No More Learning

What succors, what acquisition of good will or credit? What embassy or agency is there of yours, by which the reputation of the country has been in creased? What concern domestic, Hellenic, or foreign, of which you have had the management, has improved under it ? What galleys ? what ammunition ? what arsenals ? what repair of walls? what cavalry? What in the world are you good for? What assistance in money have you ever given, either to the rich or the poor, out of public spirit or liberality? None. But, good sir, if there is nothing of this, there is at all events zeal and loyalty. Where? when? You infamous fel low ! Even at a time when all who ever spoke upon the plat form gave something for the public safety, and last Aristonicus gave the sum which he had amassed to retrieve his franchise, you neither came forward nor contributed a mite — not from inability — no ! for you have inherited above five talents from Philo, your wife's father, and you had a subscription of two talents from the chairmen of the Boards for what you did to cut up the navy law. But, that I may not go from one thing to another and lose sight of the question, I pass this by. That it was not poverty prevented your contributing, already appears : it was, in fact, your anxiety to do nothing against those to whom your political life is subservient. On what occasions then do you show your spirit ? When do you shine out ? When aught is to be spoken against your countrymen ! — then it is you are splendid in voice, perfect in memory, an admirable actor, a tragic Theocrines.
You mention the good men of olden times ; and you are right so to do. Yet it is hardly fair, O Athenians, that he should get the advantage of that respect which you have for the dead, to compare and contrast me with them, — me who am living among you ; for what mortal is ignorant that toward the living there exists always more or less of ill will, whereas the dead are no longer hated even by an enemy ? Such being human nature, am I to be tried and judged by the standard of my predecessors ? Heaven forbid ! It is not just or equitable,
DEMOSTHENES. 185
^Sschines. Let me be compared with you, or any persons you like of your party who are still alive. And consider this — whether it is more honorable and better for the state, that because of the services of a former age, prodigious though they are beyond all power of expression, those of the present generation should be unrequited and spurned, or that all who give proof of their good intentions should have their share of honor and regard from the people ? Yet indeed — if I must say so much — my politics and principles, if considered fairly, will be found to resemble those of the illustrious ancients, and to have had the same objects in view, while yours resemble those of their calumniators ; for it is certain there were persons in those times, who ran down the living, and praised people dead and gone, with a malignant purpose like yourself.
You say that I am nothing like the ancients. Are you like
them, . ^Eschines ? Is your brother, or any of our speakers ? assert that none is. But pray, my good fellow (that I may give you no other name), try the living with the living and with his competitors, as you would in all cases — poets, dancers, athletes. Philammon did not, because he was inferior to Glaucus of Carystus and some other champions of a bygone age, depart uncrowned from Olympia, but, because he beat all who entered the ring against him, was crowned and proclaimed conqueror. So I ask you to compare me with the orators of the day, with
I yield to none. When the commonwealth was at liberty to choose for her advantage, and patriotism was a matter of emulation, I showed myself a better
yourself, with any one you like :
counselor than any, and every act of state was pursuant to my decrees and laws and negotiations : none of your party was to be seen, unless you had to do the Athenians a mischief. After that lamentable occurrence, when there was a call no longer for advisers, but for persons obedient to command, persons ready to be hired against their country and willing to flatter strangers, then all of you were in occupation, grand people with splendid
I was powerless, I confess, though more attached to my countrymen than you.
equipages ;
Two things, men of Athens, are characteristic of a well- disposed citizen — so may I speak of myself and give the least offense : In authority, his constant aim should be the dignity and preeminence of the commonwealth ; in all times and cir cumstances his spirit should be loyal. This depends upon nature ; power and might upon other things. Such a spirit,
I
186 DINARCHUS.
you will find, I have ever sincerely cherished. Only see. When my person was demanded — when they brought Amphic- tyonic suits against me — when they menaced — when they promised —when they set these miscreants like wild beasts upon me — never in any way have I abandoned my affection for you. From the very beginning I chose an honest and straightforward course in politics, to support the honor, the power, the glory of my fatherland, these to exalt, in these to have my being. I do not walk about the market place gay and cheerful because the stranger has prospered, holding out my right hand and congratulating those who I think will report it yonder, and on any news of our own success shudder and groan and stoop to the earth, like these impious men, who rail at Athens, as if in so doing they did not rail at themselves ; who look abroad, and if the foreigner thrives by the distresses of Greece, are thankful for it, and say we should keep him so thriving to all time.
Never, O ye Gods, may those wishes be confirmed by you ! If possible, inspire even in these men a better sense and feeling ! But if they are indeed incurable, destroy them by themselves ; exterminate them on land and sea ; and for the rest of us, grant that we may speedily be released from our present fears, and enjoy a lasting deliverance !
DlNARCHUS.
Oration against Demosthenes.
[In the winter of B. C. 325-4, Harpalus, Alexander's treasurer in Asia, de camped with a vast sum of money, and ultimately took refuge in Athens, which he tried to raise in revolt. Demosthenes opposed him, and had him imprisoned and his remaining money — stated at 700 talents — placed in the Parthenon in trust for Alexander, in charge of a special commission of which Demosthenes was one. Harpalus escaped, and in the investigation which followed, only 350 talents could be found. The commission were prosecuted for embezzlement; Demosthenes was fined fifty talents and imprisoned in default of payment, but escaped in a few days. Professor Holm thinks the money was taken for secret party use to prepare for a war of liberation in case of Alexander's death, and that Demosthenes was an understood scape-goat. ]
This minister of yours, Athenians, who has pronounced sentence of death upon himself should he be convicted of receiving anything from Harpalus — this very man has been clearly convicted of accepting bribes from those whom he
DINARCHUS.
187
formerly pretended to oppose with so much zeal. . . . You are not to give up the general rights and laws of the commu nity, or exchange the general welfare, for the speeches of the accused. You see that in this assembly it is Demosthenes that is tried ; in all other places your own trial is depending. On you men turn their eyes, and wait with eagerness to see how far the interest of your country will engage your care ; whether you are to take upon yourselves the corruption and iniquity of these men, or whether you are to manifest to the world a just resentment against those who are bribed to betray the state.
This last is fully in your power. The assembly has made a fair decree, committing the cognizance of the charge to the court of Areopagus ; . . . and although the dignity and pro priety of this procedure have received the approbation of the people, Demosthenes has recourse to complaints, to appeals, to malicious accusations, now that he finds himself convicted of receiving twenty talents of gold. Shall then this council, on whose faith and justice we rely, even in the important case of premeditated murder ; to whom we commit the vengeance due to this crime ; who have an absolute power over the persons and lives of our citizens ; who can punish every violation of our laws, either by exile or by death, —shall this council, I say, on an inquiry into a case of bribery, at once lose all its authority ? " Yes ; for the Areopagus has reported falsely of Demosthenes. " Extravagant and absurd ! What ! report falsely of Demosthenes and Demades, against whom even the truth seems scarcely to be declared with safety? You, who have in former times moved that this council should take cog nizance of public affairs, and have applauded their reports ; you, whom this whole city has not been able to restrain within the bounds of justice, — has the council reported falsely against you ? Why then did you declare to the people that you were ready to submit to death, if condemned by the report of this council ? Why have you availed yourself of their authority, to take off so many of our citizens? . . .
For now, when the council of the Areopagus have nobly and equitably proceeded to a full detection of this man, and his accomplices ; when, regardless of the power of Demosthenes and Demades, they have adhered inviolably to truth and justice ; — still Demosthenes goes round the city, utters his invectives against this council, and boasts of his services, in those speeches which you shall hear him instantly use to deceive the assembly.
188 DINARCHUS.
" It was I who gained you the alliance of Thebes ! " No ! you it was who ruined the common interest of both states. — "I drew out the forces of Chaeronea ! " No, you were the only person who there fled from your post. — " For you have I en gaged in several embassies. " And what would he do, what would he demand, had these negotiations of his been successful, when, having ranged through the world only to involve us in such calamities and misfortunes, he expects to be rewarded with a liberty of receiving bribes against his country, and the privilege of speaking and of acting in this assembly as he pleases ? With Timotheus, who awed all Peloponnesus by his fleet ; who gained the naval victory at Corcyra over the Lace daemonians ; who was the son of Conon, the man who restored liberty to Greece ; who gained Samos, and Methone, and Pydna, and Potidaea, and, besides these, twenty cities more, — with him you did not allow those important benefits he had conferred on us to have any weight against the integrity of your tribunals, against the oaths you swore by in pronouncing sentence. No : you imposed a fine of one hundred talents on him, because by his own acknowledgment he had received money from the Chians
and the Rhodians. . . .
Such was this citizen that he might reasonably, Demosthenes,
have expected pardon and favor from his fellow-citizens of those days. Not in words, but in actions, did he perform important services to his country. His principles were steady, his conduct uniform, not various and changeable like yours. He never made so unreasonable a request to the people as to be raised above the laws. He never required that those who had sworn to give sentence justly should break through that sacred tie ; but submitted to stand condemned, if such was the judgment of his tribunal. He never pleaded the necessity of times ; nor thought in one manner and harangued in another. And shall this miscreant live, who, besides his other numerous and heinous crimes, has abandoned the state of Thebes to its destruction, when for the preservation of that state he had received three hundred talents from the king of Persia ?
For when the Arcadians marched to the Isthmus, refused to treat with the ambassadors of Antipater, and received those of the unfortunate Thebans — who with difficulty gained access to them by sea, appeared before them in the form of wretched supplicants, declared that their present motions were not in tended to dissolve their connections with Greece or to oppose
DINARCHUS. 189
the interest of that nation, but to free themselves from the in tolerable yoke of Macedonian tyranny, from slavery, from the horrid insults to which freemen were exposed ; — when the Arcadians were disposed to assist them, when they commiser ated their wretched state, when they discovered that by the necessities of the times alone they had been obliged to attend on Alexander, but that their inclinations were invariably attached to Thebes and to the liberties of Greece ; when Astylus, their mercenary general, demanded (as Stratocles has informed you) ten talents for leading a reenforcement to the Thebans ; when the ambassadors applied to this man, who they well knew had received the king's money, and requested and besought him to grant such a sum for the preservation of the state ; — then did this abandoned, this impious, this sordid wretch (when there was so fair a prospect of saving Thebes) refuse to part with ten talents out of all the vast treasures which he received ; insensible to the affecting consideration, urged by Stratocles, that there were those who would give as great a sum to divert the Arcadians from this expedition, and to prevent them from assisting Thebes. . . .
A city of our neighbors and our allies has been torn from the very heart of Greece. The plower and the sower now traverse the city of the Thebans, who united with us in the war against Philip. I say the plower and the sower traverse their habitations : nor has this hardened wretch discovered the least remorse at the calamities of a people, to whom he was sent as our ambassador ; with whom he lived, conversed, and enjoyed all that hospitality could confer ; whom he pretends to have himself gained to our alliance ; whom he frequently visited in their prosperity, but basely betrayed in their distress. Our elder citizens can inform us, that at a time when our constitu tion was destroyed ; when Thrasybulus was collecting our ex iles in Thebes in order to possess himself of Phyle ; when the Lacedaemonians, now in the height of power, issued their man date forbidding all states to receive the Athenians or to con duct them through their territories, — this people assisted our countrymen in their expedition, and published their decree, so often recited in this assembly, "that they would not look on with unconcern, should any enemy invade the Athenian territory. "
Far different was the conduct of this man, who affects such attention to the interests of our allies (as you shall soon hear
190 DINARCHUS.
him boast). The very money, which he received to preserve this people from ruin, he refused to part with. Let these things sink deep into your minds. Think on the calamities which arise from traitors ; let the wretched fate of the Olyn- thians and the Thebans teach you to make just provision for your own security. Cut off the men who are ever ready to sell the interests of their country for a bribe, and rest your hopes of safety upon yourselves and the gods. These are the means, Athenians, the only means, of reforming our city ; to bring offenders of eminence to justice, and to inflict a punish ment adequate to their offenses. When common criminals are detected, no one knows, no one inquires, their fate. But the punishment of great delinquents commands men's attention ; and a rigid adherence to justice, without regard to persons, is sure to meet with due applause. —Read the decree of the Thebans ; produce the testimonies ; read the letter.
[The clerk reads them. ]
He is a corrupted traitor, Athenians ! of old a corrupted traitor ! This is the man who conducted Philip's ambassadors from Thebes to this city ; who was the occasion of putting an end to the former war ; who was the accomplice of Philocrates, the author of the decree for making peace with Philip for which you banished him ; the man who hired carriages for the ambas sadors that came hither with Antipater ; who entertained them, and introduced the custom of paying obsequious flattery to the Macedonians. Do not, Athenians ! do not suffer this man, whose name is subscribed to the misfortunes of this state [i. e. , to the decrees which caused them] and of all the states of Greece, to escape unpunished. . . .
For what occasion should we reserve this man ? When may we hope that he will prove of advantage to us? From the moment that he first began to direct our affairs, has any one in stance of good fortune attended us ? Has not all Greece, and not this state alone, been plunged in dangers, calamities, and disgrace ? Many were the fair occasions which occurred to favor his administration ; and all these occasions, of such mo ment to our interests, he neglected. . . Shall not then the experience of the past direct your judgments of the future? Can any services be expected from him ? Yes ; the service of forming contrivances in favor of our enemies, on some critical emergency. Such was the time when the Lacedaemonians had
DIN ARCH US. 191
encamped, when the Eleans united with them, when they were reenforced with ten thousand mercenaries ; Alexander said to be in India ; all Greece inflamed with indignation at the state to which traitors had reduced every community ; impatient of distress, and earnest for relief. In this conjuncture, who was the man, Demosthenes, that had the direction of our councils ? In this perilous conjuncture (not to mention other like occa sions) did you, whom we shall hear expressing the utmost indignation at the present fallen state of Greece —did you propose any decree? Did you assist us with your counsels? Did you supply us with your treasures? Not at all ! You were employed in ranging through the city, providing your whisperers, forging letters — [to the judges] — he, the disgrace of his illustrious country, was then seen trimly decked with his rings, indulging in effeminacy and luxury amidst the public calamities ; borne through our streets in his sedan, and insulting the distresses of the poor. And can we expect future services from him who has neglected all past occasions of serving us? . . .
Let us suppose the case that, agreeably to the decree of De mosthenes, Alexander should by his ambassadors demand the gold which Harpalus brought hither : that to confirm the sen tence of the Areopagus, he should send back the slaves and direct us to extort the truth from them. What should we then say? Would you, Demosthenes, then move for a declaration of war ? you, who have so nobly conducted our former wars ? And if such should be the resolution of the assembly, which would be the fairer procedure : to take that money to ourselves, which you secreted, in order to support our war ; or to load our citizens with taxes, to oblige our women to send in their ornaments, to melt down our plate, to strip our temples of their offerings, as your decree directed ? Though from your houses in the Piraeus and in the city you yourself contributed just fifty drachmae [flO] ; and nobly have the twenty talents [$24,000] you took repaid such bounty. Or would you move that we should not declare war; but that agreeably to your decree, we should return to Alexander the gold conveyed hither ? In that case the community must pay your share. And is this just, is this equal dealing, is this constitutional, that our use ful citizens should be taxed to glut your avarice, that men of avowed property should contribute while your property lies concealed, —notwithstanding you have received 150 talents,
192 DINARCHUS.
partly from the king's, partly from Alexander's, treasure, — all carefully secreted, as you justly dread the consequences of your conduct ? that our laws should direct that every public speaker, every leader of our forces, should recommend himself to the confidence of the public by educating children, and by possess ing land within our territory, nor assume the direction of our affairs until he had given these pledges of his fidelity ; and that you should sell your patrimonial lands, and adopt the children of strangers, to elude the force of laws and oaths? that you should impose military service on others, you who basely fled from your own post? . . .
And now, my fellow-citizens, consider how you are to act. The people have returned to you an information of a crime lately committed. Demosthenes stands first before you, to suf fer the punishment denounced against all whom this informa tion condemns. We have explained his guilt, with an unbiased attention to the laws. Will you then discover a total disregard of all these offenses? Will you, when intrusted with so im portant a decision, invalidate the judgment of the people, of the Areopagus, of all mankind? Will you take upon your selves the guilt of these men? or will you give the world an example of that detestation in which this state holds traitors and hirelings that oppose our interests for a bribe ? This en tirely depends on you. You, the fifteen hundred judges, have the safety of our country in your hands. This day, this sen tence you are to pronounce, must establish this city in full se curity, if it be consonant to justice ; or must entirely defeat all our hopes, if it gives support to such iniquitous practices. Do not let the false tears of Demosthenes make an impression on your minds, nor sacrifice our rights and laws to his suppli cations. Necessity never forced him to receive his share of this gold : he was more than sufficiently enriched by your treasure. Necessity has not forced him now to enter on his defense : his crimes are acknowledged ; his sentence pronounced by himself. The sordid baseness, the guilt of all his past life, have at length brought down vengeance upon his head. Let not then his tears and lamentations move you. It is your country that much more deservedly claims your pity ; your country, which his practices have exposed to danger ; your country, which now supplicates its sons, presents your wives and children before you, beseech ing you to save them by punishing this traitor; that coun try in which your ancestors with a generous zeal encountered
HTPERIDES. 193
numberless dangers, that they might transmit it free to their posterity ; in which we find many and noble examples of an cient virtue. Here fix your attention. Look to your religion, the sacred rites of antiquity, the sepulchres of your fathers ; and give sentence with an unshaken integrity.
Hyperides.
Against Athenogenes.
The manuscript of this speech was discovered in Egypt, 1888. The date of the speech was b. c. 328 to 330.
The translation is by F. G. Kenyon, who says :—
The recovery of the speech against Athenogenes is especially welcome, because there is excellent reason to believe that in it we have a thoroughly characteristic specimen of that class of oratory in which Hyperides especially excelled.
The argument is as follows : Hyperides' client, whose name does not appear, desired to obtain possession of a boy slave, who, with his father Midas and his brother, was the property of an Egyptian resi dent in Athens, named Athenogenes. Midas was employed by Athenogenes as manager of a perfumery, one of three such shops of which the latter was the owner, and his two sons appear to have assisted him in the work. The plaintiff, a young man whose father was still alive, was not a habitual resident in Athens, but cultivated an estate in the country. His original proposal to Athenogenes was to purchase the liberty of the boy in question. Athenogenes enter tained this suggestion at first, but subsequently (according to the plaintiff's story, which was, however, traversed by the defendant on this point) sent the boy to say that he could not be separated from his brother and father, and that if he bought one he must buy all. To this the plaintiff assented ; whereupon (as it appears, though the mutilation of the papyrus makes the exact course of the trans action doubtful) Athenogenes, presuming on the eagerness of the would-be purchaser, developed a considerable reluctance to sell. With the view, evidently, of raising his price, he held back from concluding any bargain; while at the same time he employed a woman named Antigona, a person of many attractions but more than doubtful antecedents, to lure the young man further into the snare. Antigona acted as go-between, stimulating his anxiety on the one hand, while she pretended to intercede in his favor with Athenogenes, and the plaintiff alleges that he fell a complete victim to her wiles. At any rate, he agreed to buy the freedom of the three slaves for a sum of forty minas ($800) ; and Antigona pro fessed to have won an unwilling consent from Athenogenes. The
vol. rv. — 13
194 IIYPERIDES.
two principals then met to conclude the bargain; when Athenogenes — out of sheer consideration, as he declared, for the young man's interests — suddenly suggested that instead of paying for the free dom of the three slaves, he should buy them right out, whereby he would have fuller control over them at the time, and could give them their liberty whenever he chose. Purchasing the slaves would carry with it any liabilities Midas might have incurred in connection with the perfumery; but these debts, Athenogenes affirmed, were trifling, and would be more than covered by the value of the stock in the concern. The proposed change of plan had some advantages and no visible disadvantages, since the business of the perfumery, according to Athenogenes' representations, could be closed at a profit ; and the plaintiff accepted it. Athenogenes, with a prompt ness which afterward appeared suspicious, produced a draft agree ment already drawn up ; it was read over in due form, witnessed, and sealed, and the bargain was complete. Then came the denoue ment. No sooner had the plaintiff acquired the perfumery than creditors sprang up on all sides, of whose existence no word had hitherto been breathed ; and in a very short time he discovered that he was liable for debts amounting to five talents ($6000), in addi tion to the forty minas which he had already paid. Such a sum meant ruin. Accordingly he took counsel with his friends, and after failing to obtain satisfaction by a personal interview with Athenogenes, brought the present action against him.
[The beginning of the speech is lost. ]
When I told her the whole story, and complained how hard Athenogenes was to deal with, and how he refused to make even the most reasonable concessions, she answered that he was always like that, and told me to be of good heart, as she would cooperate with me in everything. This she said in the most earnest manner possible, and confirmed her words with the most solemn oaths that she was entirely devoted to my interests and was telling me the simple truth. And so, gen tlemen, — I will hide nothing from you, — I was persuaded. Great indeed, as experience shows, is the power of love to beguile our reason, when it is reenforced by a woman's wiles. Certain it is that by her plausible cajolements she managed to pocket for herself three hundred drachmas, professedly to buy a slave girl, just as an acknowledgment of her good-will toward me. And when one comes to think of it, gentlemen, perhaps there is nothing so marvelous in my being thus twisted around the finger of Antigona, considering that in her youth she was held to be the most accomplished courtesan of the day, and
HYPERIDES. 195
that since her retirement she has been continually practicing as a procuress.
[Instance of her abilities quoted, but passage mutilated. ]
If, then, she achieved so much by her own unassisted efforts, what might she not reasonably be expected to accomplish in
the present case, with Athenogenes as her partner, — a profes sional attorney by trade, and what is more, an Egyptian ?
Gentlemen, you have now heard the whole story in all its details. Possibly, however, Athenogenes will plead, when his turn comes, that the law declares all agreements between man and man to be binding. Just agreements, my dear sir. Unjust ones, on the contrary, it declares shall not be binding. I will make this clearer to you from the actual words of the law. You need not be surprised at my acquaintance with them. You have brought me to such a pass, and have filled me with such a fear of being ruined by you and your cleverness, that I make it my first and main duty to search and study the laws night and day.
Now one law forbids falsehood in the market place, and a very excellent injunction it is, in my opinion ; yet you have in open market concluded a contract with me to my detriment by means of falsehoods. For if you can show that you told me beforehand of all the loans and debts, or that you men tioned in the contract the full amount of them, as I have since found it to be, I will abandon the prosecution and confess that I have done you an injustice.
There is, however, also a second law bearing on this point, which relates to bargains between individuals by verbal agree ments. It provides that " when a party sells a slave he shall declare beforehand if he has any blemish ; if he omit to do so, he shall be compelled to make restitution. " If, then, the vendor of a slave can be compelled to make restitution because he has omitted to mention some chance infirmity, is it possible that you should be free to refuse responsibility for the fraudulent bargain which you have deliberately devised? Moreover, an epileptic slave does not involve in ruin all the rest of his owner's property ; whereas Midas, whom you sold to me, has ruined not me alone but even my friends as well.
And now, Athenogenes, proceed to consider how the law stands, not only with respect to slaves, but also concerning free men. Even you, I suppose, know that children born of a
196 HYPERIDES.
lawfully betrothed wife are legitimate? The lawgiver, how ever, was not content with merely providing that a wife should be betrothed by her father or brother, in order to establish legitimacy. On the contrary, he expressly enacts that "if a man shall give a woman in betrothal justly and equitably, the children born of such marriage shall be legitimate," but not if he betroths her on false representations and inequitable terms. Thus the law makes just betrothals valid, and unjust ones it declares invalid.
Again, the law relating to testaments is of a similar nature. It enacts that a man may dispose of his own property as he pleases, "provided that he be not disqualified by old age or disease or insanity, or be influenced by a woman's persuasions, and that he be not in bonds or under any other constraint. " In circumstances, then, in which marriages and testaments relating solely to a man's own property are invalidated, how can it be right to maintain the validity of such an agreement as I have described, which was drawn up by Athenogenes in order to steal property belonging to me ?
Can it be right that the disposition of one's property by will should be nullified if it is made under the persuasions of a woman, while if I am persuaded by Athenogenes' mistress, and am entrapped by them into this agreement, I am thereby to be ruined, in spite of the express support which is given me by the law ? Can you actually dare to rest your case on the contract of which you and your mistress procured the signature by fraud, which is also the very ground on which I am now charging you with conspiracy, since my belief in your good faith induced me to accept the conditions which you proposed ? You are not content with having got the forty minas which I paid for the slaves, but you must needs plunder me of five talents in addition, plucking me like a bird taken in a snare.
To this end you have the face to say that you could not inform me of the amount of the debts which Midas had con tracted, because you had not the time to ascertain it. Why, gentlemen, I, who brought absolute inexperience into the man agement of commercial matters, had not the slightest difficulty in learning the whole amount of the debts and the loans within three months ; but he, with a hereditary experience of three generations in the business of a perfumery — he, who was at his place in the market every day of his life — he, who owned three shops and had his accounts made up every month — he,
HYPERIDES. 197
forsooth, was not aware of the debts ! He is no fool in other matters, but in his dealings with his slave it appears he at once became a mere idiot, knowing of some of the debts, while others, he says, he did not know of — those, I take it, which he did not want to know of. Such a contention, gentlemen, is not a defense, but an admission that he has no sound defense to offer. If he states that he was not aware of the debts, it is plain that he cannot at the same time plead that he told me all about them ; and it is palpably unjust to require me to discharge debts of the existence of which the vendor never informed me. . . .
If, however, you did not inform me of the total amount of the debts simply because you did not know it yourself, and I entered into the contract under the belief that what I had heard from you was the full sum of them, which of us ought in fair ness to be liable for them — I, who purchased the property after their contraction, or you, who originally received the sum bor rowed ? In my opinion it should be you ; but if we differ on this point, let the law be our arbiter. The law was not made either by infatuated lovers or by men engaged in conspiracy against their neighbors' property, but by the most public- spirited of statesmen, Solon. Solon, knowing that sales of property are common in the city, enacted a law — and one uni versally admitted to be just — to the effect that fines and expenditures incurred by slaves should be discharged by the master for whom they work. And this is only reasonable ; for if a slave effect a good stroke of business or establish a flourish ing industry, it is his master who reaps the benefit of it. You, however, pass over the law in silence, and are eloquent about the iniquity of breaking contracts. Whereas Solon held that a law was more valid than a temporary ordinance, however just that ordinance might be, you demand that a fraudulent con tract should outweigh all law and all justice alike.
Now, I am no professional perfume seller, neither have I learnt any other trade. I simply till the land which my father gave me. It was solely by this man's craft that I was entrapped into the sale. Which is more probable on the face of things, Athenogenes — that I was coveting your business (a business of which I had no sort of experience), or that you and your mistress were plotting to get my money? I certainly think the design was on your side.
198 ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. By PLUTAKCH.
[Plutarch : A Greek writer of biographies and miscellaneous works ; born about a. d. 50. He came of a wealthy and distinguished family and received a careful philosophical training at Athens under the Peripatetic philosopher Ammonius. After this he made several journeys, and stayed a considerable time in Rome, where he enjoyed friendly intercourse with persons of distinction, and conducted the education of the future Emperor Hadrian. He died about a. d. 120 in his native town, in which he held the office of archon and priest of the Pythian Apollo. His fame as an author is founded upon the celebrated 11Parallel Lives," consisting of the biographies of forty-six Greeks and Romans, divided into pairs. Each pair contains the life of a Greek and a Roman, and generally ends with a comparison of the two. Plutarch's other writings, more than sixty short treatises on a great variety of subjects, are grouped under the title of
"Morals. "]
The Battle of Arbela and Afterward.
His oldest generals, and especially Parmenio, when they beheld all the plain between Niphates and the Gordyaean mountains shining with the lights and fires which were made by the barbarians, and heard the uncertain and confused sounds of voices out of their camp, like the distant roaring of a vast ocean, were so amazed at the thoughts of such a multitude, that after some conference among themselves, they concluded it an enterprise too difficult and hazardous for them to engage so numerous an enemy in the day, and therefore, meeting the king as he came from sacrificing, besought him to attack Darius by night, that the darkness might conceal the danger of the ensu ing battle. To this he gave them the celebrated answer, "I will not steal a victory " : which, though some at the time thought a boyish and inconsiderate speech, as if he played with danger, others regarded as an evidence that he confided in his present condition, and acted on a true judgment of the future ; not wishing to leave Darius, in case he were worsted, the pre
text of trying his fortune again, which he might suppose him self to have if he could impute his overthrow to the disadvantage of the night, as he did before to the mountains, the narrow passages, and the sea. For while he had such numerous forces and large dominions still remaining, it was not any want of men or arms that could induce him to give up the war, but
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. 199
only the loss of all courage and hope upon the conviction of an undeniable and manifest defeat.
After they were gone from him with this answer, he laid himself down in his tent and slept the rest of the night more soundly than was usual with him, to the astonishment of the commanders, who came to him early in the morning, and were fain themselves to give order that the soldiers should break fast. But at last, time not giving them leave to wait any longer, Parmenio went to his bedside, and called him twice or thrice by his name till he waked him, and then asked him how it was possible, when he was to fight the most important battle of all, he could sleep as soundly as if he were already victorious. "And are we not so indeed," replied Alexander, smiling,
" since we are at last relieved from the trouble of wandering in pursuit of Darius through a wide and wasted country, hoping in vain that he would fight us ? "
And not only before the battle, but in the height of the danger, he showed himself great, and manifested the self-pos session of a just foresight and confidence. For the battle for some time fluctuated and was dubious. The left wing, where Parmenio commanded, was so impetuously charged by the Bactrian horse that it was disordered and forced to give ground, at the same time that Mazaeus had sent a detachment round about to fall upon those who guarded the baggage, which so disturbed Parmenio, that he sent messengers to acquaint Alex ander that the camp and baggage would be all lost unless he imme diately relieved the rear by a considerable reenforcement drawn out of the front. This message being brought him just as he was giving the signal to those about him for the onset, he bade them tell Parmenio that he must have surely lost the use of his reason, and had forgotten, in his alarm, that soldiers if victori ous became masters of their enemies' baggage ; and if de
feated, instead of taking care of their wealth or their slaves, have nothing more to do but to fight gallantly and die with honor.
He made the longest address that day to the Thessalians and other Greeks, who answered him with loud shouts, desiring him to lead them on against the barbarians, upon which he shifted his javelin into his left hand, and with his right lifted up towards heaven, besought the gods, as Callisthenes tells us, that if he was of a truth the son of Jupiter, they would be pleased to assist and strengthen the Grecians. At the same time the
200
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
augur Aristander, who had a white mantle about him, and a crown of gold on his head, rode by and showed them an eagle that soared just over Alexander and directed his flight towards the enemy ; which so animated the beholders, that after mutual encouragements and exhortations, the horse charged at full speed, and were followed in a mass by the whole phalanx of the foot. But before they could well come to blows with the first ranks, the barbarians shrank back, and were hotly pursued by Alexander, who drove those that fled before him into the middle of the battle, where Darius himself was in person, whom he saw from a distance over the foremost ranks, conspicuous in the midst of his life guard, a tall and fine-looking man, drawn in a lofty chariot, defended by an abundance of the best horse, who stood close in order about it ready to receive the enemy. But Alexander's approach was so terrible, forcing those who gave back upon those who yet maintained their ground, that he beat down and dispersed them almost all. Only a few of the brav est and valiantest opposed the pursuit, who were slain in their king's presence, falling in heaps upon one another, and in the very pangs of death striving to catch hold of the horses.
Darius now seeing all was lost, that those who were placed in front to defend him were broken and beaten back upon him, that he could not turn or disengage his chariot without great difficulty, the wheels being clogged and entangled among the dead bodies, which lay in such heaps as not only stopped, but almost covered the horses, and made them rear and grow so unruly that the frightened charioteer could govern them no longer, in this extremity was glad to quit his chariot and his arms, and mounting, it is said, upon a mare that had been taken from her foal, betook himself to flight. But he had not escaped so either, if Parmenio had not sent fresh messengers to Alexander, to desire him to return and assist him against a considerable body of the enemy which yet stood together and would not give ground. For, indeed, Parmenio is on all hands accused of having been sluggish and unserviceable in this battle, whether age had impaired his courage, or that, as Callisthenes says, he secretly disliked and envied Alexander's growing great ness. Alexander, though he was not a little vexed to be so recalled and hindered from pursuing his victory, yet concealed the true reason from his men, and causing a retreat to be sounded, as if it were too late to continue the execution any longer, marched back towards the place of danger, and by the
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. 201
way met with the news of the enemy's total overthrow and flight.
This battle being thus over, seemed to put a period to the Persian empire ; and Alexander, who was now proclaimed king of Asia, returned thanks to the gods in magnificent sacrifices, and rewarded his friends and followers with great sums of money, and places, and governments of provinces. And eager to gain honor with the Grecians, he wrote to them that he would have all tyrannies abolished, that they might live free according to their own laws, and specially to the Plataeans, that their city should be rebuilt, because their ancestors had permitted their countrymen of old to make their territory the seat of the war, when they fought with the barbarians for their common liberty. He sent also part of the spoils into Italy, to the Crotoniats, to honor the zeal and courage of their citizen Phayllus, the wrestler, who, in the Median war, when the other Grecian colonies in Italy disowned Greece, that he might have a share in the danger, joined the fleet at Salamis, with a vessel set forth at his own charge. So affectionate was Alexander to all kind of virtue, and so desirous to preserve the memory of laudable actions.
In this place [Susa] he took up his winter quarters, and stayed four months to refresh his soldiers. It is related that the first time he sat on the royal throne of Persia under the canopy of gold, Demaratus the Corinthian, who was much attached to him and had been one of his father's friends, wept, in an old man's manner, and deplored the misfortune of those Greeks whom death had deprived of the satisfaction of seeing Alexan der seated on the throne of Darius.
From hence designing to march against Darius, before he set out, he diverted himself with his officers at an entertain ment of drinking and other pastimes, and indulged so far as to let every one's mistress sit by and drink with them. The most celebrated of them was Thais, an Athenian, mistress of Ptolemy, who was afterwards king of Egypt. She, partly as a sort of well-turned compliment to Alexander, partly out of sport, as the drinking went on, at last was carried so far as to utter a saying, not misbecoming her native country's character, though somewhat too lofty for her own condition. She said it was indeed some recompense for the toils she had undergone in following the camp all over Asia, that she was that day treated in, and could insult over, the stately palace of the Persian monarchs. But, she added, it would please her much better
if,
202
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
while the king looked on, she might in sport, with her own hands, set fire to the court of that Xerxes who reduced the city of Athens to ashes, that it might be recorded to posterity that the women who followed Alexander had taken a severer revenge on the Persians for the sufferings and affronts of Greece, than all the famed commanders had been able to do by sea or land. What she said was received with such universal liking and murmurs of applause, and so seconded by the encouragement and eagerness of the company, that the king himself, persuaded to be of the party, started from his seat, and with a chaplet of flowers on his head and a lighted torch in his hand led them the way, while they went after him in a riotous manner, dancing and making loud cries about the place ; which when the rest of the Macedonians perceived, they also in great delight ran thither with torches ; for they hoped the burning and destruction of the royal palace was an argument that he looked homeward, and had no design to reside among the barbarians. Thus some writers give their account of this action, while others say it was done deliberately ; however, all agree that he soon repented of it, and gave orders to put out the fire.
Alexander was naturally most munificent, and grew more so as his fortune increased, accompanying what he gave with that courtesy and freedom which, to speak truth, is necessary to make a benefit really obliging. I will give a few instances of this kind. Ariston, the captain of the Preonians, having killed an enemy, brought his head to show him, and told him that in his country such a present was recompensed with a cup of gold. " With an empty one," said Alexander, smiling, " but I drink to you in this, which I give you full of wine. " Another time, as one of the common soldiers was driving a mule laden with some of the king's treasure, the beast grew tired, and the soldier took it upon his own back, and began to march with it, till Alexander seeing the man so overcharged asked what was the matter ; and when he was informed, just as he was ready to lay down his burden for weariness, " Do not faint now," said he to him, " but finish the journey, and carry what you have there to your own tent for yourself. "
He was always more displeased with those who would not accept of what he gave than with those who begged of him. And therefore he wrote to Phocion, that he would not own him for his friend any longer, if he refused his presents. He had never given anything to Serapion, one of the youths that
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. 203
played at ball with him, because he did not ask of him, till one day, it coming to Serapion's turn to play, he still threw the ball to others, and when the king asked him why he did not direct it to him, " Because you do not ask for it," said he ; which answer pleased him so that he was very liberal to him after wards. One Proteas, a pleasant, jesting, drinking fellow, having incurred his displeasure, got his friends to intercede for him, and begged his pardon himself with tears, which at last prevailed, and Alexander declared he was friends with him. " I cannot believe it," said Proteas, " unless you first give me some pledge of it. " The king understood his meaning, and presently ordered five talents to be given him.
How magnificent he was in enriching his friends, and those who attended on his person, appears by a letter which Olympias wrote to him, where she tells him he should reward and honor those" about him in a more moderate way. "For now," said she, you make them all equal to kings, you give them power and opportunity of making many friends of their own, and in the mean time you leave yourself destitute. " She often wrote to him to this purpose, and he never communicated her letters to anybody, unless it were one which he opened when Hephaes- tion was by, whom he permitted, as his custom was, to read it along with him ; but then as soon as he had done, he took off his ring, and set the seal upon Hephaestion's lips.
Mazaeus, who was the most considerable man in Darius' court, had a son who was already governor of a province. Alexander bestowed another upon him that was better; he, however, modestly refused, and told him, instead of one Darius, he went the way to make many Alexanders. To Parmenio he gave Bagoas' house, in which he found a wardrobe of apparel worth more than a thousand talents. He wrote to Antipater, commanding him to keep a life guard about him for the security of his person against conspiracies. To his mother he sent many presents, but would never suffer her to meddle with matters of State or war, not indulging her busy temper, and when she fell out with him on this account, he bore her ill humor very patiently. Nay more, when he read a long letter from Antipa ter, full of accusations against her, " Antipater," he said, " does not know that one tear of a mother effaces a thousand such letters as these. "
But when he perceived his favorites grow so luxurious and extravagant in their way of living and expenses, that Hagnon,
204
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
the Teian, wore silver nails in his shoes, that Leonnatus em ployed several camels, only to bring him powder out of Egypt to use when he wrestled, and that Philotas had hunting nets a hundred furlongs in length, that more used precious ointment than plain oil when they went to bathe, and that they carried about servants everywhere with them to rub them and wait upon them in their chambers, he reproved them in gentle and reasonable terms, telling them he wondered that they who had been engaged in so many single battles did not know by experi ence that those who labor sleep more sweetly and soundly than those who are labored for, and could fail to see by comparing the Persians' manner of living with their own, that it was the most abject and slavish condition to be voluptuous, but the most noble and royal to undergo pain and labor. He argued with them further, how it was possible for any one who pretended to be a soldier, either to look well after his horse, or to keep his armor bright and in good order, who thought it much to let his hands be serviceable to what was nearest to him, his own body.
" Are you still to learn," said he, " that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue? " And to strengthen his precepts by ex ample, he applied himself now more vigorously than ever to hunting and warlike expeditions, embracing all opportunities of hardship and danger, insomuch that a Lacedaemonian, who was there on an embassy to him, and chanced to be by when he encountered with and mastered a huge lion, told him he had fought gallantly with the beast, which of the two should be king. Craterus caused a representation to be made of this adventure, consisting of the lion and the dogs, of the king engaged with the lion, and himself coming in to his assistance, all expressed in figures of brass, some of which were by Lysippus, and the rest by Leochares ; and had it dedicated in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Alexander exposed his person to danger in this manner, with the object both of inuring himself and inciting others to the performance of brave and virtuous actions.
But his followers, who were grown rich, and consequently proud, longed to indulge themselves in pleasure and idleness, and were weary of marches and expeditions, and at last went on so far as to censure and speak ill of him. All which at first he bore very patiently, saying it became a king well to do good to others, and be evil spoken of. Meantime, on the smallest occasions that called for a show of kindness to his friends, there
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. 205
was every indication on his part of tenderness and respect. Hearing Peucestes was bitten by a bear, he wrote to him that he took it unkindly he should send others notice of it, and not make him acquainted with it ; " But now," said he, " since it is so, let me know how you do, and whether any of your compan ions forsook you when you were in danger, that I may punish them. " He sent Hephaestion, who was absent about some busi ness, word how while they were fighting for their diversion with an ichneumon, Craterus was by chance run through both thighs with Perdiccas' javelin. And upon Peucestes' recovery from a fit of sickness, he sent a letter of thanks to his physician Alexippus. When Craterus was ill, he saw a vision in his sleep, after which he offered sacrifices for his health, and bade him do so likewise. He wrote also to Pausanias, the physician, who was about to purge Craterus with hellebore, partly out of an anxious concern for him, and partly to give him a caution how he used that medicine. He was so tender of his friends' reputation that he imprisoned Ephialtes and Cissus, who brought him the first news of Harpalus' flight and withdrawal from his service, as if they had falsely accused him. When he sent the old and infirm soldiers home, Eurylochus, a citizen of JEgse, got his name enrolled among the sick, though he ailed nothing, which being discovered, he confessed he was in love with a young woman named Telesippa, and wanted to go along with her to the seaside. Alexander inquired to whom the woman belonged, and being told she was a free courtesan, " I will assist you," said he to Eurylochus, " in your amour if your mistress be to be gained either by presents or persuasions ; but we must use no other means, because she is freeborn. "
It is surprising to consider upon what slight occasions he would write letters to serve his friends. As when he wrote one in which he gave orders to search for a youth that belonged to Seleucus, who was run away into Silicia ; and in another thanked and commanded Peucestes for apprehending Nicon, a servant of Craterus ; and in one to Megabyzus, concerning a slave that had taken sanctuary in a temple, gave directions that he should not meddle with him while he was there, but if he could entice him out by fair means, then he gave him leave to seize him. It is reported of him that when he first sat in judg ment upon capital causes, he would lay his hand upon one of his ears while the accuser spoke, to keep it free and unpreju diced in behalf of the party accused. But afterwards such a
206
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
multitude of accusations were brought before him, and so many proved true, that he lost his tenderness of heart, and gave credit to those also that were false ; and especially when anybody spoke ill of him, he would be transported out of his reason, and show himself cruel and inexorable, valuing his glory and repu tation beyond his life or kingdom.
He now, as we said, set forth to seek Darius, expecting he should be put to the hazard of another battle, but heard he was taken and secured by Bessus, upon which news he sent home the Thessalians, and gave them a largess of two thousand tal ents over and above the pay that was due to them. This long and painful pursuit of Darius — for in eleven days he marched thirty-three hundred furlongs — harassed his soldiers so that most of them were ready to give it up, chiefly for want of water. While they were in this distress, it happened that some Mace donians who had fetched water in skins upon their mules from a river they had found out, came about noon to the place where Alexander was, and seeing him almost choked with thirst, pres ently filled a helmet and offered it him. He asked them to whom they were carrying the water : they told him to their children, adding, that if his life were but saved, it was no mat ter for them, they should be able well enough to repair that loss, though they all perished. Then he took the helmet into his hands, and looking round about, when he saw all those who were near him stretching their heads out and looking earnestly after the drink, he returned it again with thanks without tast ing a drop of it. " For," said he, " if I alone should drink, the rest will be out of heart. "
The soldiers no sooner took notice of his temperance and magnanimity upon this occasion, but they one and all cried out to him to lead them forward boldly, and began whipping on their horses. For whilst they had such a king they said they defied both weariness and thirst, and looked upon themselves to be little less than immortal. But though they were all equally cheerful and willing, yet not above threescore horse were able, it is said, to keep up, and to fall in with Alexander upon the enemy's camp, where they rode over abundance of gold and silver that lay scattered about ; and passing by a great many chariots full of women that wandered here and there for want of drivers, they endeavored to overtake the first of those that fled, in hopes to meet with Darius among them. And at last, after much trouble, they found him lying in a chariot,
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. 207
wounded all over with darts, just at the point of death. How ever, he desired they would give him some drink, and when he had drunk a little cold water, he told Polystratus, who gave it him, that it had become the last extremity of his ill fortune, to receive benefits and not be able to return them. " But Alexan der," said he, " whose kindness to my mother, my wife, and my children, I hope the gods will recompense, will doubtless thank you for your humanity to me. Tell him, therefore, in token of my acknowledgment, I give him this right hand," with which words he took hold of Polystratus' hand and died. When Alexander came up to them, he showed manifest tokens of sor row, and taking off his own cloak, threw it upon the body to cover it. And some time afterwards, when Bessus was taken, he ordered him to be torn in pieces in this manner. They fas tened him to a couple of trees which were bound down so as to meet, and then being let loose, with a great force returned to their places, each of them carrying that part of the body along with it that was tied to it. Darius' body was laid in state, and sent to his mother with pomp suitable to his quality. His brother Exathres, Alexander received into the number of his intimate friends. . . .
Noticing that among his chief friends and favorites, Hephaes- tion most approved all that he did, and complied with and imi tated him in his change of habits, while Craterus continued strict in the observation of the customs and fashions of his own country, he made it his practice to employ the first in all trans actions with the Persians, and the latter when he had to do with the Greeks or Macedonians. And in general he showed more affection for Hephaestion, and more respect for Craterus, — Hephaestion, as he used to say, being Alexander's, and Craterus the king's friend. And so these two friends always bore in secret a grudge to each other, and at times quarreled openly, so much so, that once in India they drew upon one another, and were proceeding in good earnest, with their friends on each side to second them, when Alexander rode up and publicly reproved Hephaestion, calling him fool and madman, not to be sensible that without his favor he was nothing. He rebuked Craterus, also, in private, severely, and then causing them both to come into his presence, he reconciled them, at the same time swearing by Ammon and the rest of the gods, that he loved them two above all other men, but if ever he perceived them fall out again he would be sure to put both of them to death,
208 ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.