No More Learning

With Regard to his Tears, and that pathetic Tone of Voice,
when he fhall afk you with repeated Vehemence, " Whither
" fhall I fly, Athenians, if you banifh me from this Republic ?
" There is not whither I may diredt my Flight;" objedt in
your Turn, " But the People of Athens ; whither fhall They
'' fly,
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 2S5
*' fly, Demofthenes ? To what military Strength of their Al-
" lies? To what Treafurcs ? What Defence have you pro-
" vided for them during your Adminiflration ? How very
" wifely you have confulted your own Safety, we all behold.
" For although you have left Athens, (36) you do not really
" live, as you pretend, in the Pyrseum, but have taken your
" Refidence in that Harbour, for your more eafy Efcape from
" the Vengeance of the Republic. Neither are we ignorant,
** what ample Provifion you have made for your Cowardice
" during your Voyage, in Perfian Gold, and the Treafures,.
" of which you have plundered your Country. "
But indeed why thefe Tears ? Wherefore this Clamour ?
Why this vehement Tone of Voice? Is not Ctefiphon the
Perfon indicHied ? Is not his Fine yet undetermined ? (3 7) Nei-
ther your Fortune, your Life, or Reputation are interefted in
the Trial. But really for what is he thus extremely felicitous ?
For Crowns of Gold, and Proclamations in the Theatre, in di-
red: Violation of our Laws. If the People either abfolutely
frantick, or totally forgetting the prefent unhappy Situation of
their
(^6) It feems Demofthenes had left let us endeavour to give the general Senfe
his ufual Dw'elling in the City, and gone of it, as underftnod by Heraldus, quoted
to live in the Pyrsum -- Front v. -hence by Doclor Taylor. Is net this Lid:Sl-
tberefcre thefe Tears, thefe pathetic Ex- ment one of thofe, in which the Penalty or
ctamaticns upon the Apprehenfion of being Fine is not determined by our Lazvs, and
bani/hed ? You have already left your confeqiiently not to he exaHed with Rigour ?
Country. Tou are ? preparing to fly from is it not finally to be decided by our Judges,
ber for ever. "jaith whom Inter efl and Compaffion may
{ly) Inflead of engaging in the Dif- prevail to moderate the Severity of their
putes of the Learned upon this Paffige, Sentence ?
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? 336 ORATION OF . ^ S C H I N E S
their Country, could at fucli an unfeafonable Time confent to
lionour him with this Grown, it were his Duty to come into the
Afiembly and declare, '' Men of Athens, I receivi, this Crov/n
" with Gratitude, but I cannot approve of the Time, in which
" it is proclaimed. For it were moft unfit, that the Calami-
"" ties, which the Commonwealth has lam. ented with every
" publick Mark of Sorrow and Defpair ; for thefe very Cala-
** mities I fliould be crowned. " Such, in my Judgement,
would be the Language of a Man, who was nurtured in Virtue ;
but your Anfwer, Demofthenes, will be fuch as a Wretch de-
voted, the very Outcaft of Mankind, would pronounce from
his Deteftation of even an Appearance of Virtue.
Nor, by Hercules, ought we to be alarmed, that this Man
of Magnanimity; this Hero, difiingui/lied in the Science of
War, when difappointed of an Honour, the peculiar Reward
of Valour, fliould return home, and put himfelf to a violent
Death. So ridiculous to Him appears your Ardour for Glory,
that a thoufand Times hath he himfelf covered over with
Wounds his own accurfed Head, (that Head, which is flill
cxpofcd to public Juftice for not having pafTed his Accounts ;
that Head, which Ctefiphon, in Contempt of our Laws, hath
decreed fliali be crowned) and afterwards recovered large Da-
mages, by Adions of Battery, for thofe very Wounds, which
he had moft providently given to Himfelf. Then he hath been
fo buffeted, that I verily believe the Traces of Midias his
Knuckles
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 337
Knuckles are ftill confpicuous in his Countenance. For this
Demofthenes hath not an Head upon his Shoulders, but an
Eftate of very ample Revenue. (38)
With Regard to Ctefiphon, the Author of this Decree, I
would willingly mention fome few Particulars. Many others I
fhall pafs over in Silence, that I may try an Experiment, whe-
ther you are able, without any previous Inftrudlion, to diftin-
guifli between thefe two egregious Villains. I fhall only tell
you, what with equal Juftice may be afferted of them both.
They walk about the Forum, conceiving fuch Sentiments of
each other, as are indifputably true, and uttering thofe Senti-
ments in fuch Language, as cannot pofTibly be falfe. Ctefi-
phon fays, he is not alarmed for himfelf (for he hopes he fhall
be thought an infignificant, fimple Fellow) but he acknow-
ledges, that he trembles for the Peculation of Demofthenes
during his Adminiftration, for his total Stupefadion of Spirit,
and his Cowardice in the Day of Battle. As for Demofthenes,
he declares, that when he confiders only his own Concernments
in this Trial, he is extremely confident of Succefs ; but confef^
fes himfelf ftrongly terrified for Ctefiphon's Villainies and Infa-
VoL. IJ. X X my.
(38) One of our Commentators, in a cleaves open Jupiter's Head with his Axe,
Letter to Doftor Taylor, calls this a cold, and fees Minerva ifluing forth, armed
infipid Jeft, and propofes to add Force cap-a-pie, he cries our, Tou have a Camp
and Spirit to it, by reading KetpccXexi'ov ^P"" y? "^' Shoulders, not an Head. But
inftead of -n^ocohv, which he calls a Lucian, it feems, was content with the
Gloflary-Reading, 0\ ;cs(p<<A/>, <<AX<< GloOary of tt. oVo^ov, or was not a. Cri-
^s(p<,Xolm. When Lucian's Vulcan ^'^ '" ^^'^ ^'" ^ ""'"'"'" ? ^' P""ni"g-
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? 338 ORATION OF ^SCHINES
my. You therefore, who are their common Judges, can cer-
tainly never acquit them of thofe Crimes, of which they have
mutually condemned each other.
I SHALL now briefly mention the perfonal Invedives, with
which they purpofe to abufe me. Demofthenes will affirm,,
that the Commonwealth has been fignally indebted to his Ser-
vices, and that I have injured her in a thoufand Inftances ; that
Philip and Alexander, and all the Calamities, they brought
upon the Republic, are to be imputed to me. But fo violent,
it feems, is this Operator of Words, as not to hold it fufficient
to accufe me of Errours, chat I might have pofiibly committed
in my public Miniftry, or in my Speeches, as an Orator, but
calumniates the privacy of my Life, fince I retired from Bufi-
nefs, and impeaches even my Silence. But that no Topic of
Calumny may be ncgle6led, he feverely cenfures the Time I
fpend in converfing with our Youth in their Academies. (39)
Even in the Beginning of his Harangue he reprefents this very
Profecution as criminal, which he pronounces was not under-
taken, out of Zeal for the Public, but to gratiate myfelf with
Alexander by difplaying my Hatred to Demofthenes. Nay, by
the Gods, as I am informed, hedefigns to queftion me, where-
fore I now impeach the whole of his Adminiftration, yet never
oppofed,
(39) Tourreil imagines, that Demoft- their Applaiife for his Eloquence, ^lam
henes ridiculed j^fchines for the Vanity pulchrum digito monftrari & d:cier, hie eft.
of fhcwing himfelf among the young Perhaps, fomething Icfs innocent is iii-
People ia their Exercifes, and foliciting tended.
2
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? AGAINST CTE SIPHON. 339
oppofed, never accufed him for any fingle Part ; wherefore,
after fo long an Interval, in which I very feldom appeared in
public Bufinefs, I now prefer this Accufation againft him.
But I am neither ambitious of imitating the Converfation of
Demofthenes, nor afliamed of my own. The Speeches I have
made in this Aflembly, I neither wifh unfpoken, nor would ac-
cept of Life upon the Terms of having pronounced his Decla-
mations. The Temperance of my Life, Demofthenes, hath
given and preferved to me, that Silence you calumniate. Con-
tented with my Httle Fortune, I do not fordidly wifli for more.
From thence I am either filent, or I fpeak, as I am influenced
by Judgement or Inclination ; not compelled by the profligate
Expence of luxurious Appetites. But you, I conceive, when
you have received your Price, are moft profoundly fllcnt : when
you have laviflied it away, grow clamorous again. On the con-
trary, you never ipeak, either when, or what you pleafe, but
when and what your Paymafters command. Nor are you a-
fhamed of boafting in your Vanity, what the next, immediate
Hour convidls of Falfehood. Even this Profecution, which you
afllire us was undertaken, not for the Sake of the Common-
wealth, but to ingratiate myfelf with Alexander, was begun
while Philip was yet alive; when Alexander was not yet feated
on the Throne ; before you had feen your Viflons of Paufanias,
or held your nodlurnal Dialogues with Juno and Minerva.
X x 2 How
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? 340 ORATION OF iESCHINES
How then could I have intended this Adulation to Alexander,
unlefs I had feen Vifions, like Demofthenes ?
But you reproach me, for not attending conftantly upon
our public Councils ; for coming only occafionally into our
Aflemblies, and imagine we are ignorant, that you have bor-
rowed this political Sentiment, not from a democratical, but
another Form of Government. For in Oligarchies the Privi-
lege of impeaching a State- Criminal is granted only to the Per-
fons, to whom the Adminifkration is intrufted ; but in a demo-
cratical Conftitution, every Citizen, who pleafes, and at what
Time he pleafes, hath a Right of preferring thefe Indidments.
In Anfwer to his other Objedlion ; to fpeak only upon particu-
lar Occafions is indifputably the Character of a Minifter, who
confiders the juft Importance and Utility of every Conjundure;
but never to let a fingle Day pafs over in Silence, is the certain
Mark of a Mercenary, who fets his Eloquence to Sale, and talks
for his Wages.
If you fly for Refuge to fuch Aflertions as thefe, that you
were never impeached by me before, nor have yet fuffered the
Punifliment due to your Crimes; you muft either imagine your
Audience extremely forgetful, or deceive yourfelf by your own
Sophiftry. For as it is indeed a confiderable Time fmce you
were publicly convided by Me for your impious Negotiations
with the Amphiflbans, and your Peculations in Euboea, you
may
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 341
may flatter yourfelf perhaps, that the People no longer remem-
ber them. But what Length of Time can ever hide in Oblivion
your Rapines in our Navy ? When you propofed a Law for
fitting out three hundred Gallies, and perfuadcd the Athenians
to make you chief Diredor of their Marine, I then convided
you of having robbed our Trierarchs of a Sum fufficient to have
equipped fixty-five light armed Gallies, and thus defrauded the
Republic of a greater Fleet, than that with which the Atheni-
ans won the fignal Vidory over the Lacedaemonians, and thcif
Admiral Pollis.
Yet fo ftrongly have you intrenched yourfelf in Calumnies
and Accufations againft the Punifhment you deferve, that there
is lefs Danger for the Criminal, who defends, than for them,
who make the Attack j while by perpetually bringing Alexan-
der and Philip into your Declamations, with abundant Invec-
tives againft them, and by accufing fome of our Citizens of
retarding the Operations of the Commonwealth in her moft
favourable Conjundures, you really loft every then prefent Oc-
cafion of adting, yet with many a vain-glorious Promife for the
future. Laftly, when I had refolved to bring you to a Trial,
did you not contrive to have Anaxinus, a Merchant then pur-
chafing Goods at Olympias, arrefted ? You ordered him to
be put to the Torture, having firft with your own Hand writ-
ten the Decree, that condenuied him to fuffer Death. Yet
with this very Man you lived at Oreumj you eat, you drank,
you
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? 342 ORATION OF . ESCHINES
you poured forth your Libations to the Gods at the fame Table;
you gave him your Hand, that facred Pledge of Friendfhip and
Hofpitality ; yet this very Man you murdered. When I had
convided you of thefe Crimes in Prefence of the whole Atheni-
an People ; when L called you the Murderer of your Hoft,
you denied not the impious Deed, but returned an Anfwer, at
which the People, and the Strangers, who ftood round the Af-
fembly, cried out with Horrour and Indignation. You declared,
you far preferred the facred Rights of Hofpl. ality in Athens, to
the Friendfhip of any foreign Table.
His forged Letters I pafs over in Silence ; his arrefting pre-
tended Spies ; his Inquifitions by Torture for Crimes, that
never were committed ; as if I had formed a Confpiracy to in-
troduce fome Innovations into our Conftitution. Yet he now
intends, as I am informed, to a/k me, what Character would
that Phyfician deferve, who during his Patient's Illnefs refufed
to prefcribe for him, yet after his Death fliould go to his Fu-
neral, and pompoudy difplay to his Relations the Prefcriptions,
which if he had carefully followed, he had recovered his Health?
But you never afk yourfelf, Demofthenes, what Kind of De-
magogue is He, whofe Power confifls in foothing the People
with his Adulation ; who could vilely bai;i:er away thofe criticg. 1
Conjundlures, which might have preferved his Country ; who by
his Calumnies hath deterred every prudent Citizen from giving
his Advice; who after having ignominioully fled from the
Danger
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 343
Danger of Battle, and expofed the Republic to Calamities mod
irremediable, now thinks himfelf worthy of being crowned for
his Virtues ; He, who never performed one meritorious A6lion;
He, the fole Caufe ot all our Misfortunes ? Then let him ve-
hemently demand ofthofe, whom by flanderous Accufations he
hath driven from the Adminiflration, at a Time when they might
have preferved the Commonwealth, let him demand, why they
did not oppofe him in thefe pernicious Schemes. They may
return this Anfwcr ; " immediately after the Battle we had not
*' Leifure for your PuniOiment, but were employed in difpatch-
" ing EmbalHes for the Safety of the Republic. " But when
unfatisfied with efcaping with impunity, you claim Rewards
and Honours, making Athens ridiculous in the Eyes of Greece,
I then ftood forth to oppofe ; I then preferred this Indidment.
But, by all the Deities of Olympus, I mofl impatiently rc-
fent his intending, as I am informed, to compare mc, in my
Genius for Eloquence, to the Syrens, by whom their Hearers
are not enchanted only, but deft royed. Thus, whatever Talents
I poffefs from Nature, or have improved by Pradice and Ex-
perience are ever fatal to my Audience. Such Language with
regard to me, I am well aflured, is moft unfit for any Man, to
utter (and furely it is infamous, that an Accufer fhould be un-
able to prove what he aflerts as a Fad) or if ever it were ne-
cefTary, yet it certainly ought not to be the Language of Demoft-
henes. It can be proper only for fome gallant General, who
having
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? 344 ORATION OF ^SCHINES
having performed many fignal Services for his Country, and
being little powerful in his Elocution, envies the Talents of
his Adverfaries. He is confcious of his own Inability to defcribe
with Advantage thofe Adions, he had worthily performed, while
he beholds his Accufer enabled by his Eloquence to convince
his Audience of the Reality of thofe A6lions, which in Truth
he never performed. But when a Man abfolutely compared
of Words ; the Words of Bitternefs, and chofen with exquifite
Curiofity ; that fuch a Man fhould pretend to rely upon an
artlefs Simplicity of fpeaking, ora meer Reprefentation of Fadls,
is it not moft intolerable? A Man, whofe Tongue is his only
Merit. Take that away, the Remainder of him is as worthlefs,
as a tonguelefs Pipe. (40)
I REALLY wonder, Athenians, and would gladly know, up-
on what Motives you will acquit Cteliphon of this Indidlment ?
Becaufe his Decree is agreeable to your Laws ? Nothing was
ever more illegal. Becaufe he merits not the Trouble of pu-
nifhing ? you never can have any Rules to dired the Lives and
Manners of our People, if this Man is acquitted. But is it not
truly deplorable, that formerly this Orcheftra was filled with
Crowns of Gold, prefented by the States of Greece to the Peo-
ple of Athens upon this Day, appointed to receive them with
greater Solemnity, and now, when by the unhappy Politics of
Demofl-
(jo) A thin Plate, cut in the Shape of the Pipe; perhaps not unlike the
of a I'ongue, was fixed in the Mouth Reeds of our Hautboys.
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 345
Demofthenes, you are neither honoured with Crowns or Procla-
mations, fliall Demofthenes himfelf be proclaimed ? Yet if any
of our Tragic Poets, whofe PJays fliall be brought upon the
Stage immediately after the Ceremony of his being crowned,
fhould introduce Therfltes crowned by the Greeks, you never
would endure it; becaufe Homer calls him a Coward and a
Calumniator.
But if you crown our prefent Therfites, do you
not imagine, the Grecians will treat you with the utmofl: De-
rifion and Contempt?
Your Anceftors afcribed whatever was glorious and fplendid
in their A6lions to the People ; whatever was lefs important, or
lefs fuccefsful was imputed to the Counfels of their corrupted
Orators. But Ctefiphon is of Opinion, we fhould take away
our prefent Ignominy from Demofthenes, and tranfer it to the
People. You profefs yourfelves moft happy in the good Favour
of Fortune, and with Reafon make the Profefllon. Will you
therefore by your own Decree declare, you are deferted by For-
tune, and preferved by Demofthenes ? Yet of all things moft
abfurd, in thefe very Courts of Juftice you brand with Infamy
the Man, who has been convifted upon an Adion of Bribery,
and will you crown this Demofthenes, whofe whole Admi-
niftration you are confcious hath been corrupt ? You rigoroufly
fine the Judges, who do not impartially diftribute the Prizes
to the Dancers in our Bacchanalian Games, and will you, who
are appointed Judges, not of Dances, but of Laws and civil
Vol. II. Y y Virtue,
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? 346 ORATION OF ^SCHINES
Virtue, will you diftribute the Prizes, not as the Law diredls,
not to the few and the deferving, but to Him, who hath prac-
tifed for them by briguing and Fadlion ? When a Judge of this
Character leaves the Court, he hath weakened his own Autho-
rity, and ftrengthened the Power of the Orator. For every pri-
vate Citizen in a democratical Government hath in himfelf the
Majefly of Kings, by the Protedlion of the Laws, and the Free-
dom of his Vote, by which thofe Laws are enadted. But the
Moment he refigns thefe Prerogatives to another, he hath abfo-
lutely annulled his own Sovereignty. Befides, the Oath, by
which he was engaged to judge with Impartiality, perpetually
attends upon him and torments him (for in the Violation of that
Oath, I fuppofe, confifts his Crime) while the Favour itfelf,
which he defigned to confer, is totally loll, and even unknown
to the Perfon, whom he purpofed to oblige, becaufe his Suffrage,
which is given by Balot, cannot be publicly known.
We {eem, Athenians, in my Judgement, to be at once both
fortunate and imprudent in our Adminiftration of the Com-
monwealth. That in the prefent Conjundlure of Affairs the
Many have refigned to the Few the very Strength of our Con-
flitution, I cannot approve ; but that a greater Harvefi: of Ora-
tors, both wicked to conceive and bold to execute, hath not
rifen from this Refignation, I deem a peculiar Inftance of our
good Fortune. Our Democracy formerly produced Men of
tiiis Charader in Abundance, who, like the prefent Race,
eafily
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 347
eafily foothed the People to Ruin with their Flattery. For the
People were delighted with being flattered, and thus were op-
prefled, not by thofe, whom they dreaded, as dangerous, but
by them, in whom they confided. Some of them were after-
wards among the Number of your thirty Tyrants, who flaugh-
tered more than fifteen hundred Citizens without the common
Forms of a Trial, or informing them for what Crimes they
were to fuffer Death ; who would not permit their Relations
to attend their Funerals, or pay them the laft, decent Rites of
Sepulture. Will you not then keep fuch Minifters in due Sub-
jedlion to your Authority . ? Will you not humble fuch info-
lent Spirits, and banifh them to other Climes ? Will you not
recolledl, that none ever attempted the Ruin of a popular State,
until they had affumed a Power fuperiour to the Juftice of our
Courts ?
I COULD with Pleafure, Athenians, argue with the Author
of this Decree in your Prefence, and afk, for what good Ser-
vices Demofthenes deferves to be crowned. If, Ctefiphon, you
alTert, as in the Opening of your Decree, becaufe he hath fiir-
rounded our Walls with very magnificent Intrenchments, thou
art to me an Objedl of Admiration. For greater is the Guilt
of having rendered thefe Fortifications necefTary, than is the
Merit of having executed them with what Dignity foever. He,
who afTumes to himfelf the Reputation of having wifely govern-
ed the Commonwealth, fbould not demand an honorary Re-
Y y 2 war d
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? 348 ORATION OF iESCHINES
ward for fortifying our Walls with Ramparts and Intrenchments,
or impioufly violating the Sepulchres of the dead, (41) but
producing for her fome real Advantage. If you proceed to the
fecond Article of your Decree, in which you have the Confi-
dence to affirm, that he is an eminently good Man, and con-
ftantly directs all his Words and Adions to the Service of the
Athenian People, throw away this Vanity and Pomp of Ex-
preffion ; come to Fads and prove what you affirm. His Pe-
culation with Regard to the Amphiifeans and Eubceans, I
willingly pafs over ; but when you afcribe to him the Caufes,
which produced our Alliance with the Thebans, you impofe
upon the ignorant, and affi-ont the knowing, who are confcious
of the Falfehood. For while you fupprefs the Circumftances
of that important Conjundure, nor mention the Glory of this
People now alTembled round us, by which that Alliance was
really concluded, you imagine we do not perceive, you attribute to
Demofthenes an Honour, that of Right belongs to the Republic.
How
(41) We have herean Tnftance of per- build the Walls of Athens, he ordered,
haps the boldeft Figure in Rhetoric. The that the Materials fhould be collefled from
Orator is proceeding with Impetiiofity every other Building, private or pubhc ;
and Vehemence in his Defcription of the facred or profane. From thence, ex
Magiftrate, who may juftly demand the facellisy fepulchrilque muri ccnjlarent. The.
Honour of being crowned by his Coun- Walls were hnilt of the Stories of Se-
try. Not he^ who fortifies the City with pulchres and Temples. Corn. Nepos.
Ramparts ; furroiinds it with Intrench- Demofthenes therefore, by whom they
ments. , and here he flops at once, are now repaired, muft have neccffiirily
and contrary to Expeftation, who deftroys removed fome of thefe fepulchral Stones,
the Sepulchres of our yhicejlors ; an Aft, and confequently have in Faft been guilty
of all others mod impious. Thre Faft of that Impiety, with which he is charged.
is expL'. ined by IJiftory. When The- Taylor.
miftoclcs had perfuaded the Athenians to
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 349
How extravagant the Infolence of this Proceeding I fhall en-
deavour to demonftrate by this one fignal Inftance. The King
of Perfia, fome little Time before Alexander's Expedition into
Alia, fent the People of Athens an affronting and barbarian
Letter, in which among other ill-mannered ExprefTions he
wrote at the Conclufion, " I fhall give you no Gold ; impor-
" tune me no more ; you never fhall receive any. " Yet this very
Monarch, when furrounded with Dangers, which ftill prefs hard
upon him, without any Requefl from the People of Athens vo-
luntarily fent them three hundred Talents, which with a no-
ble Moderation they refufed to accept. Thus a critical Con-
jun6lure, his own Terrours, and his Want of Allies, offered to
us the Perfian Gold, and the very fame Caufes operated in our
Alliance with the Thebans. Yet you, Demofthenes, are ever
clamoroufly repeating the Name of Thebes, and that unfortu-
nate Alliance, but are profoundly filent with Regard to the
feventy Talents of Perfian Gold, which you fecreted for your
own Purpofes. Yet was it not evidently for Want of Money,
even of five Talents, that their Mercenaries refufed to deliver
up their Citadel to the Thebans ? When the Arcadians had
taken the Field with all their Forces, and their Generals were
ready to enter upon Adion, was not the whole Expedition loft,
meerly for Want of nine Talents ? However you are rich, and
able to fupport the Expence of your luxurious Pleafures. In
very Fad:, the royal Gold he referves to himfelf, and leaves to
you the Dangers of his Adminiftration.
But
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? 350 ORATION OF iESCHINES
But their Want of common Senfe is worthy of your Confi-
deration. For if Ctefiphon fhall dare to call Demofthenes to
his Affiftance ; if he fhould come forward and pronounce his
own Encomium, the very liftening to him will be more into-
lerable, than all the Calamities you have fuffered by his Mi-
niftry. Becaufe, if we can ill endure even perfons of real Me-
rit, of whofe great and glorious Adions we are perfectly
confcious, when they proclaim their own Praifes, who can
have Fortitude enough to hear a Man, the Difhonour and
Reproach of the Commonwealth, il: he fliotild pronounce his
own Panegyric? You will therefore, Ctefiphon, if you are
wife, delifl: from fuch an impudent Experiment, and make your
own Defence. You cannot excufe yourfelf by any pretended
Want of Eloquence ; for it were abfurd indeed, that you, who
formerly fuiTered yourfelf to be elected Ambaflador to Cleopa-
tra, the Davighter of Philip, to condole with her upon the
Death of her Hufband Alexander, fhould now declare you are
not a very able Orator. (42) Were you capable of confoling
a foreign Queen in her Sorrows, and are you unable to juflify a
Decree, which you have been bribed to prefer ?
But the Perfon, to whom you have decreed this Crown^
is he really fo unknown to the People of Athens, who have been
thus
(42) Alexander, King of Epirus, had Upon this unhappy Occafion, the Re-
carried the War into Italy ; his Army public fent Ctefiphon with Compliments
was routed ; he himfelf killed, and his of Condolence to his Queen.
Body treated with a thoufand Indignities.
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 351
thus indebted to his Merit, that he muft plead this Caufe
himfelf. Let us afk the Judges, whether they know Chabrias,
Iphicrates and Timotheus ; or wherefore they gave them fuch
honorary Rewards, and eredled Statues to them. They will
unanimoufly anfwer, to Chabrias, for his naval Vidlory at
Naxos ; to Iphicrates, for having cut to pieces the Lacedaemo-
nian Phalanx; to Timotheus, for his Expedition to Corcyra;
to others, for their many great and glorious Services performed
in War. If it fhould be afked, why then refufe this Honour
to Demofthenes ? Becaufe he is corrupt, a Coward, a Defcr-
ter of his Poft in Battle. Whether will you therefore honour
Him, or difhonour yourfelves and them, who gallantly loft
their Lives in your Defence ? Imagine you behold them, with
every Expreilion of Mifery and Indignation, lamenting his
being crowned ; for if we carry, beyond the Limits of Attica,
either Timber or Stones, or Pieces of Iron, things fenfelefs and
inanimate, that have accidentally fallen and killed an human
Creature ; or if, when a Citizen hath been guilty of Self-Mur-
der, we bury the Hand, that committed the Deed, feparately
from the Body ; it will be terrible indeed, that Demofthenes,,
O Athenians, the Man, who decreed this laft unfortunate Ex~
peditlon ; who betrayed the Army by his Cowardice,, fhall be
honoured and rewarded. The Dead will be infuhed, and the
Living difcouraged, when they behold, that Death is placed
before them as the only Reward of their Virtue, and that evea
their Virtue fhall itfelf be loft; to Remembrance.
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? 352 ORATION OF iESCHINES
But of more Importance the Confideration^ if our Youtfi
fhoiild afk upon what Model they fhall form their future Lives,
what will you anfwer ? You are confcious, that neither the
Places appointed for their Exercifes, nor the Schools, nor their
Mufic, are fufficient to form them to Virtue, but far more ef-
ficacious our public Proclamations. Is a Man proclaimed in
the Theatre to be crowned for his Integrity, his Courage, and
Love of his Country, who is infamous for the Turpitude and
Impurity of his Life ? Our Youth are inftantly corrupted in
their Principles. Is an impious and a proftituted Wretch, like
Ctefiphon, punifhed, as he deferves ? Others are inftrudled.
Is a Father, who hath pafTed a Decree in Oppofition to every
Sentiment of Honour and Juftice, capable, when he returns
home, of forming his Son to Virtue ? His Son will undoubted-
ly pay him little Attention, and his Advice at fuch a Time will
juftly be called tedious and impertinent. Not therefore as
Judges only, but as Magiftrates ading in View of their Coun-
try, you fhould give Judgement in fuch a Manner as will juflify
you to your abfent Fellow-Citizens, when they fhall demand
what Sentence you have pronounced. For be well afTured,
Athenians, that the I Republic will always be thought to bear
fome Refemblance to the Perfon we crown. Will it not be
therefore infamous in you to refemble the Cowardice of this
Demofthenes ; not the Magnanimity of your Anceftors ?
But how fliall you efcape fuch Infamy? Keep a ftrong
Guard
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 1^53
Guard upon thofe, who afTume to themfelves the Style of pub-
lic Virtue and Philanthropy, yet in their private Chara6lers
are difhoneft and perfidious. For Love of our Country and of
Liberty, are Expreflions, that lie open in common to every
Body, and in general, they, who take FoflefTion of the Words,
are fartheft diftant from them in their Adions. When you
therefore find an Orator ardently defirous of Crowns and Pro-
clamations in the general Aflemblies of Greece, command him
to bring back his vague Oration, and his Aflertions (as the Law
directs) to the Proofs of a Life worthy of Praife, and of un-
blemifKed Morals. If he cannot give you fuch Teftimony, do
not ratify the Praifes, with which he is proclaimed ; and thus
be careful to preferve what yet remains of your Authority.
But does it not appear to you moft terrible, that the Senate
and People are treated with Contempt ; that Difpatches and
Embaflies come to private Houfes, not from Perfons of inferior
Rank, but from the greateft Potentates of Europe and Afia ?
The very Crimes our Laws make punifhable with Death, a
certain Party do not deny their having committed, but profefs
them in Prelence of the People, and read their Difpatches to
each other. Some of them defire you to look up to them, as
to the Guardians of your Democracy ; others demand Rewards,
as Prefervers of the Republic ; while the People, from very
Dejedion of Spirit by their Misfortunes, as if they were grown
aged and doting in their Underftanding, affume to themfelves
the Name alone of a popular Goverment, but have yielded the
Vol. IL Z z Power
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? 354 ORATION OF ^SCHINES
Power to others. Thus you depart from this AfTembly, not
like Perfons, who had confulted upon the Welfare of their
Country, but Hke Guefts, who had divided the Fragments of a
public Entertainment.
That I do not trifle with your Attention, let the following
Remarks convince you. There was a certain-- with Grief I
mention the Calamities of the Republic fo frequently -- there
was a certain private Citizen, who attempting to fail to Samos
alone, was the very fame Day condemned and executed by Sen-
tence of the Areopagus. Another, who had taken Refuge in
Rhodes, unable to fupport with Fortitude the Dangers of the
Commonwealth, was lately impeached, and acquitted only
becaufe the Votes were equal. Had a fingle Suffrage more
been given againft him, he had been either baniflied, or put
to Death. (43) Let us now place the prefent Inftance in Op-
pofition to thefe. An Orator, the Author of all our Misfor-
tunes, deferted his Poft in Battle, and afterwards fled from the
Defence of Athens ; yet now prefumes to think he deferves a
CroWn, and the Honours of a Proclamation. Will you not
drive him hence into Banifhment, this common Peft of Greece ?
Will you not rather feize and punifli this public Robber ; this
Pyratc, who fiils through your Conftitiition upon the Power
of Words ? Remember too the particular Circumftances of
the
(43) A Decree was pafTed immediately of the Jaft Perfon, who thus deferted iiis-
after the Defeat at Chsronea, to make Country, was Leocrates. He was pro~
it punilhable with Death for any of the feciued by Lycurgus, whofe Speech is
Citizens to leave Athens. The Name flill extant. Tourreil.
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? AGAINST CTESIPHON. 355
the Time, in which you pronounce this Judgement. The Pythian
Games are in a (tw Days approaching, and the general States
of Greece will be aflembled. The Republic is already calum-
niated for the Adminiftration of Demofthenes, and if you de-
termine this Crown in his Favour, you will appear to have
afl;ed in Confederacy with them, who violated the general
Peace; on the contrary, you will acquit the People of fuch Ca-
lumnies.
Do not therefore determine with an Indifference, as if the
Interefts of fome foreign State, not thofe of your native Coun-
try, were concerned. Do not diftribute your Honours to mecr
Ambition, but give them with Difcernment. Place your
Bounty upon Perfons moft eAimable ; upon Men more worthy
of your Praile. Do not depend upon your Ears only, but with
your Eyes examine, what Kind of Citizens they are, who fup-
port the Caufe of Demofthenes. Were they his Companions
in hunting, or the gymnaftic Exercifes in his Youth? No; by
Olympic Jupiter. He never uncoupled the Hounds to roufe
the favage Boar; never was anxious to obtain a vigorous Ha-
bit of Body, but exercifed thofe Arts alone, which he well
knew how to pra(5life againft the wealthy.
(44) Now mark thelnfolence of the Man, and when he boafts,
that by his Negotiations in his Embafly, he wrefted Byzantium
out
(44) Here the Peroration begins. It is great, beautiful, fublime, pathetic, ani
Z z 2 affeftiiig.
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