424) commanding with
Hippocrates
through the blockading ships and force their
in the operation in the Megarid ; possessing him- way to sea.
in the operation in the Megarid ; possessing him- way to sea.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - a
p.
570.
) [P.
S.
] of Acamas.
(Diod.
iv.
62; Hygin.
Fab.
48.
)
DEMOʻPHANES (nuo dvns), of Megalopolis. According to Pindar (ap. Plut. Thes. 28), he was
a Platonic philosopher, and a disciple of Arcesilas. the son of Theseus by Antiope. He accompanied
(Plut. Philopoem. 1. ) He and Ecdemus were the the Greeks against Troy (Homer, however, does
3
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DEMOPTOLEMUS.
979
DEMOSTHENES.
not mention bim), and there cffected the liberation DEMO'STHENES (Anmoo Oévns), son of Alcis-
of his grandmother Acthra, who was with Helena thenes, Athenian general, is one of the prominent
as a slave. (lans. x. 25. $ 2. ) According to characters of the Peloponnesian war.
He was ap-
Plutarch he was beloved by Laodice, who became pointed in the sixth year, B. C. 426, to the com-
by him the mother of Munychus or Munytus mand with Procles of a squadron of thirty ships
whom Aethra brought up in secret at llium. On sent on the annual cruise around Peloponnesus.
Demophon's return from Trov, Phyllis, the daugh- Their first important efforts were directed against
ter of the Thracian king Sithon, fell in love with Leucas; and with the aid of a large force of
liim, and he consented to marry her. But, before Acarnanians, Zacynthians, Cephallenians, and Cor-
the nuptials were celebrated, he went to Attica to cyracans, it seemed highly probable that this im-
settle liis affairs at home, and as he tarried longer portant ally of Sparta might be reduced. And the
than Phyllis had expected, she began to think that Acarnanians were urgent for a blockade. Demos-
she was forgotten, and put an end to her life. She thenes, however, had conceived, from the informa-
was, however, metamorphosed into a tree, and De- tion of the Messenians, hopes of a loftier kind ;
mophon, when he at last returned and saw what and, at the risk of oflending the Acarnanians, who
bad happened, embraced the true and pressed it to presently declined to co-operate, sailed with these
his bosom, whereupon buds and leaves immediately views to Naupactus. The Corcyrueans had also
came forth. (Oviir. Am. iii. 38, Heroid. 2 ; Serv. left him, but he still persevered in his project,
ud l'irg. Eclog. v. 10; comp. Ilygin. Ful. 59. ) which was the reduction of the Aetoliansan
Afterwards, when Diomedes on his return from Tror operation which, once effected, would open the
was thrown on the coast of Attica, and without way to the Phocians, a people ever well disposed to
knowing the country began to ravage it, Demophon Athens, and so into Boeotia. It was not too much
marched out against the invaders : he took the to hope that northern Greece might thus be wholly
Palladium from them, but had the misfortune to detached from the Spartan alliance, and the war
kill an Athenian in the struggle. For this murder be made strictly Peloponnesian. The success of
he was summoned by the people of Athens before the first move in this plan depended much on the
the court éad Mallaðiw-ihe first time that a man aid of certain allies among the Ozolian Locrians,
was tried by that court. (Paus. i. 28. § 9. ) who were used to the peculiar warfare of the ene-
According to Antoninus Liberalis (33) Demophon my. These, however, were remiss, and Demos-
assisted the Heracleidae against Eurystheus, who thenes, fearing that the rumour of his purpose
fell in battle, and the Heracleidae received from would rouse the whole Aetolian nation, advanced
Demophon settlements in Attica, which were called without them. His fear had been already realized,
the tetrapolis. Orestes too came to Athens to seek and as soon as the resources of his archery were
the protection of Demophon. He arrived during exhausted, he was obliged to retreat, and this re-
the celebration of the Anthesteria, and was kindly treat the loss of his guide rendered even more
received ; but the precautions which were taken disastrous than might have been expected for a
that he might not pollute the sacred rights, gave force of heavy-anned men amidst the perpetual
rise to the second day of the festival, which was assaults of numerous light armed enemies. There
called ydes. (Athen. X. p. 437 ; Plut. Sympos. ii. ) was erery kind of flight and destruction,” says
Demophon was painted in the Lesche at Delphi Thucydides, “and of 300 Athenians there fell 120,
together with Helena and Aethra, meditating how a loss rendered heavy beyond proportion, through
he might liberate Acthra. (Paus. i. 28. $ 9. ) the peculiar excellence of this particular detach-
3. A companion of Aeneas, who was killed by ment. " (Thuc. iii. 91, 94, 98 ; Diod. xii. 60. )
Camilla. (Virg. Aen. xi. 675. ) [L. S. ] This, however, seemed to be hardly the worst
DEMOPHON (Δημοφών ). 1. One of the consequence. The Aetolians sent ambassadors to
two generals sent from Athens by a decree of the Sparta, to ask for aid to reduce Naupactus ; and
people, according to Diodorus, to aid the Thebans received under the command of Eurylochus 3000
who were in arms for the recovery of the Cadmeia. men-at-arms. The Ozolian Locrians were overawed
(Diod. xv. 26 ; Wesseling, ad loc. ) This account into decided alliance. But Naupactus Demosthenes
is in some measure confirmed by Deinarchus (c. was enabled to save by reinforcements obtained
Dem. p. 95), who mentions a decree introduced on urgent entreary from the offended Acarnanians;
by Cephalus to the above effect. Xenophon, how- and Eurylochus led off his forces for the present
ever, says that the two Athenian generals on the to Calydon, Pleuron, and Proschium. Yet this
frontier acted on their own responsibility in aiding was but the preliminary of a more important move-
the democratic Thebans, and that the Athenians ment. The Ambraciots, on a secret understand-
soon after, through fear of Sparta, put one of them ing with him, advanced with a large force into
to death, while the other, who fled before his trial, the country of their ancient enemy, the Amphilo-
was banished. (Xen. Kell. v. 4. SS 9, 10, 19; chian Argos ; they posted themselves not far from
Plut. Pelop. 14. )
the town, at Olpae. Eurylochus now broke up,
2. A soothsayer in Alexander's army, who and, by a judicious route, passing between the town
warned the king of the danger to which his life itself and Crenae, where the Acamanians had as-
would be exposed in the attack which he was on sembled to intercept him, effected a junction with
the point of making on the town of the Malli, B. c. these allies. Presently, on the other hand, De-
326. Alexander is said to have rejected the mosthenes arrived with twenty ships, and under
warning contemptuously, and in the assault he had his conduct the final engagement took place at
a rery narrow escape from death. (Diod. xvii. 93; Olpae, and was decided, by an ambuscade which
Curt. ix. 4; comp. Arr. Anal. ri. 9, &c. ; Plut. he planted, in favour of the Athenians and Acar-
Alex. 63. )
[E. E. ] nanians. An almost greater advantage was gained
DEMOPTO'LEMUS (AmuotTÓNeuos), one of by the compact entered into with Menedaeus, the
he suitors of Penelope, slain by Odysseus after surviving Spartan officer, for the underhand with-
his return. (llom. Od. xxii. 246, 266. ) [L. S. ] drawal of the Peloponnesians. And, finally, lava
3 R 2
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980
DEMOSTIENES.
DEMOSTUIENES.
ing heard that the whole remaining force of Am. ) he or Hippocrates had mistaken the day; his
bracia was advancing in support, he succeeded arrival was too carly, and the Bocotians, who had
further in wavlaying and almost exterminating it moreover received information of the plot, were
in the battle of Idomene. The Athenians received enabled to bring their whole force against Demos-
a third part of the spoils, and the amount may be thenes, and yet be in time to meet his colleague at
estimated from the fact, that the share of Demos Delium. The whole design was thus overthrown,
thenes, the only portion that reached Athens in and Demosthenes was further disgraced by a re-
safety, was no less than 300 panoplies. (Thuc. iii. pulse in a descent on the territory of Sicyoji.
102, 105–114; Diod. xii. 60. )
(Thục. iv. 66–74, 76, 77, 8, 101; Diod. xii.
Demosthenes might now safely venture home: 66–69. )
and in the next year he was allowed, at his own He does not reappear in history, except among the
request, though not in office, to accompany Eury- simatures to the treaties of the tenth year, B. c. 4 22
medon and Sophocles, the commanders of a squadron (Thuc. v. 19, 24), till the nineteenth, 1. c. 413. On
destined for Sicily, and empowered to use their the arrival of the despatch from Nicias giving an ac-
services for any object he chose on the Peloponne count of the relief of Syracuse by Gylippus, he was
sian coast. Ther, however, would not hear of any appointed with Eurymedon to the command of the
delay, and it was only by the chance of stress of reinforcements, and, while the latter went at once
weather, which detained the fleet at Pylos, his to Sicily, he remained at home making the needful
choice for his new design, that he was enabled to preparations. Early in the spring he set sail with
effect his purpose. The men themselves while sixty-five ships; and after some delays, how far
waiting, took the fancy to build him his fort; and avoidable we cannot say, at Aegina and Corcyra,
in it he was left with five ships. Here he was on the coasts of Peloponnesus and of Italy, reached
assailed by the Lacedaemonians, whom the news had Syracuse a little too late to prevent the first naval
recalled out of Attica, and from Corcyra, and here victory of the besieged. (Thuc. vii. 16, 17, 20,
with great spirit and success he defeated their at- 20, 31, 33, 35, 42. )
tempt to carry t? e place on the sea side. The arrival The details of this concluding portion of the
of forty Athenian ships, for which he had sent, and Symusan expedition cannot be given in a life of
their success in making their way into the harbour, Demosthenes. His advice, on his arrival, was to
reversed his position. The Lacedaemonians, who make at once the utmost use of their own present
in their siege of the place had occnpied the neigh strength and their enemies' consternation, and
bouring island, were now cut off and blockaded, then at once, if they failed, to return. No imme-
and Sparta now humbled herself to ask for peace. diate conclusion of the siege could be expected
The arrogance of the people blighted this proinise ; without the recovery of the high ground command-
and as the winter approached it became a question ing the city, Epipolae. After some unsuccessful
whether the whole advantage was not likely to be attempts by day, Demosthenes devised and put
lost by the escape of the party. Demosthenes, into effect a plan for an attack, with the whole
however, was devising an expedient, when joined forces, by nighi. It was at first signally success-
or rather, in fact, superseded by Cleon (CLEON), ful, but the tide was turned by the resistance of a
who nevertheless was shrewd enough not to inter- body of Boeotians, and the victory changed to a
fere, possibly had even had intimation of it through disastrous defeat. Demosthenes now counselled
out. His Aetolian disaster had taught him the value an immediate departure, either to Athens, or, if
of light and the weakness of heavy arms. Land- Nicias, whose professions of greater acquaintance
ing at two points with a force of which one-third with the internal state of the besieged greatly in-
only were iull-armed, by a judicious distribution fluenced his brother generals, really had grounds
of his troops, and chiefly by the aid of his archers for hope, at any rate from their present unhealthy
and targeteers. he effected the achievement, then position to the safe and wholesome situation of
almost incredible, of forcing the Spartans to lay Thapsus. Demosthenes reasoned in rain: then
down their arms. (Thuc. iv. 2–40; Diod. xii. ensued the fatal delay, the return of Gylippus wiih
61-63. )
fresh reinforcements, the late consent of Nicias to
The glory of this success was with the vulgar depart, and the infatuated recal of it on the eclipse
giren to Cleon, yet Demosthenes must bave of the moon, the first defeat and the second of
surely had some proportion of it. He was pro- the all-important ships.
In the latter engage-
bably henceforth in general esteem, as in the ment Demosthenes had the chief command, and
Knights of Aristophanes, coupled at the head of retained even in the hour of disaster sufficient
the list of the city's generals with the high-born coolness to see that the only course remaining
and influential Nicias. We find him in the follow- was at once to make a fresh attempt to break
ing year (B. C.
424) commanding with Hippocrates through the blockading ships and force their
in the operation in the Megarid ; possessing him- way to sea. And he had now the voice of Nicias
self by a stratagem of the Long Walls uniting with him : the army itself in desperation refused.
Megara to Nisaea, and receiving shortly the submis- In the subsequent retreat by the land, Demos-
sion of Nisaea itself, though bafiled by the advance thenes for some time is described simply as co-
of Brasidas in the main design on Negara. Soon operating with Nicias, though with the separate
after, he concerted with the same colleague a grand command of the second and rearward division.
attempt on Boeotia. On a fixed day Hippocrates This, on the sixth day, through its greater expo-
was to lead the whole Athenian force into the sure to the enemy, was unable to keep up with
south-eastern frontier, and occupy Delium, while the other; and Demosthenes, as in his position
Demosthenes was to land at Sihae, and by the was natural, looked more to defence against the
aid of the democratic party, possess himself of it enemy, while Nicias thought only of speedy re-
and of Chaeroneia. Demosthenes with this view treat. The consequence was that, having fallen
took forty ships to Naupactus, and, having raised about five miles and a half behind, he was sur-
forces in Acarnania, sailed for Siphae. But either rounded and driven into a plot of yround planted
## p. 981 (#1001) ###########################################
DEMOSTUIENES.
981
DEMOSTHENES.
Vear.
with olives, fenced nearly round with a wall, | 385, and this statement has been adopted by most
where he was exposed to the missiles of the ene- modern critics, such as Becker, Bockh, Wester-
my: Here he surrendereel, towards evening, on mann, Thirlwall, and others; whereas some have
condition of the lives of his soldiers being spared. endeavoured to prove that B. C. 384 was his birth-
His own was not. In confinement at Syracuse The opinion now most commonly received
Nicias and he were once more united, and were is, that Demosthenes was born in B. c. 385. For
together relieved by a specdy death. Such was detailed discussions on this question the reader is
the unworthy decree of the Syracusan assembly, referred to the works mentioned at the end of this
against the voice, say Diodorus and Plutarch, of article.
llermocrates, and contmry, says Thucydides, to When Demosthenes, the father, died, he left
the wish of Gylippus, who coveted the glory of behind him a widow, the daughter of Gylon, and
conveying the two great Athenian commanders to two children, Deniosthenes, then a boy of seven,
Sparta. (Thuc. vii. 42—87; Diod. xiii. 10--33; and a daughter who was only five years old. (Plut.
Plut. Nicias, 20–28. ) Timaeus, adds Plutarch, re- Dem. 4 ; Dem. C. Aprob. ii. p. 836 ; Aeschin, c.
lated that Herocrates contrived to apprize them of Ctcsiph. $ 171; Boeckh, Corp. Inscript. i. p. 464. )
the decrec, and that they fell by their own hands. During the last moments of his life, the father had
Demosthenes may be characterized as an unfortu- entrusted the protection of his wife and children
nate general. Had his fortune but equalled his and the care of his property, partly capital and
ability, he had achieved perhaps a name greater partly a large sword manufactory, to three guar-
than any of the generals of his time. In the large- dians, A phobus, a son of his sister Demophon, a
ness and holdness of his designs, the quickness son of his brother, and an old friend Therippides,
and justice of his insight, he rises high above all on condition that the first should marry the widow
his contemporaries. In Aetolia the crudeness of his and receive with her a dowry of eighty minne ; the
first essay was cruelly punished ; in Acarnania and second was to marry the daughter on her attaining
at Pylos, though his projects were even favoured the age of maturity, and was to receive at once two
by chance, yet the proper result of the one in the talents, and the third was to have the interest of
reduction of Ambracia was prevented by the jea- seventy minae, till Demosthenes, the son, should
lousy of his allies; and in the other his own indi- come of age. (Dem. C. Aphob. i. pp. 814, 816, ii.
vidual glory was stolen by the shameless Cleon. 840. ) But the first two of the guardians did not
In the designs against Megara and Boeotia failure comply with the stipulations made in the will, and
again attended him. In his conduct of the second all three, in spite of all the remonstrances of the
Syracusan expedition there is hardly one step family, united in squandering and appropriating to
which we can blame: with the exception of the themselves a great portion of the handsome pro-
night attack on Epipolae, it is in fact a painful perty, which is estimated at upwards of fourteen
exhibition of a defeat step by step effected over talents, and might easily have been doubled during
reason and wisdom by folly and infatuation. It the minority of Demosthenes by a prudent admi-
is possible that with the other elements of a great nistration. But, as it was, the property gradually
general he did not combine in a high degree that was so reduced, that when Demosthenes became
essential requisite of moral firmness and com- age, his guardians had no more than serenty
mand: he may too have been less accurate in minae, that is, only one twelfth of the property
attending to the details of execution than he was which the father had left. (Dem. c. Aphob. i. pp.
farsighted and fertile in devising the outline. Yet 812, 832, 815, c. Onet. p. 865. ) This shameful
this must be doubtful: what we learn from history conduct of his own relatives and guardians un-
is, that to Demosthenes his country owed her questionably exercised a great influence on the
superiority at the peace of Nicias, and to mind and character of Demosthenes, for it was
any rather than to him her defeat at Syracuse. probably during that early period that, suffering as
Of his position at home among the various parties he was through the injustice of those from whom
of the state we know little or nothing: he appears he had a right to expect protection, his strong
to have been of high rank: in Aristophanes he is feeling of right and wrong was planted and de-
described as leading the charge of the Hippeis veloped in him, a feeling which characterizes bis
upon Cleon (Equites, 242), and his place in the whole subsequent life. He was thus thrown upon
play throughout seems to imply it. (A. H. C. ) his own resources, and the result was great self-
DEMOSTHENES (Anuordévns), the greatest reliance, independence of judgment, and his ora-
of the Greek orators, was the son of one Demos tory, which was the only art by which he could
thenes, and born in the Attic demos of Paeania. hope to get justice done to himself.
Respecting the year of his birth, the statements of Although Demosthenes passed his youth amid
the ancients differ as much as the opinions of modern such troubles and vexations, there is no reason for
critics. Some of the earlier scholars acquiesced in believing with Plutarch (Dem. 4), that he grew up
the express testimony of Dionysius of Halicarnassus neglected and without any education at all. The
(Ep. ad Amm. i. 4), who says that Demosthenes very fact that his guardians are accused of having
was born in the year preceding the hundredth refused to pay his teachers (c. Aprob. i. p. 828)
Olympiad, that is, Ol. 99. 4, or B. c. 381. Gellius shews that he received some kind of education,
(x¥. 28) states that Demosthenes was in his twen. which is further confirmed by Demosthenes's own
ty-serenth year at the time when he composed his statement (de Coron. pp. 312, 315), though it
orations against Androtion and Timocrates, which cannot be supposed that his education comprised
belong to B. c. 355, so that the birth of Demos much more than an elementary course. The many
thenes would fall in B. C. 383 or 382, the latter of illustrious personages that are mentioned as his
which is adopted by Clinton. (F. H. ii. p. 426, &c. , teachers, must be conceived to have become con-
3rd edit. ) According to the account in the lives nected with liim after he had attained the age of
of the Ten Orators (p. 845. D. ) Demosthenes was manhood. He is said to have been instructed in
born in the archonship of Dexitheus, that is, 3. c. philosophy by Plato. (Plut. Dem. 5, Vit. X Orut.
of
## p. 982 (#1002) ###########################################
982
DEMOSTHENES.
DEMOSTIIENES.
ܪ
a
p. 844 ; Diog Laërt. iii. 46 ; Cic. Brut. 31, Orat. purpose of thwarting him and involving him in a
4 ; Quintil. xiii. 2. S 22, 10. § 24 ; Gellius, iii. series of other law-suits (c. Aphob. p. 862). The
13. ) It may be that Demosthenes knew and cs- extant orations of Deniosthenes against Apho-
teemed Plato, but it is more than doubtful whether bus, who endeavoured to prevent his taking
he received his instruction ; and to make him, as possession of his property, refer to these transac-
some critics have done, a perfect Platonic, is cer- tions. Demosthenes had thus gained a signal
tainly going too far. According to some accounts victory over bis enemies, notwithstanding all the
he was instructed in oratory by Isocrates (Plut. extraordinary disadvantages under which he la-
l'it. X Orat. p. 844 ; Phot. Bill. p. 492), but this boured, for his physical constitution was weak, and
was a disputed point with the ancients themselves, his organ of speech deficient-whence, probably, he
some of whom stated, that he was not personally derived the nickname βάταλος, tie delicate
instructed by Isocrates, but only that he studied youth, or the stammerer, -and it was only owing
the téxvn ØnTopiký, which Isocrates had written to the most unwearied and persevering exertions
(Plut. lü. X Orut. p. 837, Dem. 5. ) The tradi- that he succeeded in overcoming and removing the
tion of Demosthenes having been a pupil of Iso- obstacles which nature had placed in his way.
crates is, moreover, not supported by any evidence These exertions were probably made by him after
derived from the orations of Demosthenes himself, he had arrived at the age of manhood. In this
who speaks with contempt of the rhetorical school manner, and by speaking in various civil cases,
of Isocrates (c. Lacrin. pp. 9:28, 937), and an un- he prepared himself for the career of a political
biassed reader of the works of the two orators orator and statesman. It is very doubtful whether
cannot discover any direct influence of the elder Demosthenes, like some of his predecessors, engaged
upon the younger one, for certain words and phrases also in teaching rhetoric, as some of his Greek bio-
cinnot assuredly be taken as proofs to the contrary: graphers assert.
The account that Demosthenes was instructed in The suit against Aphobus had made Meidias a
oratory by Isaeus (Plut. Dem. 5, Vit. X Orat. p. formidable and implicable enemy of Demosthenes
814 ; Phot. Bill. p. 492), has much more probabi- (Dem. c. phul. ii. p. 840, c. Meid. p. 539, &c. ),
lity ; for at that time Isaeus was the most eminent and the danger to which he thus became exposed
orator in matters connected with the laws of in- was the more fearful, since except his personal
heritance, the very thing which Demosthenes powers and virtnes he had nothing to oppose to
needed. This account is further supported by the Meidias, who was the most active member of a
fact, that the carliest orations of Demosthenes, viz. coterie, which, although yet without any definite
those against Aphobus and Onetor, bear so strong political tendency, was preparing the ruin of the
a resemblance to those of Isaeus, that the ancients republic by violating its laws and sacrificing its
themselves believed them to have been composed resources to personal and selfish interests. The
by Isaeus for Demosthenes, or that the latter bad first acts of open hostility were committed in B. C.
written them under the guidance of the former. 361, when leidias forced his way into the house
(Plut. l'it. X Orat. p. 839 ; Liban. l'it. Dem. p. of Demosthenes and insulted the members of his
3, Argum. ad Orat. c. Onet. p. 875. ) We may sup- family. This led Demosthenes to bring against
posc without much hesitation, that during the latter him the action of Kaknyopía, and when Meidias
years of his minority Demosthenes privately pre- after his condemnation did not fulfil his obligations,
pared himself for the career of an orator, to which Demosthenes brought against him a diren etouans.
he was urged on by his peculiar circumstances no less (Dem.
DEMOʻPHANES (nuo dvns), of Megalopolis. According to Pindar (ap. Plut. Thes. 28), he was
a Platonic philosopher, and a disciple of Arcesilas. the son of Theseus by Antiope. He accompanied
(Plut. Philopoem. 1. ) He and Ecdemus were the the Greeks against Troy (Homer, however, does
3
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DEMOPTOLEMUS.
979
DEMOSTHENES.
not mention bim), and there cffected the liberation DEMO'STHENES (Anmoo Oévns), son of Alcis-
of his grandmother Acthra, who was with Helena thenes, Athenian general, is one of the prominent
as a slave. (lans. x. 25. $ 2. ) According to characters of the Peloponnesian war.
He was ap-
Plutarch he was beloved by Laodice, who became pointed in the sixth year, B. C. 426, to the com-
by him the mother of Munychus or Munytus mand with Procles of a squadron of thirty ships
whom Aethra brought up in secret at llium. On sent on the annual cruise around Peloponnesus.
Demophon's return from Trov, Phyllis, the daugh- Their first important efforts were directed against
ter of the Thracian king Sithon, fell in love with Leucas; and with the aid of a large force of
liim, and he consented to marry her. But, before Acarnanians, Zacynthians, Cephallenians, and Cor-
the nuptials were celebrated, he went to Attica to cyracans, it seemed highly probable that this im-
settle liis affairs at home, and as he tarried longer portant ally of Sparta might be reduced. And the
than Phyllis had expected, she began to think that Acarnanians were urgent for a blockade. Demos-
she was forgotten, and put an end to her life. She thenes, however, had conceived, from the informa-
was, however, metamorphosed into a tree, and De- tion of the Messenians, hopes of a loftier kind ;
mophon, when he at last returned and saw what and, at the risk of oflending the Acarnanians, who
bad happened, embraced the true and pressed it to presently declined to co-operate, sailed with these
his bosom, whereupon buds and leaves immediately views to Naupactus. The Corcyrueans had also
came forth. (Oviir. Am. iii. 38, Heroid. 2 ; Serv. left him, but he still persevered in his project,
ud l'irg. Eclog. v. 10; comp. Ilygin. Ful. 59. ) which was the reduction of the Aetoliansan
Afterwards, when Diomedes on his return from Tror operation which, once effected, would open the
was thrown on the coast of Attica, and without way to the Phocians, a people ever well disposed to
knowing the country began to ravage it, Demophon Athens, and so into Boeotia. It was not too much
marched out against the invaders : he took the to hope that northern Greece might thus be wholly
Palladium from them, but had the misfortune to detached from the Spartan alliance, and the war
kill an Athenian in the struggle. For this murder be made strictly Peloponnesian. The success of
he was summoned by the people of Athens before the first move in this plan depended much on the
the court éad Mallaðiw-ihe first time that a man aid of certain allies among the Ozolian Locrians,
was tried by that court. (Paus. i. 28. § 9. ) who were used to the peculiar warfare of the ene-
According to Antoninus Liberalis (33) Demophon my. These, however, were remiss, and Demos-
assisted the Heracleidae against Eurystheus, who thenes, fearing that the rumour of his purpose
fell in battle, and the Heracleidae received from would rouse the whole Aetolian nation, advanced
Demophon settlements in Attica, which were called without them. His fear had been already realized,
the tetrapolis. Orestes too came to Athens to seek and as soon as the resources of his archery were
the protection of Demophon. He arrived during exhausted, he was obliged to retreat, and this re-
the celebration of the Anthesteria, and was kindly treat the loss of his guide rendered even more
received ; but the precautions which were taken disastrous than might have been expected for a
that he might not pollute the sacred rights, gave force of heavy-anned men amidst the perpetual
rise to the second day of the festival, which was assaults of numerous light armed enemies. There
called ydes. (Athen. X. p. 437 ; Plut. Sympos. ii. ) was erery kind of flight and destruction,” says
Demophon was painted in the Lesche at Delphi Thucydides, “and of 300 Athenians there fell 120,
together with Helena and Aethra, meditating how a loss rendered heavy beyond proportion, through
he might liberate Acthra. (Paus. i. 28. $ 9. ) the peculiar excellence of this particular detach-
3. A companion of Aeneas, who was killed by ment. " (Thuc. iii. 91, 94, 98 ; Diod. xii. 60. )
Camilla. (Virg. Aen. xi. 675. ) [L. S. ] This, however, seemed to be hardly the worst
DEMOPHON (Δημοφών ). 1. One of the consequence. The Aetolians sent ambassadors to
two generals sent from Athens by a decree of the Sparta, to ask for aid to reduce Naupactus ; and
people, according to Diodorus, to aid the Thebans received under the command of Eurylochus 3000
who were in arms for the recovery of the Cadmeia. men-at-arms. The Ozolian Locrians were overawed
(Diod. xv. 26 ; Wesseling, ad loc. ) This account into decided alliance. But Naupactus Demosthenes
is in some measure confirmed by Deinarchus (c. was enabled to save by reinforcements obtained
Dem. p. 95), who mentions a decree introduced on urgent entreary from the offended Acarnanians;
by Cephalus to the above effect. Xenophon, how- and Eurylochus led off his forces for the present
ever, says that the two Athenian generals on the to Calydon, Pleuron, and Proschium. Yet this
frontier acted on their own responsibility in aiding was but the preliminary of a more important move-
the democratic Thebans, and that the Athenians ment. The Ambraciots, on a secret understand-
soon after, through fear of Sparta, put one of them ing with him, advanced with a large force into
to death, while the other, who fled before his trial, the country of their ancient enemy, the Amphilo-
was banished. (Xen. Kell. v. 4. SS 9, 10, 19; chian Argos ; they posted themselves not far from
Plut. Pelop. 14. )
the town, at Olpae. Eurylochus now broke up,
2. A soothsayer in Alexander's army, who and, by a judicious route, passing between the town
warned the king of the danger to which his life itself and Crenae, where the Acamanians had as-
would be exposed in the attack which he was on sembled to intercept him, effected a junction with
the point of making on the town of the Malli, B. c. these allies. Presently, on the other hand, De-
326. Alexander is said to have rejected the mosthenes arrived with twenty ships, and under
warning contemptuously, and in the assault he had his conduct the final engagement took place at
a rery narrow escape from death. (Diod. xvii. 93; Olpae, and was decided, by an ambuscade which
Curt. ix. 4; comp. Arr. Anal. ri. 9, &c. ; Plut. he planted, in favour of the Athenians and Acar-
Alex. 63. )
[E. E. ] nanians. An almost greater advantage was gained
DEMOPTO'LEMUS (AmuotTÓNeuos), one of by the compact entered into with Menedaeus, the
he suitors of Penelope, slain by Odysseus after surviving Spartan officer, for the underhand with-
his return. (llom. Od. xxii. 246, 266. ) [L. S. ] drawal of the Peloponnesians. And, finally, lava
3 R 2
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ing heard that the whole remaining force of Am. ) he or Hippocrates had mistaken the day; his
bracia was advancing in support, he succeeded arrival was too carly, and the Bocotians, who had
further in wavlaying and almost exterminating it moreover received information of the plot, were
in the battle of Idomene. The Athenians received enabled to bring their whole force against Demos-
a third part of the spoils, and the amount may be thenes, and yet be in time to meet his colleague at
estimated from the fact, that the share of Demos Delium. The whole design was thus overthrown,
thenes, the only portion that reached Athens in and Demosthenes was further disgraced by a re-
safety, was no less than 300 panoplies. (Thuc. iii. pulse in a descent on the territory of Sicyoji.
102, 105–114; Diod. xii. 60. )
(Thục. iv. 66–74, 76, 77, 8, 101; Diod. xii.
Demosthenes might now safely venture home: 66–69. )
and in the next year he was allowed, at his own He does not reappear in history, except among the
request, though not in office, to accompany Eury- simatures to the treaties of the tenth year, B. c. 4 22
medon and Sophocles, the commanders of a squadron (Thuc. v. 19, 24), till the nineteenth, 1. c. 413. On
destined for Sicily, and empowered to use their the arrival of the despatch from Nicias giving an ac-
services for any object he chose on the Peloponne count of the relief of Syracuse by Gylippus, he was
sian coast. Ther, however, would not hear of any appointed with Eurymedon to the command of the
delay, and it was only by the chance of stress of reinforcements, and, while the latter went at once
weather, which detained the fleet at Pylos, his to Sicily, he remained at home making the needful
choice for his new design, that he was enabled to preparations. Early in the spring he set sail with
effect his purpose. The men themselves while sixty-five ships; and after some delays, how far
waiting, took the fancy to build him his fort; and avoidable we cannot say, at Aegina and Corcyra,
in it he was left with five ships. Here he was on the coasts of Peloponnesus and of Italy, reached
assailed by the Lacedaemonians, whom the news had Syracuse a little too late to prevent the first naval
recalled out of Attica, and from Corcyra, and here victory of the besieged. (Thuc. vii. 16, 17, 20,
with great spirit and success he defeated their at- 20, 31, 33, 35, 42. )
tempt to carry t? e place on the sea side. The arrival The details of this concluding portion of the
of forty Athenian ships, for which he had sent, and Symusan expedition cannot be given in a life of
their success in making their way into the harbour, Demosthenes. His advice, on his arrival, was to
reversed his position. The Lacedaemonians, who make at once the utmost use of their own present
in their siege of the place had occnpied the neigh strength and their enemies' consternation, and
bouring island, were now cut off and blockaded, then at once, if they failed, to return. No imme-
and Sparta now humbled herself to ask for peace. diate conclusion of the siege could be expected
The arrogance of the people blighted this proinise ; without the recovery of the high ground command-
and as the winter approached it became a question ing the city, Epipolae. After some unsuccessful
whether the whole advantage was not likely to be attempts by day, Demosthenes devised and put
lost by the escape of the party. Demosthenes, into effect a plan for an attack, with the whole
however, was devising an expedient, when joined forces, by nighi. It was at first signally success-
or rather, in fact, superseded by Cleon (CLEON), ful, but the tide was turned by the resistance of a
who nevertheless was shrewd enough not to inter- body of Boeotians, and the victory changed to a
fere, possibly had even had intimation of it through disastrous defeat. Demosthenes now counselled
out. His Aetolian disaster had taught him the value an immediate departure, either to Athens, or, if
of light and the weakness of heavy arms. Land- Nicias, whose professions of greater acquaintance
ing at two points with a force of which one-third with the internal state of the besieged greatly in-
only were iull-armed, by a judicious distribution fluenced his brother generals, really had grounds
of his troops, and chiefly by the aid of his archers for hope, at any rate from their present unhealthy
and targeteers. he effected the achievement, then position to the safe and wholesome situation of
almost incredible, of forcing the Spartans to lay Thapsus. Demosthenes reasoned in rain: then
down their arms. (Thuc. iv. 2–40; Diod. xii. ensued the fatal delay, the return of Gylippus wiih
61-63. )
fresh reinforcements, the late consent of Nicias to
The glory of this success was with the vulgar depart, and the infatuated recal of it on the eclipse
giren to Cleon, yet Demosthenes must bave of the moon, the first defeat and the second of
surely had some proportion of it. He was pro- the all-important ships.
In the latter engage-
bably henceforth in general esteem, as in the ment Demosthenes had the chief command, and
Knights of Aristophanes, coupled at the head of retained even in the hour of disaster sufficient
the list of the city's generals with the high-born coolness to see that the only course remaining
and influential Nicias. We find him in the follow- was at once to make a fresh attempt to break
ing year (B. C.
424) commanding with Hippocrates through the blockading ships and force their
in the operation in the Megarid ; possessing him- way to sea. And he had now the voice of Nicias
self by a stratagem of the Long Walls uniting with him : the army itself in desperation refused.
Megara to Nisaea, and receiving shortly the submis- In the subsequent retreat by the land, Demos-
sion of Nisaea itself, though bafiled by the advance thenes for some time is described simply as co-
of Brasidas in the main design on Negara. Soon operating with Nicias, though with the separate
after, he concerted with the same colleague a grand command of the second and rearward division.
attempt on Boeotia. On a fixed day Hippocrates This, on the sixth day, through its greater expo-
was to lead the whole Athenian force into the sure to the enemy, was unable to keep up with
south-eastern frontier, and occupy Delium, while the other; and Demosthenes, as in his position
Demosthenes was to land at Sihae, and by the was natural, looked more to defence against the
aid of the democratic party, possess himself of it enemy, while Nicias thought only of speedy re-
and of Chaeroneia. Demosthenes with this view treat. The consequence was that, having fallen
took forty ships to Naupactus, and, having raised about five miles and a half behind, he was sur-
forces in Acarnania, sailed for Siphae. But either rounded and driven into a plot of yround planted
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DEMOSTHENES.
Vear.
with olives, fenced nearly round with a wall, | 385, and this statement has been adopted by most
where he was exposed to the missiles of the ene- modern critics, such as Becker, Bockh, Wester-
my: Here he surrendereel, towards evening, on mann, Thirlwall, and others; whereas some have
condition of the lives of his soldiers being spared. endeavoured to prove that B. C. 384 was his birth-
His own was not. In confinement at Syracuse The opinion now most commonly received
Nicias and he were once more united, and were is, that Demosthenes was born in B. c. 385. For
together relieved by a specdy death. Such was detailed discussions on this question the reader is
the unworthy decree of the Syracusan assembly, referred to the works mentioned at the end of this
against the voice, say Diodorus and Plutarch, of article.
llermocrates, and contmry, says Thucydides, to When Demosthenes, the father, died, he left
the wish of Gylippus, who coveted the glory of behind him a widow, the daughter of Gylon, and
conveying the two great Athenian commanders to two children, Deniosthenes, then a boy of seven,
Sparta. (Thuc. vii. 42—87; Diod. xiii. 10--33; and a daughter who was only five years old. (Plut.
Plut. Nicias, 20–28. ) Timaeus, adds Plutarch, re- Dem. 4 ; Dem. C. Aprob. ii. p. 836 ; Aeschin, c.
lated that Herocrates contrived to apprize them of Ctcsiph. $ 171; Boeckh, Corp. Inscript. i. p. 464. )
the decrec, and that they fell by their own hands. During the last moments of his life, the father had
Demosthenes may be characterized as an unfortu- entrusted the protection of his wife and children
nate general. Had his fortune but equalled his and the care of his property, partly capital and
ability, he had achieved perhaps a name greater partly a large sword manufactory, to three guar-
than any of the generals of his time. In the large- dians, A phobus, a son of his sister Demophon, a
ness and holdness of his designs, the quickness son of his brother, and an old friend Therippides,
and justice of his insight, he rises high above all on condition that the first should marry the widow
his contemporaries. In Aetolia the crudeness of his and receive with her a dowry of eighty minne ; the
first essay was cruelly punished ; in Acarnania and second was to marry the daughter on her attaining
at Pylos, though his projects were even favoured the age of maturity, and was to receive at once two
by chance, yet the proper result of the one in the talents, and the third was to have the interest of
reduction of Ambracia was prevented by the jea- seventy minae, till Demosthenes, the son, should
lousy of his allies; and in the other his own indi- come of age. (Dem. C. Aphob. i. pp. 814, 816, ii.
vidual glory was stolen by the shameless Cleon. 840. ) But the first two of the guardians did not
In the designs against Megara and Boeotia failure comply with the stipulations made in the will, and
again attended him. In his conduct of the second all three, in spite of all the remonstrances of the
Syracusan expedition there is hardly one step family, united in squandering and appropriating to
which we can blame: with the exception of the themselves a great portion of the handsome pro-
night attack on Epipolae, it is in fact a painful perty, which is estimated at upwards of fourteen
exhibition of a defeat step by step effected over talents, and might easily have been doubled during
reason and wisdom by folly and infatuation. It the minority of Demosthenes by a prudent admi-
is possible that with the other elements of a great nistration. But, as it was, the property gradually
general he did not combine in a high degree that was so reduced, that when Demosthenes became
essential requisite of moral firmness and com- age, his guardians had no more than serenty
mand: he may too have been less accurate in minae, that is, only one twelfth of the property
attending to the details of execution than he was which the father had left. (Dem. c. Aphob. i. pp.
farsighted and fertile in devising the outline. Yet 812, 832, 815, c. Onet. p. 865. ) This shameful
this must be doubtful: what we learn from history conduct of his own relatives and guardians un-
is, that to Demosthenes his country owed her questionably exercised a great influence on the
superiority at the peace of Nicias, and to mind and character of Demosthenes, for it was
any rather than to him her defeat at Syracuse. probably during that early period that, suffering as
Of his position at home among the various parties he was through the injustice of those from whom
of the state we know little or nothing: he appears he had a right to expect protection, his strong
to have been of high rank: in Aristophanes he is feeling of right and wrong was planted and de-
described as leading the charge of the Hippeis veloped in him, a feeling which characterizes bis
upon Cleon (Equites, 242), and his place in the whole subsequent life. He was thus thrown upon
play throughout seems to imply it. (A. H. C. ) his own resources, and the result was great self-
DEMOSTHENES (Anuordévns), the greatest reliance, independence of judgment, and his ora-
of the Greek orators, was the son of one Demos tory, which was the only art by which he could
thenes, and born in the Attic demos of Paeania. hope to get justice done to himself.
Respecting the year of his birth, the statements of Although Demosthenes passed his youth amid
the ancients differ as much as the opinions of modern such troubles and vexations, there is no reason for
critics. Some of the earlier scholars acquiesced in believing with Plutarch (Dem. 4), that he grew up
the express testimony of Dionysius of Halicarnassus neglected and without any education at all. The
(Ep. ad Amm. i. 4), who says that Demosthenes very fact that his guardians are accused of having
was born in the year preceding the hundredth refused to pay his teachers (c. Aprob. i. p. 828)
Olympiad, that is, Ol. 99. 4, or B. c. 381. Gellius shews that he received some kind of education,
(x¥. 28) states that Demosthenes was in his twen. which is further confirmed by Demosthenes's own
ty-serenth year at the time when he composed his statement (de Coron. pp. 312, 315), though it
orations against Androtion and Timocrates, which cannot be supposed that his education comprised
belong to B. c. 355, so that the birth of Demos much more than an elementary course. The many
thenes would fall in B. C. 383 or 382, the latter of illustrious personages that are mentioned as his
which is adopted by Clinton. (F. H. ii. p. 426, &c. , teachers, must be conceived to have become con-
3rd edit. ) According to the account in the lives nected with liim after he had attained the age of
of the Ten Orators (p. 845. D. ) Demosthenes was manhood. He is said to have been instructed in
born in the archonship of Dexitheus, that is, 3. c. philosophy by Plato. (Plut. Dem. 5, Vit. X Orut.
of
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DEMOSTHENES.
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ܪ
a
p. 844 ; Diog Laërt. iii. 46 ; Cic. Brut. 31, Orat. purpose of thwarting him and involving him in a
4 ; Quintil. xiii. 2. S 22, 10. § 24 ; Gellius, iii. series of other law-suits (c. Aphob. p. 862). The
13. ) It may be that Demosthenes knew and cs- extant orations of Deniosthenes against Apho-
teemed Plato, but it is more than doubtful whether bus, who endeavoured to prevent his taking
he received his instruction ; and to make him, as possession of his property, refer to these transac-
some critics have done, a perfect Platonic, is cer- tions. Demosthenes had thus gained a signal
tainly going too far. According to some accounts victory over bis enemies, notwithstanding all the
he was instructed in oratory by Isocrates (Plut. extraordinary disadvantages under which he la-
l'it. X Orat. p. 844 ; Phot. Bill. p. 492), but this boured, for his physical constitution was weak, and
was a disputed point with the ancients themselves, his organ of speech deficient-whence, probably, he
some of whom stated, that he was not personally derived the nickname βάταλος, tie delicate
instructed by Isocrates, but only that he studied youth, or the stammerer, -and it was only owing
the téxvn ØnTopiký, which Isocrates had written to the most unwearied and persevering exertions
(Plut. lü. X Orut. p. 837, Dem. 5. ) The tradi- that he succeeded in overcoming and removing the
tion of Demosthenes having been a pupil of Iso- obstacles which nature had placed in his way.
crates is, moreover, not supported by any evidence These exertions were probably made by him after
derived from the orations of Demosthenes himself, he had arrived at the age of manhood. In this
who speaks with contempt of the rhetorical school manner, and by speaking in various civil cases,
of Isocrates (c. Lacrin. pp. 9:28, 937), and an un- he prepared himself for the career of a political
biassed reader of the works of the two orators orator and statesman. It is very doubtful whether
cannot discover any direct influence of the elder Demosthenes, like some of his predecessors, engaged
upon the younger one, for certain words and phrases also in teaching rhetoric, as some of his Greek bio-
cinnot assuredly be taken as proofs to the contrary: graphers assert.
The account that Demosthenes was instructed in The suit against Aphobus had made Meidias a
oratory by Isaeus (Plut. Dem. 5, Vit. X Orat. p. formidable and implicable enemy of Demosthenes
814 ; Phot. Bill. p. 492), has much more probabi- (Dem. c. phul. ii. p. 840, c. Meid. p. 539, &c. ),
lity ; for at that time Isaeus was the most eminent and the danger to which he thus became exposed
orator in matters connected with the laws of in- was the more fearful, since except his personal
heritance, the very thing which Demosthenes powers and virtnes he had nothing to oppose to
needed. This account is further supported by the Meidias, who was the most active member of a
fact, that the carliest orations of Demosthenes, viz. coterie, which, although yet without any definite
those against Aphobus and Onetor, bear so strong political tendency, was preparing the ruin of the
a resemblance to those of Isaeus, that the ancients republic by violating its laws and sacrificing its
themselves believed them to have been composed resources to personal and selfish interests. The
by Isaeus for Demosthenes, or that the latter bad first acts of open hostility were committed in B. C.
written them under the guidance of the former. 361, when leidias forced his way into the house
(Plut. l'it. X Orat. p. 839 ; Liban. l'it. Dem. p. of Demosthenes and insulted the members of his
3, Argum. ad Orat. c. Onet. p. 875. ) We may sup- family. This led Demosthenes to bring against
posc without much hesitation, that during the latter him the action of Kaknyopía, and when Meidias
years of his minority Demosthenes privately pre- after his condemnation did not fulfil his obligations,
pared himself for the career of an orator, to which Demosthenes brought against him a diren etouans.
he was urged on by his peculiar circumstances no less (Dem.
