No More Learning

Later, when we had made an alliance drawing the Boeotians and Corinthians away from them, and drawing the Argives into our friendship, we were ourselves to blame for the battle at Corinth. Did not certain ones turn the Persian king hostile to them ? and pre pare Conon's sea-fight by which they lost the control of the sea ? Yet after suffering these things from us, they concede the same as the allies, and will give us walls and ships and islands to be ours. What need have we now to go sending ambassadors for peace ? And should we procure by hostilities aught but the same things which friends will give, and on account of which we are to begin war that the city may have them ? Moreover, the others in making peace will lose their possessions, while we shall win besides what we most desire.
144 LYSIAS.
Lyslas.
Against the Younger Alcibiades for deserting his Battalion. [The speech was written for and made by one Tisias. ]
I AM persuaded, gentlemen, that you can expect no apol ogy from me for undertaking this impeachment of Alcibiades ; for such has been the invariable tenor of his behavior toward the state, that even had he avoided giving private cause for offense to any individual among you, he would still deserve to be regarded, on account of his political character, as the public enemy of his country and of every citizen who loves it. His crimes have not been inconsiderable, — they admit of no exten uation, — they leave no room to hope for his future amendment ; they are such that even his enemies, as men, must blush and be ashamed of them.
For my own part, gentlemen, I will acknowledge that I seek vengeance on him, not for your sakesonly, but for my own. His hatred toward me is deep-rooted ; it descends to him by inheritance from his father, and of late he has put in execution all the malicious purposes of his heart.
In many particulars, I have been anticipated by Archestra- tides, who first moved this accusation. He has read and ex plained the laws, and adduced evidence the most unquestionable; but whatever he may have omitted, it shall be my business to supply. Read therefore the law. (It is read. ) This is the first time since the peace that you have sat in judgment, gentlemen, upon such a trial ; and you ought on this account to regard yourselves not merely as judges, but as legislators, convinced that according to your present decision, and according as you either enforce or invalidate the law now read, the consequences must be important to the future happiness of this state. It is at all times the part of a just judge and of a good citizen to take the laws in that sense which is most for the interest of his coun try ; but his duty is more especially useful at the time when they are first plead. Those who would defend Alcibiades have asserted that he could not be guilty of leaving his rank or of cowardice, because there was really no engagement ; and the law, they pretend, runs, " that if any one leave his rank through cowardice, while his companions are engaged with the enemy, that in that case only he shall be subjected to a trial. " This observation, however, is exceedingly ill founded ; for the
LYSIAS. 145
law comprehends not only those who leave their ranks, but such as, being summoned, have not appeared among the foot soldiers. (It is read. ) You hear then, gentlemen, that the law does not more apply to those who fly from their ranks, than to those who are not present among the infantry. But who should be present ? Not those of the military age ? not those whom the general has summoned ? To me, indeed, Al- cibiades appears to be equally guilty under both heads of the law. He is chargeable with deserting his rank, because, being summoned to appear among the foot soldiers, he did not there make his appearance, but abandoned that post which was as signed him ; and he is manifestly convicted of cowardice, be cause, being ordered to expose himself on the same footing with his fellow-citizens, he alone mounted on horseback, and trusted to the mettle of his steed.
This, however, is his defense : he denies to have injured the state, because he was prepared to fight for it on horseback. But this apology, itself contrary to law, deserves only your indignation, for the law enacts : That whoever ranks with the cavalry, without obtaining the necessary permission, shall be deemed infamous. This, however, he has attempted ; and this very thing he alleges as his excuse. Read also this law. (It is read. ) So abandoned then is his character, that rather than serve as a foot soldier with his fellow-citizens, he has shown his contempt for you, and his fear of your enemies ; and equally despising the laws of this republic, and the sanc tions which confirm them, he has subjected himself to perpet ual infamy, to confiscation of goods, and to every punishment which you may think proper to inflict. Yet the other citi zens, who had never before served on foot, but always among the cavalry, and who, being well acquainted with their duty, had signalized their valor in the execution of it, obeyed you and the laws ; they expected not indemnity by the destruc tion of the republic ; they hoped for its greatness, its glory, and its success. But Alcibiades, having never served on horse back, and even incapable of doing it with honor to himself or advantage to his country, must, though unappointed and dis qualified, rank himself with the cavalry, thus trampling on your laws because he hoped the misfortunes of the state would not permit you to enforce them.
Consider, gentlemen, that if you permit such unbounded licentiousness, there will no longer be any occasion for enact-
VOL. IV. — 10
146
LYSIAS.
ing laws, assembling the citizens, or appointing generals ; for all these formalities have been established in order to restrain it. And surely it would be unaccountable, that while a soldier who quits the first rank for the second incurs the charge of cowardice, he who quits not his rank, but his corps, and flies from the infantry to the horse, should be deemed undeserving of this reproach.
Nor are judges merely appointed for taking punishment on the licentious, but in order, through the terror of their decrees, to keep the rest of the citizens in obedience and submission. If you punish obscure persons only, this advantage cannot be attained ; few will even hear of your decrees, and none will regard them : but if you chastise the most conspicuous offend ers, our citizens will be awed by the example ; the allies too will hear of it ; and our enemies, informed of your severity, will tremble at that state which thinks nothing so criminal as mili tary disorder.
It is not to be omitted, that of the soldiers in that army, a great many were sick, and others in the utmost poverty. The first would doubtless have chosen to return home, in order to get advice ; the second to provide for their subsistence. Yet none of them abandoned their ranks, or preferred the motives of present convenience before the dread of your laws and the imputation of cowardice. Be mindful of this in your decree, and make it evident to the whole world that you still have no feeling for those citizens who, disgracing the name of Athenian, fly from the enemies of their country.
I am persuaded that both the law and the fact have been stated in such a manner, that on neither of these grounds will my adversaries oppose me. But you they will supplicate and entreat not to condemn for cowardice the son of Alcibiades, as if Alcibiades deserved any favor from you whose interest he so shamefully abandoned; for if he had been cut off at the age of his son, and on the first display of his evil genius, the state would have avoided a thousand calamities. It would be most extraordinary, gentlemen, that the son of that father whom you condemned to death should be saved for his father's merit; the son having fled from your enemies, the father hav ing fought in their defense. Such was once your opinion of Alcibiades, that his son, yet a child and innocent, was delivered by you to the criminal judge, merely for his father's guilt ; and now when his own crimes are notorious, will you pity him for
LYSIAS. 147
bis father ? It would be fortunate indeed for such men to be saved on account of their birth, while we, who by their licen tiousness and disorder are reduced to the state of suppliants, meet with no mercy from our enemies. Will they spare us because descended from ancestors the most illustrious and deserving, and by whom all Greece has been far more bene fited than ever those men benefited their country? Yet it might be a merit in them to take compassion on their friends, but it is inconsistent with your honor not to take vengeance on your enemies. If his relations, gentlemen, should inter cede in his behalf, let them not be able to prevail with you ; for they did not intercede with him in behalf of the laws of this country, or interceding, did not persuade him. And if the generals, in order to make an ostentatious display of their own influence, should think proper to use it in his favor, you will suggest to them that, were all like Alcibiades, there would be no occasion for generals, because there would be none to obey them. Demand of them, whether it be their duty to accuse and punish deserters, or to assist them in their defense, and which conduct is most likely to insure obedience to their orders.
The defendants, therefore, must prove either that he served on foot, or that he did not rank himself with the cavalry till he had obtained the necessary permission. In both cases, they may justly plead for his acquittal. But if having noth ing of this kind to pretend, they entreat you to relent and be merciful, remember they give you a counsel to violate the oath which you have sworn, and to trample on the laws of your country. Yet wonderful would it be, should you incline to spare Alcibiades through the merit of his protectors, rather than destroy him for his own wickedness. Being informed of this, you will perceive that it is not a virtuous citizen you punish for a single offense, but that his whole life and behavior deserve the utmost weight of your resentment. And it is but reasonable, gentlemen, that while the accused urge in their defense their father's virtues and their own, the accuser may make mention of their vices, and prove that both the defendant and his ancestors deserve your detestation.
This deserter, while under the years of puberty, and living with the blinkard Archedemus, that robber of his country, was seen in broad day reveling with a courtesan, giving this early testimony of his character, and thinking he should never be
148 LYSIAS.
famous when old, unless in youth he was most profligate. He afterward entered into a conspiracy with Theotimus against his own father, and betrayed to him the fort of Oreos. Theoti mus protected him for some time on account of his beauty; but whether dreading his treachery, or thinking to extort money from his father by way of ransom, he at length put him in irons. His father, however, so much detested him that he declared he would not ransom his bones ; and it was not till a considerable time after the father's death that he was restored to liberty by his lover Archedemus. Not long after, having gambled away all his property, in hastening from the headland of Leuce he drowned his companions.
But it would be tedious to relate all that he has committed against the citizens in general, and even against his kindest friends. Hipponicus was obliged on his account to part from his wife, and to declare before many witnesses that Alci- biades had entered his house as her brother, but had lived in it as her husband. And the man convicted of these crimes, and having perpetrated everything wicked and abominable, shows not, even at present, that he repents of his past life or intends to reform it. Yet above all the citizens it became him to be most modest and regular, that the merit of the son might have atoned for the guilt of the father — that father who advised the Lacedaemonians to fortify Decelia, who alien ated the isles, who was the source and contriver of our disgrace, and who fought as successfully, in conjunction with the enemies of this state, against his native country, as he was unhappy in defending it. For these injuries, gentlemen, your venge ance should be wreaked on his whole race.
It is urged that it would be highly unjust to punish him for the banishment of a father, whom upon his return you honored with presents ; but it would surely be much more unjust to acquit him for the merit of the father, whom you afterward deprived of those presents which you had rashly and undeservedly bestowed on him.
And were there no other reason for condemning him, the following is sufficient. He compares your virtues, gentlemen, to his father's guilt; and by them he attempts to excuse it. Alcibiades, says he, did nothing so extraordinary in bearing arms against his country ; for even you yourselves, when in a state of exile, took possession of Phyle, destroyed the wood, beat down the walls, and instead of heaping disgrace on your
LYSIAS. 149
posterity, have by these exploits acquired glory and renown. Thus he compares your conduct, gentlemen, in returning to expel your enemies, with that of his father who returned by their assistance. And it is known to all Greece that they en tered the city to tyrannize over you, and to procure the empire of the sea to the Lacedaemonians ; whereas you, actuated by
motives, expelled the Lacedaemonians and restored liberty to them. There is no similarity then between your actions and those of his father.
Still, however, he insists ; and when his father's merit can no longer protect him, he triumphs in his crimes : for being the most guilty of the citizens, he must also, says he, have been the most powerful ; nor without the most distinguished abilities could he have done more injuries to the state than all the rest of the citizens. What abilities did it require, but determined villainy, to give information to the enemy where to make a de scent, what posts were unoccupied, what worst defended, where our affairs were most desperate, and which of our allies were ripest for a revolt. All this indeed he performed, hurting us still more by secret treachery than open violence. But, return ing and getting command of the fleet, what did he perform against the enemy ? He was not able to drive them from our coast, he could not even reduce to their duty the Chians whom he had caused to revolt ; and in fine, while fighting for his country he performed nothing worthy of applause. It is not, therefore, in abilities, but in villainy, that he excelled : he could discover your secrets and your weakness to the Lacedae monians, but the Lacedaemonians he was unable to overcome ; and promising to obtain money from the king of Persia, he robbed your treasury of two hundred talents. Nor did he dare to disavow his crimes : though an accomplished orator, abounding in wealth, surrounded with friends, he ventured not to stand his trial before this people, but condemning himself by a voluntary banishment, chose to be an inhabitant of Thrace rather than a citizen of Athens.
opposite
But the last effort of his malice far excelled all that I have hitherto described. By the assistance of Adimantus he betrayed your fleet to Lysander. If you feel any compassion, therefore, for such as perished in the sea engagement ; if you are ashamed at the disgrace of those who were carried into slavery ; if you are seized with indignation at the demolition of your walls, with hatred against the Lacedaemonians, with rage against the
150 LYSIAS.
Thirty Tyrants ; — all these you must ascribe to Alcibiades the father, whose ancestors have been banished by you, and whom the most aged of this assembly deliberately condemned to death. Take vengeance, then, on your hereditary enemy, and let neither pity, nor pardon, nor favor, prevail over the laws which you have established and the oaths which you have re peatedly confirmed. Why should you spare such offenders ? What pretense can excuse them ?
Their public character is obnoxious, and have their private manners been blameless ? Have they not lived with prosti tutes, cohabited with their own sisters, begot children of their daughters, treated our mysteries with contempt, maimed the statues of Hermes, been impious toward all the gods, injuri ous to all the citizens, and behaved with a licentiousness so rash and undistinguishing as even to involve themselves in the common calamity ? From what deed, the most audacious, have they abstained? What have they not perpetrated, in flicted, or suffered? Such was their disposition to hate the very appearance of virtue, and to triumph in their crimes. But will you pardon them, though thus unjust, in hopes of their future reformation, and of the benefit that may thence result to the state ? What benefit can he confer, convicted by the present trial, a coward, and proved a villain by the whole course of his life ? Nor allow fear, gentlemen, to awe you into forgiveness. Banished from his country you have no occasion to dread him ; a coward, a beggar, at variance with his kins men, detested by all the world ! Render him an example then to the state, and to his own profligate companions, licen tious and dissolute as himself, who, having ruined their pri vate fortune by debauchery, now harangue you on public affairs.
Thus have I spoken on the indictment to the best of my abilities ; and while many of you may wonder how I could collect such an aggregate of guilt, he himself will laugh be cause I have not related the thousandth part of his crimes. Reflecting then, not only on what is said, but on what is still omitted, you will assuredly condemn him ; considering that he is guilty of the charge, and that it is for the advantage of the state to be disburdened of such citizens. Read the laws, the oaths, and the indictment, and remembering justice, pass your decree.
ISOCRATES. 151
ISOCBATES.
In Defense of the Same.
That my father did not take the span of horses from Tisias by violence, but purchased them from the Argive state, you have now learned by the testimony both of their ambassadors who came hither, and of others who witnessed the transaction. It is thus these informers persecute and harass me, first calling me into court under pretense of some private wrong, and afterward loading me with calumny as an enemy to the public. They even spend more time in traducing the character of my father than in examining the merits of the cause; and in contempt of law and justice, they insist that I should be subjected to punish ment for the injuries which they impute to him. Though such matters have no relation to the present subject, yet as Tisias has insulted me on account of my father's exile, I think it my duty to answer this reproach ; for I should be ashamed to ap pear less concerned for the fame of my father than for my own danger.
To such as are advanced in years, few words will suffice. They can easily recollect that Alcibiades was banished by the same men who afterward subverted the democracy. But for the sake of those who are too young to have any personal knowl edge of such transactions, and who have often heard them misrepresented in this assembly, it is necessary that I should fully explain them.
The cabal of the Four Hundred, the first invaders of our rights, having discovered their views to my father, he con demned and opposed them. As they observed his attachment to the interest of the people, and his ability to promote it, they despaired of producing any revolution while he remained in Athens, and accordingly took measures to remove him. They knew that there were two circumstances which chiefly excited your indignation — committing impiety with regard to the mysteries of Demeter, and proposing to abolish your democ racy. These they laid to the charge of my father, accusing him before the senate of having conspired with a faction against the present constitution, and of having celebrated the mys teries of Demeter in the house of Pulytion, in company with his impious partisans. But though the people were inflamed by the atrocity of these accusations, he justified himself in a
152 ISOCRATES.
manner so satisfactory that they were disposed to punish his accusers, and appointed him to sail as general into Sicily. Thither accordingly he repaired, imagining himself fully cleared from every imputation. But no sooner was he gone than his enemies again brought on the affair before the senate, after gaining the orators and bribing false witnesses. It is un necessary to describe the whole course of their iniquity : it ended in recalling my father from his employment, and in the murder or banishment of his friends. When he received in telligence of what had happened, of the success of his enemies, and of the misfortunes of those who had been attached to him, he was struck with the injustice of being condemned, in his absence, for the same crimes of which he had before been honor ably acquitted. But even this could not excite his resentment against the state, or make him court the protection of its enemies : on the contrary, he preserved his affection for his country even during this severe persecution ; and disdaining vengeance, retired quietly to Argos.
The malignity of his enemies, however, still continued to operate. They persuaded you to banish him out of all Greece, to erect a monument denouncing his disgrace, and to send am bassadors to Argos requiring his expulsion from that country. Then indeed, abandoned as he was, everywhere proscribed, and seeing no other means of safety, he took refuge with the Lacedaemonians. This is his only crime, and such are the circumstances which produced it. —
As to the other accusations against him,
Decelia, seduced our allies from their duty, and instructed our enemies in the art of war, while his talents are declared to have been most contemptible, — they are as inconsistent with one another as with common sense. For how, without very un common abilities, could he have brought about such important events ? Supposing him ever so well skilled in the art of war, would the Spartans have received his lessons on a science in which they were capable to instruct all mankind? Did the time admit of it, I could prove that he had no share in many transactions which are falsely ascribed to him, and that in those in which he actually was concerned, he consulted the interest of his country. But it would be hard indeed, if I should now
be subjected to punishment for the banishment of my father, when the state thought proper that he himself should afterward receive a compensation on that account. You, of all men,
that he fortified
ISOCRATES.
153
ought to have the greatest compassion for his afflictions ; for when banished by the Thirty Tyrants, you had to struggle with the same calamities. On that occasion, you united in sentiment with my father. Were you not disposed to submit to every inconvenience, and to expose yourselves to every danger, rather than continue in exile ? What outrages did you not commit, in order to return to the city and to inflict punishment on those who had expelled you? To what state did you not sue for assistance ? From what injury did you abstain ? After seizing the Piraeus, did you not destroy the corn in the fields, desolate the territory, set fire to the suburbs, and at last lay siege to Athens ?
All these measures you thought so justifiable, that you ex pressed more indignation against the partners of your banish ment who did not concur in them, than against the original authors of your misfortunes. You ought not, therefore, to find fault with my father's conduct, which is authorized by your own example, nor regard those men as criminal, who during banishment desired to return to their country ; but those who, while they remained in the country, maintained a behavior deserving of banishment. Whether is it reasonable to judge of my father's character as a citizen, by what he did when cut off from the city, or by his conduct before that period ? Consider that with two hundred soldiers, he made the most considerable states of Peloponnesus revolt from the Lacedae monians, and become your allies; that he reduced your ene mies to the utmost extremity, and carried on the war of Sicily with uncommon success. Recollect his services after his return from exile, and the situation of affairs at that period. The democracy was dissolved, the citizens inflamed with sedition, and the army unwilling to obey the orders of those who were in power. The opposite factions had behaved with so much violence, that both were in despair : the one regarded their fellow-citizens, who remained in Athens, as enemies more implacable than the Lacedaemonians ; the other sent for the soldiers in Decelia, because they rather chose to be under the power of the enemy, than to allow their countrymen to have any share in the government. This was the disposition of the citizens with regard to one another. Their enemies, again, had been victorious by sea and land ; their wants were gratified or prevented by the king of Persia : while we had no means to supply an exhausted treasury ; and there were ninety ships
154
ISOCRATES.
daily expected from Phoenicia, which had been sent to assist the Lacedaemonians. Amidst these dangers and misfortunes, my father was recalled. He did not affect an importance which the occasion, in some measure, might have justified ; he did not show any resentment for the injuries which he had received, nor adopt measures that might have secured him in future against a similar treatment : on the contrary, he at once discovered his resolution rather to share in the misfor tunes of his country than in the successes of Lacedaemon; for it had never been his ambition to conquer the city, but only to return into it. He had no sooner engaged in your interest, than he dissuaded Tissaphernes from paying the supplies to the Lacedaemonians, and effected a reconciliation with our allies. He likewise paid the troops from his private fortune, reestab lished the government of the people, reconcded the citizens to one another, and removed all danger on the side of Phoenicia. It would require no small time to enumerate the galleys which he took, the battles which he gained, the cities which he carried by storm or compelled to surrender. It is remarkable, that of all the military expeditions in which the state during that time was engaged, none proved unfortunate under the conduct of my father. These facts, however, are too recent to be insisted on ; I pass over others which are no less publicly known.
But some men traduce his private life and manners with an insolence of reproach, which, were he alive, they would not dare to express. They are arrived at such a pitch of absurdity as to imagine that the more they calumniate him, the greater favor they will gain with you and with the rest of the Greeks ; as if all men did not know that it is in the power of the most worthless not only to rail against the most respectable characters, but to point their satire against Heaven itself. It may not, perhaps, be worth while to take notice of their re proaches ; but I am prompted to support the reputation of my father. I shall trace the matter from its source, that you may be sensible of the consideration in which our family has been held, from the earliest periods of the republic.
Alcibiades, then, was descended, by the father's side, of the race of the Eupatridae, whose very name announces the dignity of their extraction; by the mother's side, of the AlcmaeonidaB. This family was distinguished by its opulence, and its attach ment to the popular form of government. Alcmaeon was the first Athenian citizen who conquered in the chariot races at the
ISOCRATES.
155
Olympic games. His family, though related to that of Pisistra- tus, and though before the time of his usurpation many of them lived in particular intimacy with the tyrant, disdained to have any share in his government, and chose rather to banish them selves from their native country than behold the slavery of their fellow-citizens. On this account they became so odious to the usurper, that upon the prevalence of his faction, their houses were leveled with the ground and even the tombs of their dead sacrilegiously uncovered. But during the forty years that the usurpation continued, they were always regarded as the leaders of the people. At length Alcibiades and Clisthenes, great-grand fathers to my father, the one in the male, the other in the female line, conducted the people to the city, expelled the tyrants, and established that democracy under which we alone defended all Greece against the barbarians. They rendered the citizens so distinguished for justice, that we voluntarily received from the Greeks the empire of the sea ; and they so nobly adorned the city with everything subservient either to ornament or utility, that those who called it, by way of eminence, the capital of Greece, did not seem to exaggerate. Such then was the heredi tary friendship with the people transmitted to my father from his ancestors ; an inheritance venerable for its antiquity, and founded on the most important services.
He himself was left an orphan ; his father was killed at Coronea, fighting against the enemies of his country. Pericles, however, undertook the care of his education ; Pericles, whom all considered as the most equitable, moderate, and prudent of the citizens. It is surely not a small happiness to have sprung from such ancestors, and to have been educated by such a guardian: but my father disdained to owe his glory to the merit of his connections ; and determined to rival, not to bor row, their renown. First of all, when Phormio led forth one
thousand chosen men against the Thracians, he distinguished himself so much above his companions, that he was crowned by universal consent, and received a complete suit of armor from the general. What praises does not he deserve, who in his youth was conspicuous amidst the bravest of his countrymen, and who, when advanced in years, proved superior in every engagement to the most skillful generals in Greece ?
Soon after, he married my mother, who was given to him as the reward of his merit ; for her father Hipponicus, inferior to none in extraction, was in opulence the first of the Greeks, and
156 ISOCRATES.
in character the most respectable. An alliance so honorable and so advantageous was coveted by all, and expected by the most illustrious ; but Hipponicus preferred my father to all the suitors, and chose him for his son-in-law and his friend.
At that time, the Olympic games were the chief theater of glory. There the candidates for fame displayed their wealth, their activity, and their accomplishments. The conquerors not only rendered themselves famous, but reflected splendor on the state to which they belonged. Alcibiades, observing this, considered that the management of public affairs at home ad vanced the character of the private citizens in the opinion of his country ; but that the glory acquired at Olympus raised the reputation of the republic in the opinion of all Greece. Upon this reflection, though inferior to none in bodily strength and address, he despised the gymnastic exercises, as belonging to men of mean extraction and narrow fortune, or to the mem bers of inconsiderable states ; and applying himself to the man agement of horses, which none but the most affluent could undertake, he excelled all his competitors. He had more char iots than the greatest states. His horses so far excelled all that entered the lists, that they came in the first, the second, and the third. His sacrifices and other expenses in the festi val were more magnificent than those of whole nations ; and he ended the entertainment by eclipsing the glory of all former conquerors, and by leaving nothing greater for posterity to perform. His largesses to the people, upon being elected into public offices, and his magnificence in conducting the shows within the city, it is unnecessary to mention. All others have thought it sufficient honor to be ranked, in these respects, as second to Alcibiades ; and the praises bestowed on such as are distinguished for them in our days reflect a double luster on him.
As to what regards the commonwealth (for this is by no means to be omitted since he never neglected it), he behaved with such public spirit that while others excited seditions from views of profit or ambition, he exposed his life for the safety of his country. It was not in being rejected by the oligarchy, but in being called to share in it, that he showed his attachment to the people. He might have shared in the government of the few ; he might even have enjoyed more authority than any in dividual of their number ; but he chose to suffer injuries from his fellow-citizens rather than to betray them. Of this it
ISOCRATES. 157
would have been impossible to have convinced you before the late revolutions in our government ; but the commotions which we have now experienced discover the true character of the citizens, and enable us to distinguish the partisans of oligarchy from the friends of the constitution, and the peaceable subjects of both from those who are indifferent as to all forms of gov ernment provided they have a share in the administration. In the course of these seditions he was twice expelled by your en emies. In the first instance, his banishment opened the way to your servitude ; and in the second, it was the immediate con sequence of your misfortunes — so intimately were your for tunes connected, so much did you share in his advantages, and so sensibly did he feel your adversity.
There were some who thought unfavorably of his public character, not judging by his actions, but because they supposed that supreme power was naturally coveted by all men, and that he was most capable to obtain it. This however, is his greatest praise, that while he possessed the means of enslaving his fellow-citizens, he chose to live on an equality with them. The variety of instances in which he demonstrated his principles, makes me at a loss which of them to select: those omitted always appear more considerable than such as I relate. One thing is evident, that those are naturally most attached to any government who are the greatest gainers by its continuance, and who have the most to lose by its subversion. But who was happier than he during the democracy ? Who was more admired and respected ? Upon the dissolution of that form of government, who was deprived of greater hopes, of a more ample fortune, or of higher reputation and glory? Under the last usurpation, the Thirty contented themselves with ban ishing other citizens from Athens, but him they proscribed from all Greece. Did not Lysander and the Lacedfemonians consider the death of my father, and the dissolution of your democracy, as things so inseparably connected that they la bored equally for both ? It was to no purpose, they knew, to make you agree to the demolition of your walls, while they left alive the man who could rebuild them.
The misfortunes, therefore, to which he was exposed, no less than the victories which he obtained, show his good will to the people. He desired the same government with you, he had the same friends, the same enemies, and he shared alike in your good and bad fortune. He was ever involved in dangers, some
158 ISOCRATES.
times with you, sometimes for you, but always in your behalf. In every respect, surely, he behaved differently from Charicles, who desired to be subject to the enemy and to tyrannize over his fellow-citizens ; and who, though he remained inactive during his banishment, had no sooner returned than he became a misfortune to his country. And you, the friend and kins man of such a traitor, you, who sat in a senate with tyrants, are now become audacious enough to traduce the citizens ! Have you no remembrance of the amnesty, by virtue of which you are at present an inhabitant of Athens? Are you not sensible, that, were the public to exact an account of what is past, you would now be exposed to greater dangers than I am? But the state, faithful to its oaths, will not only refuse to punish me for the pretended injuries of my father, but will pardon you for the crimes of which you are actually guilty. You have not the same defense with him : it was not in banish ment but while in office, it was not by necessity but from choice, it was not to avenge injuries but by being yourself the author of them, that you brought ruin on your country. Were this to be remembered, what defense could you plead, what excuse could you make ?
But, perhaps, on some future occasion, gentlemen, when he himself is in danger, I shall speak at more length of the injuries he has committed. I now entreat you not to abandon me to my enemies, nor to involve me in calamities too hard to be borne. Already have I had my full measure of distress. In my early infancy I was left an orphan by the death of my mother and the banishment of my father. Before I had at tained four years of age, I was in danger of being cruelly mur dered. When a boy I was expelled from the city under the Thirty Tyrants. After the citizens who seized the Piraeus were recalled, the rest were indemnified for the loss of their property. I alone, on account of the power and virulence of my enemies, received no redress. Having suffered so many misfortunes, and been twice deprived of all my possessions, I am now defendant in an action for five talents. This cause, though merely pecuniary, may drive me from my country. The same accusations have not similar effects against persons in different circumstances. The rich lose their fortunes, but those who are poor as I am lose their honor and reputation ; a loss greater than banishment itself, as it is more disagreeable to be despised by our fellow-citizens than to be obliged to live among strangers.
ismrs. 159
I now, therefore, crave your assistance ; I entreat that you will not suffer me to be insulted by my enemies, to be despised by my country, and to become remarkable above all men for my misfortunes. There is no occasion for many words; facts speak for themselves. It should be sufficient to move your compassion, to see me involved in an unjust accusation, endangered in whatever is most precious to me, suffering what is unworthy both of myself and of my fore fathers, deprived of the most splendid fortune, and obnoxious to all the vicissitudes of life. Though these considerations be extremely grievous, yet there are others still more afflicting : that I should be punished at the instance of a man from whom I am entitled to demand justice ; that I should be dishonored on account of my father's victory at Olympus, which to every other son would have been the source of triumph and glory ; that Tisias, who had no merit with the state, should have a powerful influence both in the oligarchy and democracy, while I, who injured neither, should be persecuted by both ; and that you, who agree in no other respect with the Thirty, should unite with them against me, and regard the partner of your misfortune as the object of your resentment.
I8M. VS.
On the Estate of Cleonymus. (Translated by Sir William Jones. )
Polyarchus left three sons, Cleonymus, Dinias, and the father of those for whom Isaeus composed the following speech. The third son dying, his children were committed to the guardianship of Dinias. These young men were heirs to Cleonymus by the laws of Athens, and their grandfather had appointed them successors to their uncle if he should die childless. Cleonymus had, however, a power to dispose of his property : and in a fit of anger toward his brother Dinias, for some real or imagined wrong, had made a will in favor of two remoter kinsmen, Diocles and Posidippus, which, accord ing to the custom of the Athenians, he had deposited with one of the magistrates; but after the death of Dinias he took his nephews under his care, and determined to cancel the will by which they were disinherited. With this intent he sent for the magistrate who kept the testament, but died unexpectedly before an actual revoca tion of it. His nephews then entered upon his estate as heirs at
160 IS. EUS.
law; and the other claimants produced the will which, as Isaeus contends in the person of his clients, was virtually revoked by Cleonymus.
Great has been the change which our fortunes have under gone by the decease of Cleonymus, who when he was alive intended to leave us his estate, but has exposed us by his death to the danger of losing it : and with so modest a reserve, judges, were we bred under his care, that not even as hearers had we at any time entered a court of justice, but now we come hither to defend our whole property ; for our adversaries dispute our right, not only to the possessions of the deceased, but also to our paternal inheritance, of which they boldly assert that he was a creditor. Their own friends, indeed, and relations think it just that we should have an equal share even of those effects which Cleonymus confessedly left them : but our opponents themselves have advanced to such a height of impudence, that they seek to deprive us even of our patrimony ; not ignorant, judges, of what is right and equitable, but conceiving us to be wholly defenseless against their attacks.
Consider, then, on what grounds the parties respectively rest their claims. These men rely on a will which our uncle, who imputed no blame to us, made in resentment against one of our relations, but virtually canceled before his death, having sent Posidippus to the magistrate for the purpose of solemnly revoking it : but we who were his nearest kinsmen, and most intimately connected with him, derive a clear title both from the laws, which have established our right of succession, and from Cleonymus himself, whose intention was founded on the friendship subsisting between us ; not to urge that his father and our grandfather, Polyarchus, had appointed us to succeed him if he should die without children. Such and so just being our claim, these associates, who are nearly related to us, and who have no color of justice on their side, are not ashamed of contesting our title to an estate about which it would be dis graceful for mere strangers to contend. Nor do we seem, judges, in this cause to have the same dispositions toward each other; for I do not consider it as the greatest of my present misfortunes to be unjustly disturbed with litigation, but to be attacked by those whom it would be improper even to repel with any degree of violence ; nor should I think it a lighter calamity to injure my relations in my own defense than to be
IS-EUS. 161
injured myself by their unprovoked assault : but they, judges, have different sentiments, and appear against us with a formid able array of friends whom they have summoned and advocates whom they have retained, leaving behind them no part of their forces, as if they were going to inflict vengeance on open enemies, and not to wrong those whom they were bound by every natural and social tie to assist. Their shameless audacity and sordid avarice will be more clearly perceived by you when you have heard the whole case, which I shall begin to relate from that part whence you will soonest and most easily learn the state of our controversy.
Dinias, our father's brother, was our guardian, he being our elder uncle, and we orphans ; at which time, judges, a violent enmity subsisted between him and Cleonymus. Whether of the two had been the cause of the dissension, it is not, perhaps, my business to determine ; but so far, at least, I may pro nounce them both deservedly culpable, that having till then been friends, and no just pretext arising for a breach of their friendship, they so hastily became enemies on account of some idle words. Now, Cleonymus himself when he recovered from that illness, in which he made his will, declared that he wrote it in anger : not blaming us, but fearing lest at his death he should leave us under age, and lest Dinias our guardian should have the management of our estate ; for he could not support the pain of thinking that his property would be possessed dur ing our infancy, and that sacred rites would be performed at his sepulchre by one whom of all his relations he most hated while he lived. With these sentiments (whether laudable or not, I leave undecided) he made a disposition of his fortune ; and when Dinias, immediately after, asked him publicly whether we or our father had incurred his displeasure, he answered in the presence of many citizens that he charged us with no fault whatever, but made the will in resentment against him, and not from any other motive. How indeed, judges, could he have determined, if he preserved his senses, to injure us who had given him no cause of complaint ?
But his subsequent conduct will afford the strongest proof that by this he had no intention of wronging us ; for when Dinias was dead, and our affairs were in a distressed condition, he was so far from neglecting us, or suffering us to want neces saries, that he bred us in his own house, whither he himself had conducted us, and saved our patrimony from unjust creditors
VOL. IV. — 11
162 IS-ffiUS.
who sought insidiously to deprive us of it ; nor were our con. cerns less attentively managed by him than his own. From these acts, therefore, rather than from his written testament, it is proper to collect his intention toward us ; and not to be biased by what he did through anger, by which all of us are liable to be hurried into faults, but to admit the clear evidence of those facts which afterward explained his design. Still farther : in his last hours he manifested the affection which he bore us ; for, being confined by the disorder of which he died, he was desirous of revoking his will, and with that intent ordered Posidippus to bring the officer who had the care of it, which order he not only disobeyed, but even refused admit tance to one of the magistrates who came by chance to the door. Cleonymus, enraged at this, gave the same command on the next day to Diocles ; but, though he seemed not dangerously ill, and we had great hopes of his recovery, he suddenly expired that very night.
First, then, I will prove by witnesses that he made this will, not from any dislike to us, but from a settled aversion to Di- nias ; next, that when Dinias was no more, he superintended all our affairs, and gave us an education in his house, to which he had removed us ; and thirdly, that he sent Posidippus for the magistrate, but Posidippus was so far from obeying the order that when one of the proper officers came to the door, he refused to introduce him. Call those who will prove the truth of my assertion. (It is done. ) Call likewise those who will swear that Cephisander and the other friends of our adversaries were of opinion that the whole estate should be divided, and that we should have a third part of all which Cleonymus pos sessed. (It is done. ) Now, it seems to me, judges, that all those who contend for the right of succession to estates, when like us they have shown themselves to be both nearest in blood to the person deceased and most connected with him in friend ship, may be excused from adding a superfluity of other argu ments ; but since men who have neither of those claims have the boldness to dispute with us for that which is legally ours, and to set up a fictitious title, I am willing in a few words to give them an answer. They ground their pretensions on this will, and admit that Cleonymus sent for the magistrate ; not, say they, with an intent to cancel it, but with a resolution to correct it, and to secure the legacy more strongly in their favor.
IS^US. 163
Now consider, whether it be more probable that our uncle, at a time when he was most intimate with us, should wish to recall a will made in anger or should meditate by what means he might be surest to deprive us of his inheritance. Other men, indeed, usually repent at length of the wrongs which they have done their friends in their passion ; but our opponents would convince you that when he showed the warmest regard for us, he was most desirous of establishing the will which, through resentment against our guardian, he had made to our disadvantage. So that even should we confess this idle fiction, and should you persuade yourselves to believe
you must suppose him to have been mad in the highest degree for what madness could be greater than to injure us because he had quarreled with Dinias, and to make disposi tion of his property by which he took no revenge on his enemy, but ruined his dearest friends, and afterward, when we lived with him on terms of the strictest friendship, and he valued us above all men, to intend that his nephews alone (for such their assertion) should have no share in his fortune? Could any man, judges, in his senses entertain such thought concern ing the distribution of his estate
Thus from their own arguments they have made easy to decide the cause against themselves since he sent for the officer, as we contend, in order to cancel the will, they have not a shadow of right and he was so void of reason as to regard us least who were most nearly connected with him, both by nature and friendship, you would justly decree that his will was not valid.
Consider farther, that the very men who now pretend that Cleonymus designed to establish their legacy durst not obey his order, but dismissed the magistrate who came to the house and thus one of two most opposite things being likely to happen, —either stronger confirmation of the in terest bequeathed to them, or total loss of all interest in the fortune of the testator, — they gave plain indication of what they expected, by refusing to admit the person who kept the will.
To conclude since this cause has been brought before you, and since you have power to determine the contest, give your aid both to us and to him who lies in the grave; and suffer him not, adjure you by all the gods, to be thus despised and insulted by these men but remembering the law by which you
;
;
I
:
it, ;
a a
if
?
;
a:
if
it
a
is
a
164 LTCURGUS.
are to judge, the oath which you have solemnly taken, and the arguments which have been used in the dispute, give a just and pious judgment, conformably to the laws.
Lyctjbgus.
Against Leocrates.
(Translated for this work. )
[Leocrates, who had fled the country after the battle of Chaeronea, had been condemned and disfranchised in his absence. Eight years afterward he returned and tried to have the sentence rescinded, which Lycurgus opposed. The decree mentioned in the first line was issued just after the battle. The Piraeus is the seaport of Athens, five miles off. ]
Gentlemen, you have heard the decree : that the senate of five hundred should go down to the Piraeus under arms, acting as a garrison to the Piraeus, and carry out such instructions as seemed in the public judgment most helpful. And now, gen tlemen, if those exempt from military service on the ground of governmental duties for the city passed their time in battle array, would it seem to you that a few cowards could still occupy the city ? Among them Leocrates here, slinking out of the city, not only fled himself but carried off all his goods and his household sanctities; and consummated such treason that, following his example, the priests deserted the temples, the guards deserted the walls — but the city and the country were left.
At those times, gentlemen, who did not feel for the city — not merely the citizen, but even the immigrant who had come in the past to settle among us? Who was there with such hatred of democracy or of Athens that he could bear to see himself taking no hand in the struggle, when defeat and befallen calamity were announced to the people, and the city was on tiptoe as to what might yet befall, and the hope of safety for the people lay in those born more than fifty years before ; when noble ladies were seen at the gates terrified and cowering, each asking if some one were still alive — a husband, a father, or brothers — a sight unworthy of themselves and of the city ; and men with decrepit bodies, venerable in age and exempt by law from military service, all through the city could
LYCURGUS. 165
be seen on the street, utterly ruined in their old age and equipped for the field ? But of the many sad things that befell the city, and of all the misfortunes the citizens had to endure, the one they deplored and wept over most was to see the people decree ing the slaves freemen, the immigrants Athenians, the disfran chised for crime reenfranchised ; — they who of old had prided themselves on being natives and freemen.
To such altered fortunes was the city brought which had formerly striven for the liberties of the other Greeks, but in these times was content could it fight for the safety of its own ; and she who had once lorded it over the vast territory of the barbarians had now to fight against the Macedonians on her own ; and the people whom formerly the Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians and the Greek inhabitants of Asia had besought for aid, itself had now to ask aid from Andros, Ceos, Troezene, and Epidaurus. Now, gentlemen, as to him who in such terrors and such dangers and such humiliation abandoned his city, and would not put on armor for his country nor offer his person for use by the generals, but turned runaway and betrayer of the people's safety — what judge who loves his city and wishes to do his duty will remit this sentence, what pleader summoned here will defend this traitor to the city, who had not spirit to lament his country's misfortunes, and would contribute nothing to the safety of the city and the people?
Why, at those times there was no age whatever that did not offer itself for the safety of the city ; the land itself contributed its trees, the very dead their graves, even the temples weapons of war. Some gave their labor toward building the walls, some to the trenches, some to the palisades ; none of those in the city were idle. But for none of these purposes did Leocrates offer the use of his person. Probably when you recall that he neither saw fit to help in or even come to the funeral services of those who laid down their lives at Chaeronea for freedom and the safety of the people, you will think death his proper punish ment ; since, for all him, those men would have had the fate of lying unburied. And yet, passing by their graves eight years after, he is not ashamed to call their country his own.
On this topic, gentlemen, I wish to speak a little more in detail, and I beg you to listen without regarding such discourse on the public wars irrelevant; for eulogies of patriots are clearly a touchstone of the opposite. Moreover, the praise is just which forms the one reward of patriots for peril ; in this
166 LYCURGUS.
case because they poured out their lives for the common safety of the city, and were unremitting in the city's public and com mon wars. For they encountered the enemy at the confines of Boeotia to fight for the freedom of the Greeks ; not trusting to walls for safety, nor betraying the country to be pillaged by the foe, but holding their own courage a surer safeguard than catapults loaded with stones, and ashamed of seeing the land that reared them ravaged. And rightly; for just as not all have the same regard for parents by blood and those by adop tion, so men are less zealous for countries not theirs by birth but of later acquirement.
But those with such resolves, and sharing dangers equally with the bravest, are not equal participants in fortune ; for the living do not profit by patriotism, but the dead leave glory behind — not the vanquished, but those who die where they stand arrayed in combat for freedom. And the great paradox must be added, that they die victorious ; for the prizes of war fare to the patriot are freedom and his patriotism, and both these belong to the dead. Nor can those be said to have been vanquished who did not tremble in spirit for fear of what was to come. Those then who die nobly in battle — no one rightly calls them conquered ; since fleeing from slavery, they choose a glorious death. The patriotism of these men has been con spicuous afar ; alone of all in Greece, they comprised freedom in their own persons. For they alone surrendered life, and Grecian existence sank into slavery ; with their bodies was buried the liberty of all remaining Greeks. Thus also they made it clear to the world that they were not warring for private ends, but bearing the foremost brunt of the contest for the common freedom. Therefore, gentlemen, I am not ashamed to say that their spirits are the crown of our fatherland.
And so it was anything but absurd that our fathers — as you know, fellow-citizens — alone of the Greeks made a prac tice of honoring patriots ; for among others you will find the statues of athletes placed in the forum, but among you those of able generals and the slayers of a tyrant. True, it is not easy to find many such in all Greece together ; while the win ners in the laureled games of athletics can easily be dis tinguished in place after place. Since, therefore, you assign the greater honors to your benefactors, it is but just that those who bring their fatherland to scorn and betray it should be punished with the utmost severity.
JESCHINES.
167
And take notice, gentlemen, that it does not lie with you to acquit this man Leocrates and do justice. For this crime has been passed upon and sentenced ; the senate in the Areop agus (let no one howl at me :
chief salvation of the city) put to death, when it caught them, those who fled their country and left it to the enemy. And further, gentlemen, do not think that those who passed sen tence on the sacrilegious blood -guiltiness of others acted un justly toward any of the citizens. But you condemned a certain Autolycus, though he had stood fast through peril, because he was charged with having secretly conveyed away his wife and children ; and you punished him. Now, if you punished the man accused of having secretly conveyed away those useless in the war, what ought this man to suffer, who would not repay his country for having reared him ? The people, moreover, holding the act most base, have rendered liable to the pains of treason those who fly from danger to their country, judging it worthy the severest punishment. Then the things decided in the fairest of councils, decreed by you who are allotted to give judgment, and finally agreed by the people, to be worthy the heaviest punishment, ought you yourselves now to pronounce the contrary ? You will be thought by all the world to have lost your wits, and will find very few to endanger themselves for you again.
JSschines.
Against Ctesiphon (" On the Crown ").
(Translated for this work. )
[Ctesiphon, an adherent of Demosthenes, had proposed the conferring of a golden crown upon him for useful service to the state. JEschineS indicted Ctesiphon under the irapavd/wov ypa<f>q,a law making the pro posal of an illegal measure a penal offense. The illegality of the measure was not successfully contested ; but the real question at issue being Demosthenes' public career, decision was given in Ctesiphon's favor notwithstanding. ]
I wish now to speak briefly of the calumnies against myself. I learn that Demosthenes will say the city has been much bene fited by him, but deeply injured by me ; and that he will load Philip and Alexander and their delinquencies on me. For it
I reply that it was then the
168 -SSCHINES.
seems he is so cunning an artist in words, that not satisfied with defaming all my administrative acts for you, and all the public speaking I have done, he traduces my retired life and criminates my silence, that no item may be left undenounced as treasonable ; even my sport with the youths in the gymnasia he reviles. At the very outset of his speech he makes this indictment itself a crime, alleging that I have brought the suit not from public spirit, but to exhibit my hatred of him to Alexander by means of it. And forsooth he is going to ask why I condemn his administration as a whole, when I did not oppose or impeach the acts of it singly ; but after a long inter val in which I have not attended closely to public business, have now come forward with this prosecution.
I have not emulated the pursuits of Demosthenes, however, am not ashamed of my own, and do not wish any of the words I have addressed to you unsaid ; and if I had harangued you like him, life would be unwelcome to me. My silence, Demos thenes, has become my wont from moderation of life ; for a little suffices me, and I do not covet more through dishonor — so that I both keep silence and speak when I choose, not when I am forced by extravagant tastes. But you, I judge, keep still on clutching a bribe and bellow when it is spent. And you speak not when you think fit, nor what you wish, but as the bribe-givers order you ; and you are not ashamed at setting up a mare's-nest which is straightway proved false and you a liar. For the suit on this decree, which you say was instituted not for the the city's sake, but that I might make a show to please Alexander, was in fact instituted in Philip's lifetime, before Alexander's accession ; when you had not yet seen the vision about Pausanias, nor held your many nocturnal collo quies with Athene and Hera. How then could I have been showing off before Alexander, unless I and Demosthenes had both seen the vision ?
You reproach me with not coming before the people contin uously, but at intervals ; and you think it a secret that this rule of conduct is borrowed not from a democracy but from another form of government. For in oligarchies, not the desirous but the powerful man prosecutes ; in democracies, the desirous and whenever he sees fit. And occasional speaking is a mark of the man who serves the public opportunely and to be useful ; but skipping no day, of the professional who works for wages. As to your having never been prosecuted by me,
iESCHINES. 169
nor brought to justice for your misdeeds, —when you take refuge in such talk, either you must suppose the audience have no memory, or else you deceive your very self with words. For your impious conduct toward the Amphissaeans, your bribe taking in the matter of Euboea — as the time is long past since you were publicly convicted by me, you probably think the people have forgotten. But the plundering job of the tri remes and trierarchs, what lapse of time can bury? When you had carried a bill for three hundred of them, and induced the Athenians to appoint you superintendent of marine, you were convicted by me of having robbed the trierarchs of sixty- five fast-sailing vessels — a greater naval armament than when the Athenians won at Naxos the naval battle with the Lacedae monians and Pollis. Yet by your countercharges you so diverted punishment from yourself that the risk of it fell not on you, the culprit, but on the prosecutors ; while you heaped libels on Alexander and Philip and denounced certain persons who obstructed the interests of the city — you having on every occasion damaged the present and held out promises for the future. Did you not at last, when about to be indicted by me, effect the arrest of Anaxinus the Oreitan, who was market ing goods for Olympias, and having racked him twice, with your own hand write the decree consigning him to death ? And it was by him you were given lodging at Oreion, and at his table you ate and drank and poured libations, and clasped his right hand and constituted that man your host. And you put him to death ; and on being convicted of these things by me before all Athens, and styled the murderer of your host, you never denied the sacrilege, but made a reply which got you hooted by the people and the foreign bystanders in the assem bly — you said you valued the city's salt more highly than the foreigner's table.
I say nothing of the forged letters, the arrest of spies, the tortures for uncommitted crimes, to make me out as wishing with certain other citizens to innovate. He means to ask me next, so I learn, what kind of a physician he would be who should give no advice to a patient while sick, but after his death should attend the obsequies, and detail to the household the regimen which if practiced would have kept him in health. But you do not ask yourself in turn what kind of a public leader he would be who was able to flatter the people, but sold every chance when the city might be saved, and while barring
170 . ESCHINES.
out those of honest purpose from counsel by his slanders, run ning away from perils, and entangling the city in desperate evils, claimed the honor of a crown for civic virtue, though having done naught of good but occasioned all our misfortunes ; and then demanded of those driven from the government by false accusations, at junctures when the state might have been preserved, why they did not prevent his going wrong ? and lastly, concealed the fact that when the battle took place we had no leisure for punishing him, but were negotiating for the safety of the city. But since you are not content that justice was not meted out to you, and claim honors too, rendering the city ridiculous to all the Greeks, I have resisted you and brought in this indictment.
But I solemnly swear that of all which I learn Demosthenes intends to allege, I am most indignant at what I am going to mention. It seems he compares my nature to the Sirens' ; for their listeners are never called to them, it is said, except to be destroyed, — wherefore the Sirens' music is not in good repute, — and forsooth my practice in speaking and my native talent exist for the ruin of the hearers. Now for my part, I think this charge is in every way one it becomes no man to bring against me, for it is shameful in accusers to have no proofs to exhibit ; but if indispensable to be plead, it lies not in Demos thenes' mouth, but in that of some capable general who has done good service to the city, unskilled in speaking and there fore envying his opponents' ability, and who recognizes that he cannot explain what he has done, but sees the accuser able to present to the judges acts he never committed, as things he ordered. But when a man composed of words, and those at once acrimonious and elaborated, takes refuge in artlessness and bald fact, who can put up with it? —a man from whom if you take the tongue, as with a flute, nothing is left.
I wonder, fellow-citizens, and I ask you, on what ground you could vote against this indictment. That the decree is not illegal? no motion was ever more unlawful. Or that the author of the decree does not deserve to be brought to justice ? none can fairly be called to account by you for their conduct, if you discharge him. Is it not deplorable, when formerly the stage was filled with golden crowns with which our people were crowned by the Greeks, — this season being assigned for for eigners' crowns, — that now through Demosthenes' administra tion you are all discrowned and disheralded, while he is to
jESCHINES.
171
be heralded? Why, if any of the tragic poets coming on this stage after these proceedings should represent Thersites crowned by the Greeks, none of you would endure it, because Homer says he was a coward and false informer ; but when ever you shall have crowned this man, do you not think you will be hissed by the judgment of all the Greeks ? . . .
I would gladly discuss this decree with the author before you, fellow-citizens, as to what great service Demosthenes is worthy to be crowned for.
If you take up the second item of the decree, in which you have ventured to write him down a good citizen who has stead ily spoken and acted for the highest good of the people of Athens, then strip the decree of humbug and boastfulness so that it may stick to facts, and prove what you allege. I will leave out the bribe-taking in the Amphissaean and Euboean cases : but when you impute the merit of the Theban alliance to Demosthenes, you impose on the ignorant and insult those who know and understand ; for by suppressing the nature of the crisis, and the reputation of those by whom the alliance was effected, you think to conceal from us the credit due the city and transfer it to Demosthenes. How great a fraud this is, I will try to make plain by a notable instance. The king of the Persians once, not long before the descent of Alexander upon Asia, sent to this people a letter both arrogant and bar barian ; in which, after handling many other topics very boor ishly, he had written thus at the close : "
gold," he said; " do not ask me, for you will not get it. " Yet this same man, hemmed in by imminent dangers himself, sent voluntarily three hundred talents to the people — which they wisely declined to accept. What brought the gold was
the juncture and fear and the needs of allies ; and the very same things brought about the alliance of the Thebans.
But while you bore us by harping on the name of the The bans and their luckless alliance, you are silent on your grab bing the seventy talents you stole of the royal gold.