DEMOCHARES, the son of Laches of Leuconoe, requires that a statue
of brass be set up for Demosthenes, the son of Demosthenes the
Paeanian, in the market-place, as likewise that provision of diet
be made in the Prytaneum for himself and the eldest of his progeny
successively, and the chief seat in all public shows; for that he had
done many good offices for the Athenians, had on most occasions been
a good counsellor, and had spent his patrimony in the commonwealth;
had expended eight talents for the fitting out and maintenance of
one galley, when they delivered Euboea, another, when Cephisodorus
sailed into the Hellespont, and a third, when Chares and Phocion were
commissioned by the people to go captains to Byzantium; that he at his
own charge had redeemed many who had been taken prisoners by Philip at
Pydna, Methone, and Olynthus; that himself had maintained a choir of
men, when no provision had been made therefor through the neglect of
the tribe Pandionis; that he had furnished many indigent citizens with
arms; that being chosen by the people to oversee the city works, he
had laid out three talents of his own stock towards the repairing of
the walls, besides all that he gave for making two trenches about the
Piraeus; that after the battle of Chaeronea he deposited one talent
for the use of the public, and after that, another to buy corn in time
of scarcity and want; that by his beneficence, wholesome counsels and
effectual persuasions, he allured the Thebans, Euboeans, Corinthians,
Megarians, Achaeans, Locrians, Byzantines, and Messenians to a league
with the Athenians; that he raised an army of ten thousand foot and a
thousand horse, and contracted plenty to the people and their allies;
that being ambassador, he had persuaded the allies to the contribution
of above five hundred talents; that in the same quality, by his
influence and the free gift of money, he obtained of the Peloponnesians
that they should not send aid to Alexander against the Thebans; and
in consideration of many other good offices performed by him, either
as to his counsels, or his personal administration of affairs in the
commonwealth, in which, and in defending the rights and liberties of
the people, no man in his time had done more or deserved better; and
in regard of his sufferings when the commonwealth was ruined, being
banished by the insolence of the oligarchy, and at last dying at
Calauria for his good-will to the public, there being soldiers sent
from Antipater to apprehend him; and that notwithstanding his being in
the hands of his enemies, in so great and imminent danger, his hearty
affection to his countrymen was still the same, insomuch that he never
to the last offered any unworthy thing to the injury of his people.