HYPERIDES was son of Glaucippus, and grandson of Dionysius, of the
borough of Colyttus. He had a son, who bare the same name with his
father Glaucippus, an orator, who wrote many orations, and begat a son
named Alphinous. At the same time with Lycurgus, he had been a scholar
of the philosopher Plato and of the orator Isocrates. In Athens his
concern in the commonwealth was at that time when Alexander accosted
Greece, whom he vigorously opposed in his demands made of the Athenians
for the generals as well as for galleys. He advised the people not to
discharge the garrison of Taenarum, and this he did for the sake of a
friend of his, Chares, who was commander of it. At first he used to
plead causes for a fee. He was suspected to have received part of
the money which Ephialtes brought out of Persia, and was chosen to
maintain a galley, and was sent to assist the Byzantines, when Philip
was besieging their city. Nevertheless, in the same year he took the
charge of defraying the expense of the solemn dances, whereas the rest
of the captains were exempt from all such public burdens for that year.
He obtained a decree for some honors to be paid to Demosthenes; and
when that decree was indicted at the instance of Diondas, as being
contrary to the laws, he, being called in question upon it, cleared
himself. He did not continue his friendship with Demosthenes, Lysicles,
and Lycurgus to the last; for, Lysicles and Lycurgus being dead, and
Demosthenes being accused of having received money of Harpalus, he,
among all the rest, was pitched upon, as the only person who was not
corrupted with bribery, to draw up his indictment, which he accordingly
did. Being once accused at the instance of Aristogiton of publishing
acts contrary to the laws after the battle of Chaeronea,—that all
foreign inhabitants of Athens should be accounted citizens, that
slaves should be made free, that all sacred things, children, and
women should be confined to the Piraeus,—he cleared himself of all and
was acquitted. And being blamed by some, who wondered how he could
be ignorant of the many laws that were directly repugnant to those
decrees, he answered, that the arms of the Macedonians darkened his
sight, and it was not he but the battle of Chaeronea that made that
decree. But Philip, being affrighted at somewhat, gave leave to carry
away their dead out of the field, which before he had denied to the
heralds from Lebadea.
After this, at the overthrow at Crannon, being demanded by Antipater,
and the people being resolved to deliver him up, he fled out of the
city with others who were under the same condemnation to Aegina;
where meeting with Demosthenes, he excused himself for the breach
of friendship between them. Going from thence, he was apprehended by
Archias, surnamed Phygadotheres, by country a Thurian, formerly a
player, but at that time in the service of Antipater; by this man, I
say, he was apprehended, even in the very temple of Neptune, though
he grasped the image of that God in his arms. He was brought before
Antipater, who was then at Corinth; where being put upon the rack, he
bit out his tongue, because he would not divulge the secrets of his
country, and so died, on the ninth day of October. Hermippus tells us
that, as he went into Macedonia, his tongue was cut out and his body
cast forth unburied; but Alphinous his cousin-german (or, according to
the opinion of others, his grandson, by his son Glaucippus) obtained
leave, by means of one Philopithes a physician, to take up his body,
which he burnt, and carried the ashes to Athens to his kinsfolk there,
contrary to the edicts both of the Athenians and Macedonians, which not
only banished them, but likewise forbade the burial of them anywhere
in their own country. Others say, that he was carried to Cleonae with
others, and there died, having his tongue cut out, as above; however,
his relations and friends took his bones, when his body was burned, and
buried them among his ancestors before the gate Hippades, as Heliodorus
gives us the relation in his Third Book of Monuments. His monument is
now altogether unknown and lost, being thrown down with age and long
standing.
He is said to have excelled all others in his way of delivering himself
in his orations to the people. And there are some who prefer him even
to Demosthenes himself. There are seventy-seven orations which bear his
name, of which only two and fifty are genuine and truly his. He was
much given to venery, insomuch that he turned his son out of doors, to
entertain that famous courtesan Myrrhina. In Piraeus he had another,
whose name was Aristagora; and at Eleusis, where part of his estate
lay, he kept another, one Philte a Theban, whom he ransomed for twenty
minas. His usual walk was in the fish-market. It is thought that he
was accused of impiety with one Phryne, a courtesan likewise, and so
was sought after to be apprehended, as he himself seems to intimate in
the beginning of an oration; and it is said, that when sentence was
just ready to be passed upon her, he produced her in court, opened
her clothes before, and discovered her naked breasts, which were so
very white, that for her beauty’s sake the judges acquitted her. He
at leisure times drew up several declamations against Demosthenes,
which were thus discovered: Hyperides being sick, Demosthenes came
one day to visit him, and caught him with a book in his hand written
against him; at which seeming somewhat displeased, Hyperides told him:
This book shall hurt no man that is my friend; but as a curb, it may
serve to restrain my enemy from offering me any injury. He obtained a
decree of some honors to be paid to Iolas, who gave the poisoned cup
to Alexander. He joined with Leosthenes in the Lamian war, and made an
admirable oration at the funerals of those who lost their lives therein.
When Philip was prepared to embark for Euboea, and the Athenians heard
the news of it with no little consternation, Hyperides in a very short
time, by the voluntary contributions of the citizens, fitted out
forty sail, and was the first that set an example, by sending out two
galleys, one for himself and another for his son, at his own charge.
When there was a controversy between the Delians and the Athenians,
who should have the pre-eminence in the temple at Delos; Aeschines
being chosen on the behalf of the Athenians for their advocate, the
Areopagites refused to ratify the choice and elected Hyperides; and his
oration is yet extant, and bears the name of the Deliac oration.[26]
He likewise went ambassador to Rhodes; where meeting other ambassadors
from Antipater, who commended their master very highly for his goodness
and virtue. We know, replied he, that Antipater is good, but we have no
need of a good master at present.
It is said of him, that he never affected much action in his orations
to the people, his chief aim being to lay down the matter plainly, and
make the case as obvious to the judges as he could.
He was sent likewise to the Eleans, to plead the cause of Callippus
the fencer, who was accused of carrying away the prize at the public
games unfairly; in which cause he got the better. But when he opposed
the sentence of paying honors to Phocion, obtained by Midias the son of
Midias the Anagyrasian, he was in that cause overthrown. This cause was
pleaded on the twenty-fourth day of May, in the year when Xenius was
magistrate.