods, his ships, and himself
to their disposal, but the other orators of the town had their eyes quickly
fixed upon his money, and came in to his assistance, persuading the Athenians
to receive and protect their suppliant. Demosthenes at first gave advice
to chase him out of the country, and to beware lest they involved their
city in a war upon an unnecessary and unjust occasion. But some few days
after, as they were taking an account of the treasure, Harpalus, perceiving
how much he was pleased with a cup of Persian manufacture, and how curiously
he surveyed the sculpture and fashion of it, desired him to poise it in
his hand, and consider the weight of the gold. Demosthenes, being amazed
to feel how heavy it was, asked him what weight it came to. "To you," said
Harpalus, smiling, "it shall come with twenty talents." And presently after,
when night drew on, he sent him the cup with so many talents. Harpalus,
it seems, was a person of singular skill to discern a man's covetousness
by the air of his countenance, and the look and movements of his eyes.
For Demosthenes could not resist the temptation, but admitting the present,
like an armed garrison, into the citadel of his house, he surrendered himself
up to the interest of Harpalus. The next day, he came into the assembly
with his neck swathed about with wool and rollers, and when they called
on him to rise up and speak, he made signs as if he had lost his voice.
But the wits, turning the matter to ridicule, said that certainly the orator
had been seized that night with no other than a silver quinsy. And soon
after, the people, becoming aware of the bribery, grew angry, and would
not suffer him to speak, or make any apology for himself, but ran him down
with noise; and one man stood up, and cried out, "What, ye men of Athens,
will you not hear the cup-bearer?" So at length they banished Harpalus
out of the city; and fearing lest they should be called to account for
the treasure which the orators had purloined, they made a strict inquiry,
going from house to house; only Callicles, the son of Arrhenidas, who was
newly married, they would not suffer to be searched, out of respects, as
Theopompus writes, to the bride, who was within.
Demosthenes resisted the inquisition, and proposed a decree to
refer the business to the court of Areopagus, and to punish those whom
that court should find guilty. But being himself one of the first whom
the court condemned, when he came to the bar, he was fined fifty talents,
and committed to prison; where, out of shame of the crime for which he
was condemned, and through the weakness of his body, growing incapable
of supporting the confinement, he made his escape, by the carelessness
of some and by the contrivance of others of the citizens. We are told,
at least, that he had not fled far from the city when, finding that he
was pursued by some of those who had been his adversaries, he endeavoured
to hide himself. But when they called him by his name, and coming up nearer
to him, desired he would accept from them some money which they had brought
from home as a provision for his journey, and to that purpose only had
followed him, when they entreated him to take courage, and to bear up against
his misfortune, he burst out into much greater lamentation, saying, "But
how is it possible to support myself under so heavy an affliction, since
I leave a city in which I have such enemies, as in any other it is not
easy to find friends." He did not show much fortitude in his banishment,
spending his time for the most part in Aegina and Troezen, and, with tears
in his eyes, looking towards the country of Attica. And there remain upon
record some sayings of his, little resembling those sentiments of generosity
and bravery which he used to express when he had the management of the
commonwealth. For, as he was departing out of the city, it is reported,
he lifted up his hands towards the Acropolis, and said, "O Lady Minerva,
how is it that thou takest delight in three such fierce untractable beasts,
the owl, the snake, and the people?" The young men that came to visit and
converse with him, he deterred from meddling with state affairs, telling
them, that if at first two ways had been proposed to him, the one leading
to the speaker's stand and the assembly, the other going direct to destruction,
and he could have foreseen the many evils which attend those who deal in
public business, such as fears, envies, calumnies, and contentions, he
would certainly have taken that which led straight on to his
death.
But now happened the death of Alexander, while Demosthenes was
in this banishment which we have been speaking of. And the Grecians were
once again up in arms, encouraged by the brave attempts of Leosthenes,
who was then drawing a circumvallation about Antipater, whom he held close
besieged in Lamia. Pytheas, therefore, the orator, and Callimedon, called
the Crab, fled from Athens, and taking sides with Antipater, went about
with his friends and ambassadors to keep the Grecians from revolting and
taking part with the Athenians. But, on the other side, Demosthenes, associating
himself with the ambassadors that came from Athens, used his utmost endeavours
and gave them his best assistance in persuading the cities to fall unanimously
upon the Macedonians, and to drive them out of Greece. Phylarchus says
that in Arcadia there happened a rencounter between Pytheas and Demosthenes,
which came at last to downright railing, while the one pleaded for the
Macedonians, and the other for the Grecians. Pytheas said, that as we always
suppose there is some disease in the family to which they bring asses'
milk, so wherever there comes an embassy from Athens that city must needs
be indisposed. And Demosthenes answered him, retorting the comparison:
"Asses' milk is brought to restore health and the Athenians come for the
safety and recovery of the sick." With this conduct the people of Athens
were so well pleased that they decreed the recall of Demosthenes from banishment.
The decree was brought in by Demon the Paeanian, cousin to Demosthenes.
So they sent him a ship to Aegina, and he landed at the port of Piraeus,
where he was met and joyfully received by all the citizens, not so much
as an archon or a priest staying behind. And Demetrius, the Magnesian,
says that he lifted up his hands towards heaven, and blessed this day of
his happy return, as far more honourable than that of Alcibiades; since
he was recalled by his countrymen, not through any force or constraint
put upon them, but by their own good-will and free inclinations. There
remained only his pecuniary fine, which, according to law, could not be
remitted by the people. But they found out a way to elude the law. It was
a custom with them to allow a certain quantity of silver to those who were
to furnish and adorn the altar for the sacrifice of Jupiter Soter. This
office, for that turn, they bestowed on Demosthenes, and for the performance
of it ordered him fifty talents, the very sum in which he was
condemned.
Yet it was no long time that he enjoyed his country after his return,
the attempts of the Greeks being soon all utterly defeated. For the battle
of Cranon happened in Metagitnion, in Boedromion the garrison entered into
Munychia, and in the Pyanepsion following died Demosthenes after this
manner.
Upon the report that Antipater and Craterus were coming to Athens,
Demosthenes with his party took their opportunity to escape privily out
of the city; but sentence of death was, upon the motion of Demades, passed
upon them by the people. They dispersed themselves, flying some to one
place, some to another; and Antipater sent about his soldiers into all
quarters to apprehend them. Archias was their captain, and was thence called
the exile-hunter. He was a Thurian born, and is reported to have been an
actor of tragedies, and they say that Polus, of Aegina, the best actor
of his time, was his scholar; but Hermippus reckons Archias among the disciples
of Lacritus, the orator, and Demetrius says he spent some time with Anaximenes.
This Archias finding Hyperides the orator, Aritonicus of Marathon, and
Himeraeus, the brother of Demetrius the Phalerian, in Aegina, took them
by force out of the temple of Aecus, whither they were fled for safety,
and sent them to Antipater, then at Cleonae where they were all put to
death; and Hyperides, they say, had his tongue cut out.
Demosthenes, he heard, had taken sanctuary at the temple of Neptune
in Calauria and, crossing over thither in some light vessels, as soon as
he had landed himself, and the Thracian spearmen that came with him, he
endeavoured to persuade Demosthenes to accompany him to Antipater, as if
he should meet with no hard usage from him. But Demosthenes, in his sleep
the night before, had a strange dream. It seemed to him that he was acting
a tragedy, and contended with Archias for the victory; and though he acquitted
himself well, and gave good satisfaction to the spectators, yet for want
of better furniture and provision for the stage, he lost the day. And so,
while Archias was discoursing to him with many expressions of kindness,
he sate still in the same posture, and looking up steadfastly upon him,
"O Archias," said he, "I am as little affected by your promises now as
I used formerly to be by your acting." Archias at this beginning to grow
angry and to threaten him, "Now," said Demosthenes, "you speak like the
genuine Macedonian oracle; before you were but acting a part. Therefore
forbear only a little, while I write a word or two home to my family."
Having thus spoken, he withdrew into the temple and taking a scroll as
if he meant to write, he put the reed into his mouth, and biting it as
he was wont to do when he was thoughtful or writing, he held it there some
time. Then he bowed down his head and covered it. The soldiers that stood
at the door, supposing all this to proceed from want of courage and fear
of death, in derision called him effeminate, and faint-hearted, and coward.
And Archias drawing near, desired him to rise up, and repeating the same
kind of thing he had spoken before, he once more promised to make his peace
with Antipater. But Demosthenes, perceiving that now the poison had pierced,
and seized his vitals, uncovered his head, and fixing his eyes upon Archias,
"Now," said he, "as soon as you please, you may commence the part of Creon
in the tragedy, and cast out this body of mine unburied. But, O gracious
Neptune, I, for my part while I am yet alive will rise up and depart out
of this sacred place; though Antipater and the Macedonians have not left
so much as thy temple unpolluted." After he had thus spoken and desired
to be held up, because already he began to tremble and stagger, as he was
going forward, and passing by the altar, he fell down, and with a groan
gave up the ghost.
Ariston says that he took the poison out of a reed, as we have
shown before. But Pappus, a certain historian whose history was recovered
by Hermippus, says, that as he fell near the altar, there was found in
his scroll this beginning only of a letter, and nothing more, "Demosthenes
to Antipater." And that when his sudden death was much wondered at, the
Thracians who guarded the doors reported that he took the poison into his
hand out of a rag, and put it in his mouth, and that they imagined it had
been gold which he swallowed, but the maid that served him, being examined
by the followers of Archias, affirmed that he had worn it in a bracelet
for a long time, as an amulet. And Eratosthenes also says that he kept
the poison in a hollow ring, and that that ring was the bracelet which
he wore about his arm. There are various other statements made by the many
authors who have related the story, but there is no need to enter into
their discrepancies; yet I must not omit what is said by Demochares the
relation of Demosthenes, who is of opinion it was not by the help of poison
that he met with so sudden and so easy a death, but that by the singular
favour and providence of the gods he was thus rescued from the cruelty
of the Macedonians. He died on the sixteenth of Pyanepsion, the most sad
and solemn day of the Thesmophoria, which the women observe by fasting
in the temple of the goddess.
Soon after his death, the people of Athens bestowed on him such
honours as he had deserved. They erected his statue of brass; they decreed
that the eldest of his family should be maintained in the Prytaneum; and
on the base of his statue was engraven the famous inscription-
"Had you for Greece been strong, as wise you
were,
The Macedonian had not conquered her." For it is simply ridiculous
to say, as some have related, that Demosthenes made these verses himself
in Calauria, as he was about to take the poison.
A little before he went to Athens, the following incident was said
to have happened. A soldier, being summoned to appear before his superior
officer, and answer to an accusation brought against him, put that little
gold which he had into the hands of Demosthenes's statue. The fingers of
this statue were folded one within another, and near it grew a small plane-tree,
from which many leaves, either accidently blown thither by the wind, or
placed so on purpose by the man himself, falling together and lying round
about the gold, concealed it for a long time. In the end, the soldier returned
and found his treasure entire, and the fame of this incident was spread
abroad. And many ingenious persons of the city competed with each other,
on this occasion, to vindicate the integrity of Demosthenes in several
epigrams which they made on the subject.
As for Demades, he did not long enjoy the new honours he now came
in for, divine vengeance for the death of Demosthenes pursuing him into
Macedonia, where he was justly put to death by those whom he had basely
flattered. They were weary of him before, but at this time the guilt he
lay under was manifest and undeniable. For some of his letters were intercepted,
in which he had encouraged Perdiccas to fall upon Macedonia, and to save
the Grecians, who, he said, hung only by an old rotten thread meaning Antipater.
Of this he was accused by Dinarchus, the Corinthian, and Cassander was
so enraged, that he first slew his son in his bosom, and then gave orders
to execute him; who might now at last, by his own extreme misfortunes,
learn the lesson that traitors who made sale of their country sell themselves
first; a truth which Demosthenes had often foretold him, and he would never
believe. Thus, Sosius, you have the life of Demosthenes from such accounts
as we have either read or heard concerning him.
THE END
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