Professor R. C. Jebe says of Aeschines, the rival of Demosthenes for
supremacy at Athens, that when the Rhodians asked him to teach them
oratory, he replied that he did not know it himself. He took pride
in being looked upon as a representative of natural oratorical
genius who had had little help from the traditions of the schools.
"If, however, Aeschines was no rhetorical artist," writes Doctor
Jebb, "he brought to public speaking the twofold training of the
actor and the scribe. He had a magnificent voice under perfect
musical control. 'He compares me to the sirens,' says Aeschines of
his rival."
First known as an actor, playing "tritagonist" in the tragedies of
Sophocles and the other great Athenian dramatists, Aeschines was
afterwards clerk to one of the minor officials at Athens; then
secretary to Aristophon and Eubulos, well-known public men, and
later still secretary of the _ekklesia_ or assembly.
The greatest event of his life was his contest with Demosthenes 'De
Corona' (Over the Crown). When Ktesiphon proposed that Athens should
bestow a wreath of gold on Demosthenes for his public services,
Aechines, after the bill proposing it had come before the assembly,
challenged it and gave notice of his intention to proceed against
Ktesiphon for proposing an unconstitutional measure. One of the
allegations in support of its unconstitutionally was that "to record
a bill describing Demosthenes as a public benefactor was to deposit
a lying document among the public archives." The issues were thus
joined between Aeschines and Demosthenes for one of the most
celebrated forensic contests in history. Losing the case Aeschines
went into banishment. He died at Samos, B.C. 314, in his
seventy-fifth year. He is generally ranked next to Demosthenes among
Greek orators. For the following from the oration of Aeschines, the
reader is under obligations to Professor Jebb's admirable translation.