Why then did you declare to the people that you were ready to submit to death, if
condemned
by the report of this council ?
Universal Anthology - v04
But if many that never saw me or heard my voice have been grievously afflicted, not individuals only, but whole cities and nations, how much juster and fairer is it to consider that to the common fortune apparently of all men, to a tide of events overwhelming and lamentable, these disasters are to be attributed.
You, disregarding all this, accuse me whose ministry has been among my countrymen, knowing all the while that a part (if not the whole) of your calumny falls upon the people, and yourself in particular.
For if I assumed the sole and absolute direction of our counsels, it was open to you the other speakers to accuse me : but if you were con stantly present in all the assemblies, if the state invited public discussion of what was expedient, and if these measures were then believed by all to be the best, and especially by you (for certainly from no good will did you leave me in possession of hopes and admiration and honors, all of which attended on my policy, but doubtless because you were compelled by the truth and had nothing better to advise), is it not iniquitous and monstrous to complain now of measures, than which you could suggest none better at the time ?
Among all other people I find these principles in a manner defined and settled — Does a man willfully offend ? He is the object of wrath and punishment. Has a man erred uninten
DEMOSTHENES. 177
tionally? There is pardon instead of punishment for him. Has a man devoted himself to what seemed for the general good, and without any fault or misconduct been in common with all disappointed of success? Such a one deserves not obloquy or reproach, but sympathy. These principles will not be found in our statutes only : Nature herself has defined them by her unwritten laws and the feelings of humanity. ^Eschines however has so far surpassed all men in brutality and malignity; that even things which he cited himself as mis fortunes he imputes to me as crimes.
And besides — as if he himself had spoken everything with candor and good will — he told you to watch me, and mind that I did not cajole and deceive you, calling me a great orator, a juggler, a sophist, and the like : as though, if a man says of another what applies to himself, it must be true, and the hearers are not to inquire who the person is that makes the charge. Certain am I, that you are all acquainted with my opponent's character, and believe these charges to be more applicable to him than to me. And of this I am sure, that my oratory — let it be so : though indeed I find that the speaker's power depends for the most part on the hearers ; for according to your recep tion and favor it is, that the wisdom of a speaker is esteemed — if I however possess any ability of this sort, you will find it has been exhibited always in public business on your behalf, never against you or on personal matters ; whereas that of -5£schines has been displayed not only in speaking for the enemy, but against all persons who ever offended or quarreled with him. It is not for justice or the good of the commonwealth that he employs it. A citizen of worth and honor should not call upon judges impaneled in the public service to gratify his anger or hatred or anything of that kind ; nor should he come before you upon such grounds. The best thing is not to have these feelings ; but, if it cannot be helped, they should be mitigated and restrained.
On what occasions ought an orator and statesman to be vehement ? Where any of the commonwealth's main interests are in jeopardy, and he is opposed to the adversaries of the people. Those are the occasions for a generous and brave citizen. But for a person who never sought to punish me for any offense either public or private, on the state's behalf or on his own, to have got up an accusation because I am crowned
and honored, and to have expended such a multitude of words VOL. IV. —12
178 DEMOSTHENES.
— this is a proof of personal enmity and spite and meanness, not of anything good. And then his leaving the controversy with me, and attacking the defendant, comprises everything that is base.
I should conclude, ^Eschines, that you undertook this cause to exhibit your eloquence and strength of lungs, not to obtain satisfaction for any wrong. But it is not the language of an orator, iEschines, that has any value, nor yet the tone of his voice, but his adopting the same views with the people, and his hating and loving the same persons that his country does. He that is thus minded will say everything with loyal inten tion : he that courts persons from whom the commonwealth apprehends danger to herself rides not on the same anchorage with the people, and therefore has not the same expectation of safety. But — do you see? — I have: for my objects are
separate or distinct. Is that so with you ? How can it be when immediately after the battle you went as ambassador to Philip, who was at that period the author of your country's calamities, notwithstanding that you had before persisted in refusing that office, as all men know ?
And who is it that deceives the state ? Surely the man who speaks not what he thinks. On whom does the crier pro nounce a curse ? Surely on such a man. What greater crime can an orator be charged with, than that his opinions and his language are not the same ? Such is found to be your char acter. And yet you open your mouth, and dare to look these men in the face ! Do you think they don't know you ? or are sunk all in such slumber and oblivion, as not to remem ber the speeches which you delivered in the assembly, cursing and swearing that you had nothing to do with Philip, and that I brought that charge against you out of personal enmity without foundation ? No sooner came the news of the battle, than you forgot all that ; you acknowledged and avowed that between Philip and yourself there subsisted a relation of hos pitality and friendship — new names these for your contract of hire. For upon what plea of equality or justice could . (Eschines, son of Glaucothea the timbrel player, be the friend or acquaintance of Philip ? I cannot see. No ! You were hired to ruin the interests of your countrymen : and yet, though you have been caught yourself in open treason, and informed against yourself after the fact, you revile and re
I have no interest the same with those of my countrymen ; —
DEMOSTHENES. 179
proach me for things which you will find any man is charge able with sooner than I.
Many great and glorious enterprises has the commonwealth, JEschines, undertaken and succeeded in through me ; and she did not forget them. Here is the proof : On the election of a person to speak the funeral oration immediately after the event, you were proposed, but the people would not have you, notwithstanding your fine voice, nor Demades, though he had just made the peace, nor Hegemon, nor any other of your party — but me. And when you and Pythocles came forward in a brutal and shameful manner (O merciful heaven ! ), and urged the same accusations against me which you now do, and abused me, they elected me all the more. The reason — you are not ignorant of it — yet I will tell you. The Athe nians knew as well the loyalty and zeal with which I conducted their affairs, as the dishonesty of you and your party ; for what you denied upon oath in our prosperity, you confessed in the misfortunes of the republic. They considered, there fore, that men who got security for their politics by the public disasters had been their enemies long before, and were then avowedly such. They thought it right also, that the person who was to speak in honor of the fallen and celebrate their valor should not have sat under the same roof or at the same table with their antagonists ; that he should not revel there and sing a paean over the calamities of Greece in company with their murderers, and then come here and receive dis tinction ; that he should not with his voice act the mourner of their fate, but that he should lament over them with his heart. This they perceived in themselves and in me, but not in any of you : therefore they elected me, and not you. Nor, while the people felt thus, did the fathers and brothers of the deceased, who were chosen by the people to perform their obsequies, feel differently. For having to order the funeral banquet (according to custom) at the house of the nearest relative to the deceased, they ordered it at mine. And with reason : because, though each to his own was nearer of kin than I was, none was so near to them all collectively. He that had the deepest interest in their safety and success had upon their mournful disaster the largest share of sorrow for them all.
Read him this epitaph, which the state chose to inscribe on their monument, that you may see even by this, -5Sschines, what a heartless and malignant wretch you are. Read.
180
DEMOSTHENES.
The Epitaph.
These are the patriot brave, who side by side
Stood to their arms, and dashed the foeman's pride : Firm in their valor, prodigal of life,
Hades they chose the arbiter of strife ;
That Greeks might ne'er to haughty victors bow,
Nor thraldom's yoke, nor dire oppression know ; They fought, they bled, and on their country's breast (Such was the doom of heaven) these warriors rest. Gods never lack success, nor strive in vain,
But man must suffer what the fates ordain.
Do you hear, jEschines, in this very inscription, that " Gods never lack success, nor strive in vain ? " Not to the states man does it ascribe the power of giving victory in battle, but to the Gods. Wherefore then, execrable man, do you reproach me with these things? Wherefore utter such language? I pray that it may fall upon the heads of you and yours.
Many other accusations and falsehoods he urged against me, O Athenians, but one thing surprised me more than all, that, when he mentioned the late misfortunes of the country, he felt not as became a well-disposed and upright citizen, he shed no tear, experienced no such emotion : with a loud voice exulting, and straining his throat, he imagined apparently that he was accusing me, while he was giving proof against himself, that our distresses touched him not in the same manner as the rest. A person who pretends, as he did, to care for the laws and constitution, ought at least to have this about him, that he grieves and rejoices for the same cause as the people, and not by his politics to be enlisted in the ranks of the enemy, as jEschines has plainly done, saying that I am the cause of all, and that the commonwealth has fallen into troubles through me, when it was not owing to my views or principles that you began to assist the Greeks ; for, if you conceded this to me, that my influence caused you to resist the subjugation of Greece, it would be a higher honor than any that you have bestowed upon others. I myself would not make such an assertion — it would be doing you injustice — nor would you allow it, I am sure ; and JEschines, if he acted honestly, would never, out of enmity to me, have disparaged and defamed the greatest of your glories.
But why do I censure him for this, when with calumny far
DEMOSTHENES. 181
more shocking has he assailed me ? He that charges me with Philippizing — O heaven and earth ! — what would he not say ? By Hercules and the Gods! if one had honestly to inquire, discarding all expression of spite and falsehood, who the per sons really are, on whom the blame of what has happened may by common consent fairly and justly be thrown, it would be found, they are persons in the various states like JEschines, not like me — persons who, while Philip's power was feeble and exceedingly small, and we were constantly warning and exhort ing and giving salutary counsel, sacrificed the general interests for the sake of selfish lucre, deceiving and corrupting their respective countrymen, until they made them slaves — Daochus, Cineas, Thrasylaus, the Thessalians ; Cercidas, Hieronymus, Eucampidas, the Arcadians ; Myrtis, Teledamus, Mnaseas, the
Euxitheus, Cleotimus, Aristaechmus, the Eleans; Neon and Thrasylochus, sons of the accursed Philiades, the Messenians ; Aristratus, Epichares, the Sicyonians ; Dinarchus, Demaratus, the Corinthians ; Ptoeodorus, Helixus, Perilaus, the Megarians ; Timolaus, Theogiton, Anemoetas, the Thebans ; Hipparchus, Clitarchus, Sosistratus, the Euboeans. The day will not last me to recount the names of the traitors. All these, O Athenians, are men of the same politics in their own countries as this party among you, — profligates, and parasites, and miscreants, who have each of them crippled their father lands ; toasted away their liberty, first to Philip and last to Alexander ; who measure happiness by their belly and all that is base, while freedom and independence, which the Greeks of olden time regarded as the test and standard of well-being, they have annihilated. —
Of this base and infamous conspiracy and profligacy rather, O Athenians, if I am to speak in earnest, of this betrayal of Grecian liberty — Athens is by all mankind acquitted, owing to my counsels ; and I am acquitted by you. Then do you ask me, JEschines, for what merit I claim to be honored ? I will tell you. Because, while all the statesmen in Greece, begin ning with yourself, have been corrupted formerly by Philip and now by Alexander, me neither opportunity, nor fair speeches, nor large promises, nor hope, nor fear, nor anything else could tempt or induce to betray aught that I considered just and beneficial to my country. Whatever I have advised my fellow- citizens, I have never advised like you men, leaning as in a balance to the side of profit : all my proceedings have been
Argives;
or
182 DEMOSTHENES.
those of a soul upright, honest, and incorrupt : intrusted with affairs of greater magnitude than any of my contemporaries, I have administered them all honestly and faithfully. Therefore do I claim to be honored.
As to this fortification, for which you ridiculed me, of the wall and fosse, I regard them as deserving of thanks and praise, and so they are ; but I place them nowhere near my acts of administration. Not with stones nor with bricks did I fortify Athens : nor is this the ministry on which I most pride myself. Would you view my fortifications aright, you will find arms, and states, and posts, and harbors, and galleys, and horses, and men for their defense. These are the bulwarks with which I protected Attica, as far as was possible by human wisdom ; with these I fortified our territory, not the circle of Piraeus or
I was not beaten by Philip in estimates or preparations ; far from it ; but the generals and forces of the allies were overcome by his fortune. Where are the proofs
the city. Nay, more :
of this ? They are plain and evident. Consider. —
What was the course becoming a loyal citizen a states
man serving his country with all possible forethought and zeal and fidelity? Should he not have covered Attica on the sea board with Euboea, on the midland frontier with Boeotia, on the Peloponnesian with the people of that confine ? Should he not have provided for the conveyance of corn along a friendly coast all the way to Piraeus? preserved certain places that belonged to us by sending off succors, and by advising and moving accordingly, — Proconnesus, Chersonesus, Tenedos ? brought others into alliance and confederacy with us, — By zantium, Abydus, Euboea? — cut off the principal resources of the enemy, and supplied what the commonwealth was deficient in ? All this has been accomplished by my decrees and meas ures ; and whoever will examine them without prejudice, men of Athens, will find they were rightly planned and faithfully executed ; that none of the proper seasons were lost or missed or thrown away by me, nothing which depended on one man's ability and prudence was neglected. But if the power of some deity or of fortune, or the worthlessness of commanders, or the wickedness of you that betrayed your countries, or all these things together, injured and eventually ruined our cause, of what is Demosthenes guilty? Had there in each of the Greek cities been one such man as I was in my station among you ; or rather, had Thessaly possessed one single man, and
DEMOSTHENES. 183
Arcadia one, of the same sentiments as myself, none of the Greeks either beyond or within Thermopylae would have suf fered their present calamities ; all would have been free and independent, living prosperously in their own countries with perfect safety and security, thankful to you and the rest of the Athenians for such manifold blessings through me.
To show you that I greatly understate my services for fear of giving offense, here — read me this — the list of auxiliaries procured by my decrees.
[The list of auxiliaries. ]
These and the like measures, JEschines, are what become an honorable citizen (by their success — O earth and heaven ! — we should have been the greatest of people incontestably, and deserved to be so : even under their failure the result is glory, and no one blames Athens or her policy : all condemn fortune that so ordered things) : but never will he desert the interests of the commonwealth, nor hire himself to her adver saries, and study the enemy's advantage instead of his coun try's; nor on a man who has courage to advise and propose measures worthy of the state, and resolution to persevere in them, will he cast an evil eye, and, if any one privately offends him, remember and treasure it up; no, nor keep himself in a criminal and treacherous retirement, as you so often do. There is indeed a retirement just and beneficial to the state, such as you, the bulk of my countrymen, innocently enjoy : that however is not the retirement of JEschines ; far from it. Withdrawing himself from public life when he pleases (and that is often), he watches for the moment when you are tired of a constant speaker, or when some reverse of fortune has befallen you, or anything untoward has happened (and many are the casualties of human life) : at such a crisis he springs up an orator, rising from his retreat like a wind ; in full voice, with words and phrases collected, he rolls them out audibly and breathlessly, to no advantage or good purpose whatsoever, but to the detriment of some or other of his fellow-citizens and to the general disgrace.
Yet from this labor and diligence, JEschines, if it proceeded from an honest heart, solicitous for your country's welfare, the fruits should have been rich and noble and profitable to all — alliances of states, supplies of money, conveniences of com merce, enactment of useful laws, opposition to our declared
184 DEMOSTHENES.
enemies. All such things were looked for in former times; and many opportunities did the past afford for a good man and
true to show himself ; during which time you are nowhere to be found, neither first, second, third, fourth, fifth, nor sixth — not in any rank at all — certainly on no service by which your country was exalted. For what alliance has come to the state by your procurement? 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.
Among all other people I find these principles in a manner defined and settled — Does a man willfully offend ? He is the object of wrath and punishment. Has a man erred uninten
DEMOSTHENES. 177
tionally? There is pardon instead of punishment for him. Has a man devoted himself to what seemed for the general good, and without any fault or misconduct been in common with all disappointed of success? Such a one deserves not obloquy or reproach, but sympathy. These principles will not be found in our statutes only : Nature herself has defined them by her unwritten laws and the feelings of humanity. ^Eschines however has so far surpassed all men in brutality and malignity; that even things which he cited himself as mis fortunes he imputes to me as crimes.
And besides — as if he himself had spoken everything with candor and good will — he told you to watch me, and mind that I did not cajole and deceive you, calling me a great orator, a juggler, a sophist, and the like : as though, if a man says of another what applies to himself, it must be true, and the hearers are not to inquire who the person is that makes the charge. Certain am I, that you are all acquainted with my opponent's character, and believe these charges to be more applicable to him than to me. And of this I am sure, that my oratory — let it be so : though indeed I find that the speaker's power depends for the most part on the hearers ; for according to your recep tion and favor it is, that the wisdom of a speaker is esteemed — if I however possess any ability of this sort, you will find it has been exhibited always in public business on your behalf, never against you or on personal matters ; whereas that of -5£schines has been displayed not only in speaking for the enemy, but against all persons who ever offended or quarreled with him. It is not for justice or the good of the commonwealth that he employs it. A citizen of worth and honor should not call upon judges impaneled in the public service to gratify his anger or hatred or anything of that kind ; nor should he come before you upon such grounds. The best thing is not to have these feelings ; but, if it cannot be helped, they should be mitigated and restrained.
On what occasions ought an orator and statesman to be vehement ? Where any of the commonwealth's main interests are in jeopardy, and he is opposed to the adversaries of the people. Those are the occasions for a generous and brave citizen. But for a person who never sought to punish me for any offense either public or private, on the state's behalf or on his own, to have got up an accusation because I am crowned
and honored, and to have expended such a multitude of words VOL. IV. —12
178 DEMOSTHENES.
— this is a proof of personal enmity and spite and meanness, not of anything good. And then his leaving the controversy with me, and attacking the defendant, comprises everything that is base.
I should conclude, ^Eschines, that you undertook this cause to exhibit your eloquence and strength of lungs, not to obtain satisfaction for any wrong. But it is not the language of an orator, iEschines, that has any value, nor yet the tone of his voice, but his adopting the same views with the people, and his hating and loving the same persons that his country does. He that is thus minded will say everything with loyal inten tion : he that courts persons from whom the commonwealth apprehends danger to herself rides not on the same anchorage with the people, and therefore has not the same expectation of safety. But — do you see? — I have: for my objects are
separate or distinct. Is that so with you ? How can it be when immediately after the battle you went as ambassador to Philip, who was at that period the author of your country's calamities, notwithstanding that you had before persisted in refusing that office, as all men know ?
And who is it that deceives the state ? Surely the man who speaks not what he thinks. On whom does the crier pro nounce a curse ? Surely on such a man. What greater crime can an orator be charged with, than that his opinions and his language are not the same ? Such is found to be your char acter. And yet you open your mouth, and dare to look these men in the face ! Do you think they don't know you ? or are sunk all in such slumber and oblivion, as not to remem ber the speeches which you delivered in the assembly, cursing and swearing that you had nothing to do with Philip, and that I brought that charge against you out of personal enmity without foundation ? No sooner came the news of the battle, than you forgot all that ; you acknowledged and avowed that between Philip and yourself there subsisted a relation of hos pitality and friendship — new names these for your contract of hire. For upon what plea of equality or justice could . (Eschines, son of Glaucothea the timbrel player, be the friend or acquaintance of Philip ? I cannot see. No ! You were hired to ruin the interests of your countrymen : and yet, though you have been caught yourself in open treason, and informed against yourself after the fact, you revile and re
I have no interest the same with those of my countrymen ; —
DEMOSTHENES. 179
proach me for things which you will find any man is charge able with sooner than I.
Many great and glorious enterprises has the commonwealth, JEschines, undertaken and succeeded in through me ; and she did not forget them. Here is the proof : On the election of a person to speak the funeral oration immediately after the event, you were proposed, but the people would not have you, notwithstanding your fine voice, nor Demades, though he had just made the peace, nor Hegemon, nor any other of your party — but me. And when you and Pythocles came forward in a brutal and shameful manner (O merciful heaven ! ), and urged the same accusations against me which you now do, and abused me, they elected me all the more. The reason — you are not ignorant of it — yet I will tell you. The Athe nians knew as well the loyalty and zeal with which I conducted their affairs, as the dishonesty of you and your party ; for what you denied upon oath in our prosperity, you confessed in the misfortunes of the republic. They considered, there fore, that men who got security for their politics by the public disasters had been their enemies long before, and were then avowedly such. They thought it right also, that the person who was to speak in honor of the fallen and celebrate their valor should not have sat under the same roof or at the same table with their antagonists ; that he should not revel there and sing a paean over the calamities of Greece in company with their murderers, and then come here and receive dis tinction ; that he should not with his voice act the mourner of their fate, but that he should lament over them with his heart. This they perceived in themselves and in me, but not in any of you : therefore they elected me, and not you. Nor, while the people felt thus, did the fathers and brothers of the deceased, who were chosen by the people to perform their obsequies, feel differently. For having to order the funeral banquet (according to custom) at the house of the nearest relative to the deceased, they ordered it at mine. And with reason : because, though each to his own was nearer of kin than I was, none was so near to them all collectively. He that had the deepest interest in their safety and success had upon their mournful disaster the largest share of sorrow for them all.
Read him this epitaph, which the state chose to inscribe on their monument, that you may see even by this, -5Sschines, what a heartless and malignant wretch you are. Read.
180
DEMOSTHENES.
The Epitaph.
These are the patriot brave, who side by side
Stood to their arms, and dashed the foeman's pride : Firm in their valor, prodigal of life,
Hades they chose the arbiter of strife ;
That Greeks might ne'er to haughty victors bow,
Nor thraldom's yoke, nor dire oppression know ; They fought, they bled, and on their country's breast (Such was the doom of heaven) these warriors rest. Gods never lack success, nor strive in vain,
But man must suffer what the fates ordain.
Do you hear, jEschines, in this very inscription, that " Gods never lack success, nor strive in vain ? " Not to the states man does it ascribe the power of giving victory in battle, but to the Gods. Wherefore then, execrable man, do you reproach me with these things? Wherefore utter such language? I pray that it may fall upon the heads of you and yours.
Many other accusations and falsehoods he urged against me, O Athenians, but one thing surprised me more than all, that, when he mentioned the late misfortunes of the country, he felt not as became a well-disposed and upright citizen, he shed no tear, experienced no such emotion : with a loud voice exulting, and straining his throat, he imagined apparently that he was accusing me, while he was giving proof against himself, that our distresses touched him not in the same manner as the rest. A person who pretends, as he did, to care for the laws and constitution, ought at least to have this about him, that he grieves and rejoices for the same cause as the people, and not by his politics to be enlisted in the ranks of the enemy, as jEschines has plainly done, saying that I am the cause of all, and that the commonwealth has fallen into troubles through me, when it was not owing to my views or principles that you began to assist the Greeks ; for, if you conceded this to me, that my influence caused you to resist the subjugation of Greece, it would be a higher honor than any that you have bestowed upon others. I myself would not make such an assertion — it would be doing you injustice — nor would you allow it, I am sure ; and JEschines, if he acted honestly, would never, out of enmity to me, have disparaged and defamed the greatest of your glories.
But why do I censure him for this, when with calumny far
DEMOSTHENES. 181
more shocking has he assailed me ? He that charges me with Philippizing — O heaven and earth ! — what would he not say ? By Hercules and the Gods! if one had honestly to inquire, discarding all expression of spite and falsehood, who the per sons really are, on whom the blame of what has happened may by common consent fairly and justly be thrown, it would be found, they are persons in the various states like JEschines, not like me — persons who, while Philip's power was feeble and exceedingly small, and we were constantly warning and exhort ing and giving salutary counsel, sacrificed the general interests for the sake of selfish lucre, deceiving and corrupting their respective countrymen, until they made them slaves — Daochus, Cineas, Thrasylaus, the Thessalians ; Cercidas, Hieronymus, Eucampidas, the Arcadians ; Myrtis, Teledamus, Mnaseas, the
Euxitheus, Cleotimus, Aristaechmus, the Eleans; Neon and Thrasylochus, sons of the accursed Philiades, the Messenians ; Aristratus, Epichares, the Sicyonians ; Dinarchus, Demaratus, the Corinthians ; Ptoeodorus, Helixus, Perilaus, the Megarians ; Timolaus, Theogiton, Anemoetas, the Thebans ; Hipparchus, Clitarchus, Sosistratus, the Euboeans. The day will not last me to recount the names of the traitors. All these, O Athenians, are men of the same politics in their own countries as this party among you, — profligates, and parasites, and miscreants, who have each of them crippled their father lands ; toasted away their liberty, first to Philip and last to Alexander ; who measure happiness by their belly and all that is base, while freedom and independence, which the Greeks of olden time regarded as the test and standard of well-being, they have annihilated. —
Of this base and infamous conspiracy and profligacy rather, O Athenians, if I am to speak in earnest, of this betrayal of Grecian liberty — Athens is by all mankind acquitted, owing to my counsels ; and I am acquitted by you. Then do you ask me, JEschines, for what merit I claim to be honored ? I will tell you. Because, while all the statesmen in Greece, begin ning with yourself, have been corrupted formerly by Philip and now by Alexander, me neither opportunity, nor fair speeches, nor large promises, nor hope, nor fear, nor anything else could tempt or induce to betray aught that I considered just and beneficial to my country. Whatever I have advised my fellow- citizens, I have never advised like you men, leaning as in a balance to the side of profit : all my proceedings have been
Argives;
or
182 DEMOSTHENES.
those of a soul upright, honest, and incorrupt : intrusted with affairs of greater magnitude than any of my contemporaries, I have administered them all honestly and faithfully. Therefore do I claim to be honored.
As to this fortification, for which you ridiculed me, of the wall and fosse, I regard them as deserving of thanks and praise, and so they are ; but I place them nowhere near my acts of administration. Not with stones nor with bricks did I fortify Athens : nor is this the ministry on which I most pride myself. Would you view my fortifications aright, you will find arms, and states, and posts, and harbors, and galleys, and horses, and men for their defense. These are the bulwarks with which I protected Attica, as far as was possible by human wisdom ; with these I fortified our territory, not the circle of Piraeus or
I was not beaten by Philip in estimates or preparations ; far from it ; but the generals and forces of the allies were overcome by his fortune. Where are the proofs
the city. Nay, more :
of this ? They are plain and evident. Consider. —
What was the course becoming a loyal citizen a states
man serving his country with all possible forethought and zeal and fidelity? Should he not have covered Attica on the sea board with Euboea, on the midland frontier with Boeotia, on the Peloponnesian with the people of that confine ? Should he not have provided for the conveyance of corn along a friendly coast all the way to Piraeus? preserved certain places that belonged to us by sending off succors, and by advising and moving accordingly, — Proconnesus, Chersonesus, Tenedos ? brought others into alliance and confederacy with us, — By zantium, Abydus, Euboea? — cut off the principal resources of the enemy, and supplied what the commonwealth was deficient in ? All this has been accomplished by my decrees and meas ures ; and whoever will examine them without prejudice, men of Athens, will find they were rightly planned and faithfully executed ; that none of the proper seasons were lost or missed or thrown away by me, nothing which depended on one man's ability and prudence was neglected. But if the power of some deity or of fortune, or the worthlessness of commanders, or the wickedness of you that betrayed your countries, or all these things together, injured and eventually ruined our cause, of what is Demosthenes guilty? Had there in each of the Greek cities been one such man as I was in my station among you ; or rather, had Thessaly possessed one single man, and
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Arcadia one, of the same sentiments as myself, none of the Greeks either beyond or within Thermopylae would have suf fered their present calamities ; all would have been free and independent, living prosperously in their own countries with perfect safety and security, thankful to you and the rest of the Athenians for such manifold blessings through me.
To show you that I greatly understate my services for fear of giving offense, here — read me this — the list of auxiliaries procured by my decrees.
[The list of auxiliaries. ]
These and the like measures, JEschines, are what become an honorable citizen (by their success — O earth and heaven ! — we should have been the greatest of people incontestably, and deserved to be so : even under their failure the result is glory, and no one blames Athens or her policy : all condemn fortune that so ordered things) : but never will he desert the interests of the commonwealth, nor hire himself to her adver saries, and study the enemy's advantage instead of his coun try's; nor on a man who has courage to advise and propose measures worthy of the state, and resolution to persevere in them, will he cast an evil eye, and, if any one privately offends him, remember and treasure it up; no, nor keep himself in a criminal and treacherous retirement, as you so often do. There is indeed a retirement just and beneficial to the state, such as you, the bulk of my countrymen, innocently enjoy : that however is not the retirement of JEschines ; far from it. Withdrawing himself from public life when he pleases (and that is often), he watches for the moment when you are tired of a constant speaker, or when some reverse of fortune has befallen you, or anything untoward has happened (and many are the casualties of human life) : at such a crisis he springs up an orator, rising from his retreat like a wind ; in full voice, with words and phrases collected, he rolls them out audibly and breathlessly, to no advantage or good purpose whatsoever, but to the detriment of some or other of his fellow-citizens and to the general disgrace.
Yet from this labor and diligence, JEschines, if it proceeded from an honest heart, solicitous for your country's welfare, the fruits should have been rich and noble and profitable to all — alliances of states, supplies of money, conveniences of com merce, enactment of useful laws, opposition to our declared
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enemies. All such things were looked for in former times; and many opportunities did the past afford for a good man and
true to show himself ; during which time you are nowhere to be found, neither first, second, third, fourth, fifth, nor sixth — not in any rank at all — certainly on no service by which your country was exalted. For what alliance has come to the state by your procurement? 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,
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^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
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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.
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" 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
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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.
