No More Learning

oorrrssr BETWEEN DEMOSTHENES AND zss0nnms.
Pnrmr was now the acknowledged head of the Greek
world. Phocion, Athens' best soldier, as well as a highly
honourable citizen, told the Athenians that they must
acquiesce in this result. Demosthenes had not a word
left to say on foreign policy. The subject was, in fact,
closed. He was continually and virulently attacked
by his political opponents, but he was too strong for
them. He spoke the funeral eulogy at the obsequies
of the slain in the great battle--an honour to which he
was chosen in preference to Aischines, as well as to
Demades, who had negotiated the peace. He held,
too, more than one important office. He was treasurer
of the Theorie fund, which provided Athens with her
grand dramatic entertainments ; and in this capacity he
had a considerable control over the finances generally.
He was also superintendent of the city walls and fortifi-
cations. He must thus have had the character of an
able and upright man of business. And he continued
to follow the profession of the bar, and found abundant
employment.
In 336 13. 0. Philip was assassinated. It seems that
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? I36 ' DEMOSTHENES.
Demosthenes, though at the time he was mourning the
death of an only daughter, showed an excessive joy by
appearing in public in a white dress with a garland on
his head, and performing a solemn sacrifice of thanks-
giving. Could he have indulged in the dream that all
was now to be reversed, and that Greece was again to be
free' ! Macedon, no doubt, with its sudden growth of
power, might have collapsed, had Philip's son and suc-
cessor been an imbecile. And it appears that Demos-
thenes thought meanly of the young Alexander. He com-
pared him to Margites, the hero of a comic poem which
tradition attributed to Homer. Margites was a man
who "knew many things, but knew them all badly ; "
he was a sort of "Jack of all trades and master of
none. " Alexander was famous for the variety of his
studies and pursuits; and it was this, it may be supposed,
which gave point to the comparison. Demosthenes' idea
of him was, that he was a studious, bookish young man,
of whom the world would never hear much. The fact
that he was only twenty years of age at the time of his
father's death may have reasonably encouraged Demos-
thenes to believe that Greece had some chance of throw-
ing off the yoke imposed on her by her defeat at Chas-
roneia. He did not think it wrong to correspond with
Persia, and to avail himself of Persian gold, with the
view of frustrating Philip's designs on Asia. We can
hardly censure him for this, when we remember that it
was done for the patriotic purpose of freeing Greece
from its present position of a Macedonian dependency.
If he used questionable means, he at least had the
merit of standing by the old cause. But, of course, it
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? DEMOSTHENES AND 1ESC'1IINES. 137
was easy for his enemies to represent his conduct in an
odious light.
Three years after Chseroneia, Alexander, after a suc-
cessful expedition into Thrace, and a victory over the
barbarous and warlike Getae on the further bank of
the Danube, hurried with marvellous rapidity south-
wards to crush a movement of revolt in Thebes. There
was, as we have seen, a Macedonian garrison in the city.
There was, too, a powerful political party which urged
prompt submission. Alexandrr himself was particu-
larly anxious not to drive matters to extremities. But
the party which had instigated the movement knew
that they could not hope for mercy; and, by appealing
to the cause of Greek freedom, persuaded the people to
reject all offers of peace. The unhappy city was cap-
tured by assault, and every house but that of the poet
Pindar and those of his descendants was razed to the
ground.
" The great Emathian conqueror bade spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground. "
It was a terrible doom, but it was approved by the
towns of Doeotia; and but for the brief grandeur to
which Thebes rose under Epameinondas, and her share
in the battle of Chaeroneia, we may almost say it was
' deserved. She had been a traitor to the common cause
in the great struggle with Persia ; and afterwards, with
a peculiar baseness, she had urged Sparta to slaughter,
in cold blood, the brave Plataeans, whose only crime
was, that they had sided with Athens in the Pelopon-
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? 138 D Ezuosrrlslvzzs.
nesian War. Thebes was now blotted out of existence.
Again Athens trembled. Alexander, there was reason
to believe, was magnanimous; but it was impossible to
say how he might deal with a city which had been so
persistently hostile to his father. At the suggestion of
Demadcs, an embassy of congratulation was sent to
him. The people were to express their joy not only on
his safe return from the Danube, but on the extinction
of Thebes. It was, as Dr Thirlwall happily calls it,
"impudent obsequiousness. " Alexander's answer was
a demand for the surrender of the nine chief anti-
Macedonian orators,--Demosthenes, of course, included.
But the demand was waived, chiefly, it seems, through
the opportune intervention of Phocion, whom Alex-
ander highly respected.
The next year he crossed the Hellespont into Asia.
Four years from that time sufficed for the overthrow
of the Persian empire. Darius, the last king of Persia,
was murdered in 330 13. 0. That same year witnessed
an abortive attempt in Greece against Macedonian
supremacy. >It was bravely led by a king of Sparta,
who fell in a hard-fought battle near Megalopolis with
Antipater, to whom Alexander had intrusted his king-
dom during his absence. Greece could now no longer
even dream of independence. Anything like an anti-
Macedonian policy would be preposterous; and there
was thus an opportunity at Athens of attempting to
rouse popular feeling against any statesman who had
advocated that policy, the end of which had been so
fatal to Greece.
It was under these circumstances that . /Esehines
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? DEMOSTHENES AND . Esc'H11vEs. 139
made a great effort to crush his old rivaL It had been
proposed by Ctesiphon, in the year after Chaeroneia,
that a public testimonial to the worth of Demosthenes
should be given him in the form of a golden crown;
and that the honour should be proclaimed on the
occasion of one of those great dramatic festivals, when
the city was crowded with visitors from every part
of Greece. The proposal had been approved by the
Athenian Senate, but it had yet to be submitted to the
popular assembly. ZEschines at the time denounced
it as unconstitutional, and opposed it by one of the
recognised modes of legal procedure. Technically,
indeed, the motion of Ctesiphon was illegal. Demos-
thenes, as we have stated, was holding two ollices ; he
was superintendent of fortifications and treasurer of
the Theorie fund. It was contrary to Athenian law
to bestow the honour of a crown on an officer before
his accounts had been audited; it was also forbidden
that such an honour should be proclaimed anywhere
else than in the Pnyx, the regular place of the people's
assembly. According to the motion of the proposer,
it would have been proclaimed in the theatre. [Es-
chines could, therefore, argue that it was in two points
illegal. But he wished to win a decisive victory ; and
he accordingly waited for some years, and finally
rested his case on the argument that Demosthenes, as
a public man, was undeserving of the honour. It is
this which gives interest to his extant speech. He
laboured to convince the Athenians that his rival
could not have been thoroughly sincere in his anti-
Macedonian professions, because he had let slip three
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? 140 DEMOSTHENES.
important opportunities. Demosthenes had done
nothing, so he argued, when Alexander first crossed
into Asia; or when he was supposed to be in great
jeopardy just before the battle of Issue in 333 B. 0. ;
or lastly, when Sparta, as has been stated, made an
attempt at resistance. It was in the year of this
unsuccessful attempt--the year 330 13. 0. , when Mace-
don was triumphant both in Asia and Greece--that
this memorable cause between the two rival orators
was heard before the Athenian assembly. As might
have been expected, there was a numerous gathering both
of citizens and strangers, very many of whom were
well qualified to be keen critics of the great contest.
The question really to be decided--and this was the
issue which fEschines was anxious to raise--was, Had
Demosthenes been a good or bad citizen! had he
honestly at all times and seasons stood by the cause
in which he so earnestly professed to believe' ! Demos-
thenes' reply to this question is the vindication of his
political life. The cause for which he had exerted
himself, though finally unsuccessful, was, he maintains,
the true and the right cause. Had he foreseen the end
from the beginning, he would have spoken and acted
as he did. He reviews his policy from the peace of
346 13. 0. , concluded just after Philip's destruction of
Phocis, down to the king's death ten years afterwards.
To all this he looks back with satisfaction and pride.
In defending himself he attacks his rival, and de-
nounces him as really the author of the calamities
which had fallen on the Greek world. It was '
through the diplomacy of Zfischines, he declares, that
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? DEMOSTHENES AND ESOHINES. 141
Philip was admitted to Thermopylae, the beginning of
all the subsequent mischief. If it was dreadful to
think of Greece being under a foreign master, it was a
glorious fact that Athens had done her best to avert
such a disgrace.
This is the drift and purport of the great speech on
the Crown, as it is usually called. It has been well
described by Mr Grote as "a funeral oration on ex-
tinct Athenian and Grecian freedom," " It breathes,"
says Dr Thirlwall, "the spirit of that high philosophy
which, whether learnt in the schools or from life, has
consoled the noblest of our kind in prisons and on
scaffolds, and under every persecution of adverse
fortune, but in the tone necessary to impress a mixed
multitude with a like feeling, and to elevate it for a
while into a sphere above its own. "
Some passages from this oration have already been
quoted in the preceding chapter; and it is due to'
the reader to give him some further specimens of,
perhaps, the greatest of all the oratorical efforts of
Demosthenes.
Here is a passage in which the speaker dwells on the
generous and magnanimous temper of his countrymen
in their best days :--
" Let me for a moment bring before your eyes one
or two of the brightest passages in the history of our
times. Lacedaamon was paramount by sea and land;
she had a belt of garrisons about the frontiers of our
territory; Euboea, Tanagra, all Boeotia, Megara, Zligina,
Cleonae, every island on the coast. We had neither
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? 142 ' DEMOSTHENES.
ships nor walls; we were in no want (had we chosen
to remember the Decelean war) of grievances either
against Corinth or Thebes. And yet the arms of
Athens were seen at Haliartus, and in a few days after
at Corinth. You had something better to do than to
recall the injuries of the past. . . .
" The sacrifice in either case was not made for a
benefactor, neither was it made without risk. You held
that no reason for abandoning to their fate men who
had thrown themselves on your compassion. Honour
and renown were a sufficient motive to lead youti/nto
danger,/and who shall say you were wrong' ! Life must
cease; death must come at some time, though one
should steal into a collar to avoid him. The brave are
ever ready to set forth on the path of glory, armed
with high hope and courage, prepared to accept with-
out a murmur the fate which heaven may ordain. Thus
did your forefathers; thus did the elders among your-
selves, who interposed and frustrated the attempts of
the Thebans after their victory at Leuctra to destroy
Sparta, though from Sparta you had experienced neither
friendship nor good offices, but many grievous wrongs.
You neither quailed before the power and renown which
Thebes then possessed, nor were you deterred by any
thought of your past treatment by Sparta. Thus did
you proclaim to all the Greeks, that how much soever
any of them may offend against you, you reserve your
resentment for other occasions ; but that if danger
threaten their existence or their liberties, you will
take no account of--you will not even remember--your
Wrongs. " '
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? DEMOSTHENES AND 1ESCHINE& 143
This is his answer to those who persisted in saying
that it was Philip--Philip alone--who had brought all
their troubles on them :---
" Do not go about repeating that Greece owes all her
misfortunes to one man. No, not to one man, but to
many abandoned men distributed throughout the differ-
ent states, of whom, by earth and heaven, Z. Eschines is
one. If the truth were to be spoken without reserve,
I should not hesitate to call him the common scourge
of all the men, the districts, and the cities which have
perished; for the sower of the seed is answerable for
the crop. I am astonished you did not turn your faces
from him the moment you beheld him; but thick dark-
ness would seem to veil your eyes. "
He maintains'that the action of the State had been
right and honourable, though it had failed.
" I affirm that if the future had been apparent to us
all--if you, fEschines, had foretold it and proclaimed
it at the top of your voice instead of preserving total
silence,--nevertheless the State ought not to have devi-
ated from her course, if she had regard to her own hon-
our, the traditions of the past, or the judgment of poster-
ity. As it is, she is looked upon as having failed in her
policy,--the common lot of all mankind when such is
the will of heaven ; but if, claiming to be the foremost
state of Greece, she had deserted her post, she would
have incurred the reproach of betraying Greece to Philip.
If we had abandoned without a struggle all which
our forefathers braved every danger to win, who would
not have spurned you, Zlischinesi God forbid that I
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? 144 DEMOSTHENES.
should so speak of the State as of myself. How could
we have looked in the face the strangers who flock
to our city, if things had reached their present pass-
Philip the chosen leader and lord of all--while others
without our assistance had borne the struggle to avert
this consummation! We ! who have never in times
past preferred inglorious safety to peril in the path of
honour. Is there a Greek or a barbarian who does
not know that Thebes at the height of her power, and
Sparta before her--ay, and even the king of Persia
himself --would have been only glad to compromise
with us, and that we might have had what we chose,
and possessed our own in peace, had we been willing
to obey orders and to suffer another to put himself at
the head of Greece! But it was not possible,--it was
not va thing which the Athenians of those days could
do. It was against their nature, their genius, and their
traditions ; and no human persuasion could induce them
to side with a wrong-doer because he was powerful, and
to embrace subjection because it was safe. N 0; to the
last our country has fought and jeopardised herself for
honour and glory and pre-eminence.
A noble choice,
in harmony with your national character, as you testify
by your respect for the memories of your ancestors who
have so acted. And you are in the right; for who can
withhold admiration from the heroism of the men who
shrank not from leaving their city and their fatherland,
and embarking in their war-ships, rather than submit to
foreign dictation! VVhy, Themistocles, who counselled
this step, was elected general ; and the man who coun-
selled submission was stoned to death--and not he
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? v
roan osruznvas AND . _/ESCHINES. 145
only, for his wife was stoned by your wives, as he was
by you. The Athenians of those days went not in
quest of an orator or a general who could help them to
prosperous slavery; but they scorned life itself, if it
were not the life of freedom. Each of them regarded
himself as the child not only of his father and of his
mother, but of his country; and what is the difference'!
He who looks on himself as merely the child of his
parents, awaits death in the ordinary course of nature;
while he who looks on himself as the child also of his
country, will be ready to lay down his life rather than
see her enslaved, and will hold death itself less terrible
than the insults and indignities which the citizens of a
state in slavery to the foreigner must endure.
" Do I take credit to myself for having inspired you
with sentiments worthy of your ancestors'! Such pre-
sumption would expose me to the just rebuke of every
man who hears me. What I maintain is, that these
very sentiments are your own ; that the spirit of
Athens was the same before my time,--though I do
claim to have had a share in the application of these
principles to each successive crisis. ZEschines, there-
fore, when he impeaches our whole policy, and seeks
to exasperate you against me as the author of all your
alarms and perils, in his anxiety to deprive me of
present credit, is really labouring to rob you of your
everlasting renown. If by your vote against Ctesiphon
you condemn my policy, you will pronounce yourselves
to have been in the wrong, instead of having suffered
what has befallen you through the cruel injustice of
fortune. But it cannot be: you have not been in the
. s. o. s. s. voL iv. K
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? 146 DEMOSTHENES.
0-
wrong, men of Athens, in doing battle for the freedom'
and salvation of all; I swear it by your forefathers,
who bore the battle's brunt at 'Marathon; by those
who stood in arms at Plataea; by those who fought
the sea-fight at Salamis ; by the heroes of Artemisium,
and many more whose resting-place in our national
monuments attests that, as our country buried, so she
honoured, all alike--victors and vanquished. She
was right; for what brave men could do, all did,
though a higher power was master of their fate. "
This, perhaps, is the most striking of the many
striking passages in this great speech. Demosthenes
carried his audience with him. His rival did not'
obtain a fifth of the votes. His position as an orator
and statesman was destroyed. His discomfiture had'
been witnessed by the whole Greek world. In his'
mortification he left his native city for Rhodes, where
he set up a school of rhetoric. The story was told
that he once declaimed to his pupils the speech
which had driven him into exile; and in reply to
the applause with which it was greeted, exclaimed,
"What 'if you had heard the beast himself speak-
it? "
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? CHAPTER XIII.
LAST DAYS OF DEMOSTHENES.
Dsnosrrrsuss had won a splendid triumph, which he
survived eight years. But they were years by no
means unclouded. They were darkened by an un-
fortunate incident, which we proceed briefly to narrate.
From 330 to 324 13. 0. , we hear nothing of the great
orator. Athens, in fact, had no politics for him to
discuss. He could have had nothing to do but to
advise private clients. By the year 324 Alexander
had returned from that long expedition in which he
had carried his army through the heart of Asia to the
banks of the Indus. He had left behind him one of
his old Macedonian friends in the government of the
rich satrapy of Babylonia. Harpalus (this was the
> man's name) was greedy and extravagant, and wasted
the resources of his province in a luxury which he had
learnt during his residence in the East. It was said
that he loaded his table with the most costly delicacies,
and filled his gardens with exotic plants of every
variety. He had found it convenient to please the
people of Athens by splendid presents, and particu-
larly by very liberal gifts of wheat for free and general
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? 148 DEJIOSTHENES.
distribution. For all this he had received votes of
thanks and been made an Athenian citizen. He was
afraid, however, to face Alexander, who, he well knew,
showed no mercy to delinquent satraps. So he fled
from Asia to Europe with an immense treasure of 5000
talents (about a million and' a quarter pounds sterling),
and landed at Cape Sunium, in Attica. He might
reasonably flatter himself that he would not be an
unwelcome visitor at Athens, but in this he was dis-
appointed. There was the fear of the wrath of
Alexander; and the fear, too, that Harpalus might
possibly intend to assume the position of a tyrant or
despot. His offers, whatever they were, were rejected;
but there was a debate in the Assembly, and a rumour
reached Alexander that Athens had received him and
his armament. This was at the time untrue; but
when he sent away his ships and asked leave to be
admitted into the city with a few personal attendants,
the people, remembering his past favours, no longer
refused. Having gained his point, he tried to per-
suade them that they might defy Alexander with a
prospect of success, and that he was himself able and
willing to furnish them with the necessary funds.
Some of the orators supported his views. But he
could do nothing with Phocion or with Demosthenes.
This was fatal to his project. Soon there came
envoys from Antipater, Alexander's deputy in Mace-
donia, requiring his surrender. But this both Phocion
and Demosthenes, notwithstanding the danger of the
crisis, opposed. So alarmed, however, were the people
at the thought of Alexander's probable vengeance, that .
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? LAST DAYS OF DEMOSTIIENES. 149
they decided on arresting Harpalus and sequestrating
his treasure till they could learn what view Alexander
took of the matter; and this much they did on the
motion of Demosthenes himself. It seems possible, as
has been suggested, that Demosthenes proposed this
motion with an mfie? re-pcnse? e, and may have wished
to detain Harpalus and his treasure, and to wait the
course of events. Harpalus contrived to escape; but
his treasure--that part of it at least which he'had
brought to Athens after dismissing his fleet, and which
amounted,' according to statements made by Demos-
thenes on his authority, to about 720 talents--1-emained
behind. This, of course, ought to have been returned--
and the people were, it seems, prepared to do so; but
when the money was counted it was found that there
was no more than 350 talents, barely half the original
sum. How was the deficiency to be explained'!
There was a great stir and outcry. People said that
it must have been used in bribery, and that the
missing money must have stuck to the fingers of the
orators and public men. There was a general feeling
that somebody ought to be punished, but there was
not a scrap of evidence against any one, and no means
of procuring it.
Demosthenes proposed to have the affair investigated
by the court of Areopagus. It was not easy to see what
better course could have been taken. At the same time,
the members of that court must have felt that they could
hardly hope, under the circumstances, to arrive at a per-
fectly satisfactory' result. No doubt they commanded
the public confidence, as they were all men of age and
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? 150 DEAIOSTHENES.
experience, and were from their position above the
motives which occasionally swayed other courts. Great
latitude was allowed them ; and practically they often
decided cases not simply on the evidence before them,
but on hearsay, and on that personal knowledge which
men in their rank would be sure to possess. They
took the utmost pains with the present inquiry, and
were engaged on it for six months. They went so far as
' to search the houses of the principal public men, with
the exception of one who had been lately married--an
exception perhaps to be attributed to a sense (if delicacy.
At last they published their report, with a list of the
names of persons whom they considered chargeable with
having improperly possessed themselves of the missing
money. '
In this list appeared the name of Demosthenes as
a debtor to the amount of 'twenty talents. The next
step was to give the accused parties the choice of
taking their trial or of paying the sum with which the
Areopagus had debited them. Of those brought to
trial, Demosthenes was the first. He was tried before
a jury of 1500 of his fellow-citizens, was found guilty,
a. nd sentenced to pay a fine of fifty talents (about
? 12,000). It is very possible that among the jury
which condemned him there may have been many who
wished to please Alexander, and many, too, of the
friends of Harpalus. It must, however, be remem-
bered that the decision of the Areopagus could not
fail to influence their verdict. Demosthenes would
not or could not pay the fine. He was imprisoned,
but in a few days was able to escape to Troezcn, in the
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? LA ST DA Y S OF DEM OSTH ENES. '15 1
territory of Argos. It was but a few months that> he
remained there. _ _ _ .
'We can hardly bring ourselves to believe that he
was really guilty. Of course we can judge> only
by probabilities; and it is certain that the court of
Areopagus must have had grounds for their suspicion.
We must bear in mind that they merely drew up a
list of persons whose case in their opinion required
further judicial inquiry. There is no reason foriassum-
ing that they regarded the guilt of Demosthenes as
certain. The inquiry was lon,? ,r and difficult ; and the
decision ultimately arrived at could have been hardly
meant to express confident assurance. If Demosthenes
publicly stated, on Harpa1us's authority, the amount of
the treasure, it seems strange that he should have made
himself a party to the disappearance of a portion of it.
It may be that the statement he made had not been
verified by him, and it may have been altogether errone-
ous. It is pleasant to find that both Dr T hirlwalland
Mr Grote incline to acquit him of this mean dishonesty.
It may be worth while to mention a story told by Plut-
arch about this painful passage in the life of Demos-
thenes. Like many of his stories, it is probably a pure
fiction, but it is at least amusing. Harpalus, he tells
us, won over the orator to his side by sending a
singularly beautiful golden cup, his admiration of which
he had noted. Along with the cup were twenty talents,
the sum with which the Areopagus had debited him.
Shortly afterwards, when the proposals of Harpalus
were being discussed in the Assembly, Demosthenes,
who had previously oooosed them, appeared with a
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-27 04:56 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/coo. 31924026456347 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 152 DEJUOSTIIENES.
woollen bandage round his throat, and pretended that
he could not speak, from an attack of quinsy. _ Some
wag remarked that it must be the silver quinsy. The
people laughed, but were angry. Such is the story.
But, as a fact, Demosthenes did not drop his opposition
to Harpalus. It was on his motion, as we have seen, that
Harpalus was arrested and his treasure sequestrated.
We left the great orator in exile at Troezen. He was
recalled soon after the death of Alexander in 323 no.
An attempt was then made once more to rid Greece of
the Macedonian ascendancy. It was finally crushed
by Antipater in the battle of Crannon in 322 13. 0. ' The
conqueror demanded the surrender of the leading anti-
Macedonian orators--Demosthenes, of course, among
them. Athens from this moment ceased to exist as a
free state. A Macedonian garrison was introduced;
there was a wholesale disfranchisement of citizens,
and a new political constitution was imposed on the
city. Demosthenes did not remain to be a witness of
this degradation. He had been welcomed back to his
native Athens with joyful enthusiasm; now he must
leave her for ever. He took refuge in the little island
of Calauria, ofl' the coast of Argolis. It was here that
he chose to die rather than fall into the hands of the
"exile-hunters," as the emissaries of Antipater were
called. Within the precincts of an ancient temple of
Neptune, regarded of old as an inviolable sanctuary,
he swallowed poison, retaining in his last moments
sufiicient presence of mind to expire outside the sacred
enclosure, to which, in Greek belief, death would have
been a pollution.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-27 04:56 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/coo. 31924026456347 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAPTER XIV.
nsuosrnmnzs AT THE mu.
Ir has seemed most convenient not to interrupt our
sketch of the political career of Demosthenes with_
any allusions to his purelyr forensic engagements. He
became, comparatively early in 1ife--that is to say, when
he was probably under thirty years of age--a very suc-
cessful pleader in large practice.