[The literal translation of the title is 'On the misconduct as
ambassador'.]
§ 1. _drawing your lots_. The jurors who were to serve in each trial
were selected by lot out of the total number of jurors for the year.
§ 2. _one of those_: i.e. Timarchus (see Introd.).
_supremacy_. The sovereignty of the people was exercised to a great
extent through the law-courts, the jury being always large enough to be
fairly representative of popular opinion, though probably there was
generally a rather disproportionate preponderance of poorer men among
the jurors, the payment being insufficient to attract others. (See
Introduction, vol. i, pp. 18, 19, 23.)
§ 11. _the Ten Thousand_: the General Assembly of the Arcadians at
Megalopolis.
§ 13. _he came to me_, &c. Aeschines denies this, saying that it would
have been absurd, when he knew that Demosthenes and Philocrates had
acted together throughout (see Introd.).
§ 16. _in the very presence_, &c.: contrast Speech on the Crown,
§ 23 (and see n. there). Aeschines states that he was in fact replying
to inflammatory speeches made by orators who pointed to the Propylaea,
and appealed to the memory of ancestral exploits; and that he simply
urged that it was possible for the Athenians to copy the wisdom of
their forefathers without giving way to an unseasonable passion for
strife.
§ 17. _had again acted_: i.e. as on the First Embassy, if the reading
is correct (or perhaps, 'had committed a fresh series of wrongful
acts'). But possibly [Greek: _peprhakot_on_] is right, 'had sold fresh
concessions' to Philip.
§ 20. Aeschines replies that every one expected Philip to turn against
Thebes; and that for the rest, he was only reporting the gossip of the
Macedonian camp, where the representatives of many states were gathered
together, and not making promises at all. It is noteworthy, however,
that in the Speech on the Peace, § 10, shortly after the events in
question, when the speeches made would be fresh in every one's memory,
Demosthenes gives the same account of his opponent's assertions; and
Aeschines probably said something very like what is attributed to him.
§ 21. _debt due to the god_: i.e. the value of the Temple-treasure of
Delphi, which the Phocians had plundered.
§ 30. _for however contemptible_, &c. The argument seems to be this.
'You must not say that a man like Aeschines could not have brought
about such vast results. Athens may employ inferior men, but any one
who represents Athens has to deal with great affairs, and so his acts
may have great consequences. And again, although it may have been
Philip who actually ruined the Phocians, and although Aeschines could
never have done it alone, still he did his best to help.'
§ 31. _the Town Hall_, or Prytaneum, where the Prytanes (the acting
Committee of the Council) met, and other magistrates had their offices.
_Timagoras_ was accused (according to Xenophon) by his colleague Leon
of having conspired with Pelopidas of Thebes against the interests of
Athens, when on a mission to the court of Artaxerxes in 357. In § 137
Demosthenes also states that he received large sums of money from
Artaxerxes.
§ 36. Aeschines denies that he wrote the letter for Philip, and his
denial is fairly convincing.
§ 40. _a talent_. According to Aristotle (_Eth. Nic_. v. 7) the
conventional amount payable as ransom was one mina per head. But from §
169 it appears that the Macedonians sometimes asked for more than this.
_laudable ambition_: i.e. to get credit for having thought of the
ransom of the prisoners.
§ 47. _handed in_: either to the Clerk or to the Proedroi (the
committee of Chairmen of the Assembly).
§ 51. Aeschines states that Philip's invitation was declined because it
was suggested that Philip would keep the soldiers sent as hostages.
§ 65. _on our way to Delphi_. Demosthenes had been one of the Athenian
representatives at the meeting of the Amphictyonic Council at Delphi
this year.
_gave its vote_, &c. After the battle of Aegospotami at the end of the
Peloponnesian War, the representative of Thebes proposed to the
Spartans and their allies that Athens should be destroyed and its
inhabitants sold into slavery.
§ 70. _read this law over_: i.e. that the herald might proclaim it
after him.
§ 72. For the Spartans see § 76. The Phocians had treated the Athenians
badly when Proxenus was sent to Thermopylae (see Introd. to Speech on
Peace). Hegesippus may have opposed the acceptance of Philip's
invitation to the Athenians to join him. Aeschines (on the Embassy, §§
137, 138) mentions no names in connexion with the refusal, but
represents it as the sacrifice of a unique opportunity of saving the
Phocians (cf. § 51 n.).
§ 76. _deceit and cunning, and of nothing else_ ([Greek: _pasa
apat_e_]). The argument is, 'Aeschines will try to allege wrongful acts
on the part of the Phocians; but there was no time for such acts in the
five days; and this proves that there were no such acts to justify
their ruin, and that their overthrow was due to nothing but trickery.'
This is better than to translate '_every kind of_ deceit and trickery
was concocted for the ruin of the Phocians'; for this is not the point,
nor is it what would be inferred from the fact that there was only a
five-days' interval between the speech of Aeschines and the
capitulation of the Phocians. There is no need to emend to [Greek: _h_e
pasa apat_e_].
_on account of the Peace_: i.e. of the negotiations for the Peace,
before it was finally arranged.
_all that they wished_: viz. the restoration of the Temple of Delphi to
their kinsmen, the Dorians of Mount Parnassus.
§ 78. _four whole months_: in reality, three months and a few days.
§ 81. _Phocian people_: i.e. those who were left in Phocis, as distinct
from the exiles just referred to.
§ 86. _of Diophantus_. In 352, when Philip had been repulsed by
Onomarchus, Diophantus proposed that public thanksgivings should be
held (see Introd. to First Philippic).
_of Callisthenes_: in 346, after the Phocians had surrendered to Philip.
_the sacrifice to Heracles_: perhaps one of the two festivals which
were respectively held at Marathon and at Cynosarges.
§ 99. _constitutional_: lit. 'an excuse for a citizen,' under a
constitution by which no one was compelled to enter public life, and
any one who did so without the requisite capacity had to take the
responsibility for his errors.
§ 103. _impeached_. An impeachment was brought before the Council (or,
more rarely, the Assembly). The procedure was only applied to cases of
extraordinary gravity, and particularly to what would now be called
cases of treason.
§ 114. _by torture_. The evidence of slaves might be given under
torture, in response to a challenge from one or other of the parties to
a suit. The most diverse opinions as to the value of such evidence are
expressed by the orators, according to the requirements of their case.
The consent of both sides was necessary; and in a very large number of
cases, one side or the other appears to have refused to allow evidence
to be taken in this way.
_was going_: i.e. to Philip.
§ 118. _accept his discharge_. There seems to be a play on two senses
of the verb [Greek: aphienai], viz. 'to discharge from the obligations
of a contract', and 'to acquit'.
§ 120. _Why, this is the finest_, &c. The expression ([Greek: touto gar
esti to lamprhon]) recurs in § 279, a closely parallel passage, and
need not be regarded as an interpolation in either case. The
interpretation given seems slightly preferable, and is approved by
Weil. It is almost equally possible to translate the Greek by 'such is
the brilliant defence which he offers'; but perhaps this does not suit
§ 279 so well.
_stand up_. Apparently Aeschines declined the invitation, which was
quite within the custom of the Athenian courts. Either of the principal
parties could ask the other questions, and have the answers taken down
as evidence.
_cases that have all_, &c. The reference is to the prosecution of
Timarchus, when advanced in age, for offences committed in early youth.
There may also be an allusion to Aeschines' early career as an actor.
§ 122. _declined on oath_. An elected official could refuse to serve,
if he took an oath that there was some good reason (such as illness)
for excusing him.
§ 126. _though not elected_. Aeschines (on the Embassy, § 94) replies
that in fact the commission was renewed at a second meeting of the
Assembly, and that he was then well enough to go and was elected. (That
there was a second election of ambassadors is confirmed by Demosthenes'
own statement in § 172 of the present speech, that he himself was twice
elected and twice refused to serve.)
§ 128. _Thesmothetae_: the six archons who did not hold the special
offices of archon eponymus, polemarch, or king archon.
_Aeschines went_, &c. To have refused to be present would really have
been to make a political demonstration against Thebes, which would have
had perilous results. Aeschines defends himself on the ground that in
his view the Peace was no disadvantage to Athens, so that he might well
join in the honours paid to the Gods.
§ 129. _Metroon_. The temple of the Great Mother (Cybele), which was
the Athenian record-office.
_the name of Aeschines_: i.e. its removal from the list of ambassadors.
§ 131. _in their interest_. If the words are not corrupt, the meaning
is probably 'in the interest of Philip and the Thebans'; or possibly,
'in reference to these matters.'
§ 136. _as his informant_. The text is possibly corrupt, though as it
stands it might perhaps bear the meaning given, if [Greek: hyparchei]
were understood with [Greek: autos]. Others (with or without
emendation) take the sense to be 'to manage his business ... just as he
would manage it in person '.
§ 137. For Timagoras see § 31 n.
§ 144. _summon Philip's envoys_: i.e. in order to report the decision
of the Assembly, and so close the matter.
§ 147. _ask him whether_, &c. The argument seems to be this 'if
Aeschines was the ambassador of a city which had been victorious
against Philip, the latter would naturally wish to buy easy terms of
peace; and Aeschines might undertake to procure such terms, without
committing a particularly heinous offence, since he would only be
getting some advantage for himself out of the general good fortune of
his country. But to secure advantages for himself at his country's
expense, when his country was already suffering disaster, would be far
worse. And as Aeschines complains that the generals had incurred
disaster, he convicts himself of the worse offence.'
§ 148. The _Tilphossaeum_ was apparently a mountain near Lake Copais in
Boeotia. The town which Strabo calls Tilphusium may have been on the
mountain. Neones, or Neon, was a Phocian village; Hedyleion, a mountain
in Boeotia.
§ 149. _Ah! he will say_, &c. Either the words are interpolated, or
there is a lacuna. The objection is nowhere refuted.
§ 156. Doriscus, &c. The places mentioned did not really belong to
Athens, but to Cersobleptes, who was being assisted by Athenian troops,
so that, strictly speaking, Philip was within his rights; and in fact
(according to Aeschines), Cersobleptes and the Sacred Mountain were
taken by Philip the day before the Athenians and their allies swore to
the Peace at Athens.
§ 162. _Eucleides_ had been sent to protest against Philip's attack
upon Cersobleptes in 346 (see vol. i, p. 122). Philip replied that he
had not yet been officially informed by the Athenian ambassadors of the
conclusion of the Peace, and was therefore not yet bound by it.
§ 166. _procure their ransom_: i.e. from the various Macedonians who
had captured them, or to whom they had been given or sold.
§ 176. _committed to writing_, &c. Formal evidence (as distinct from
the mere assertions of a speaker) was written down, and the witness was
asked to swear to it. A witness who was called upon might swear that he
had no knowledge of the matter in question ([Greek: _exomnysthai_]). By
writing down his evidence and swearing to it, Demosthenes took the risk
of prosecution for perjury.
§ 180. _might be proved in countless ways_: or 'would need a speech of
infinite length '. But as [Greek: _kai_] and not [Greek: _de_] follows,
I slightly prefer the former rendering. (The latter is supported by the
Third Philippic, § 60, but there the next clause is connected by
[Greek: _de_].)
_Ergophilus_ was heavily fined in 362 (see Speech against Aristocrates,
§ 104); Cephisodotus in 358 (ibid. § 167, and Aeschines against
Ctesiphon, § 52); Timomachus went into exile in 360 to escape
condemnation (against Aristocrates, § 115, &c.). Ergocles was perhaps
the friend of Thrasybulas (see Lysias, Orations xxviii, xxix), and may
have been condemned for his conduct in Thrace, as well as for
malversation at Halicarnassus. Dionysius is unknown.
§ 187. _has got beyond_, &c.: an ironical way of saying that he has so
much overdone his application to himself of the title of (prospective)
'benefactor' of Athens, that another word (e.g. 'deceiver') would be
more appropriate. The word [Greek: _psychrhon_] is (at least by Greek
literary critics) applied to strong expressions out of place, and here
also, probably, of an exaggerated phrase which falls flat. This is
perhaps the best interpretation of a very difficult passage.
§ 191. For Timagoras, see § 31 n. Tharrex and Smicythus are unknown.
Adeimantus was one of the generals at Aegospotami, the only Athenian
prisoner spared by Lysander, and on that account suspected of treason
by the Athenians, and prosecuted by Conon (called 'the elder', to
distinguish him from his grandson, who was a contemporary of
Demosthenes).
§ 194. guest-friend. The term ([Greek: xenos]) was applied to the
relationship (more formal than that of simple friendship) between
citizens of different states, who were bound together by ties of
hospitality and mutual goodwill.
§ 196. _the Thirty_: i.e. the 'Thirty Tyrants' who ruled Athens (with
the support of Sparta) for a few months in 403. See n. on § 277.
§ 198. Aeschines warmly denies this story. He says that Demosthenes
tried to bribe Aristophanes of Olynthus to swear that it was true, and
that the woman was his own wife. He adds that the jury, on an appeal
from Eubulus, refused to let Demosthenes complete the story.
§ 199. _initiations_: see Speech on Crown, §§ 259 ff., with notes.
§ 200. _played the rogue_. The scholiast says that clerks were
sometimes bribed to alter the laws and decrees which they read to the
Court; and a magistrates' clerk had doubtless plenty of opportunities
for conniving at petty frauds.
§ 204. _should not have been sworn to_. This is out of chronological
order as it stands, and emendations have been proposed, but
unnecessarily.
§ 209. _would not have him for your representative_: in the question
about Athenian rights at Delos. See Introduction to the Speech.
§ 213. _I have no further time, &c_.: lit. 'no one will pour water for
me' into the water-clock, by which all trials were regulated.
§ 221. _consider_, &c. There is an anacoluthon in the Greek, which may
be literally translated, 'Consider, if, where I who am absolutely
guiltless was afraid of being ruined by them--what ought these men
themselves, the actual criminals, to suffer?'
§ 222. _get money out of you_: i.e. to be bought off.
§ 230. _choregus and trierarch_: see Introd. to Speech on Naval Boards,
and n. on Philippic I. § 36.
§ 231. _all was well_ ([Greek: eupenespai]). The reading is almost
certainly wrong. Weil rightly demands some word contrasting with
[Greek: agnoein] ('did not understand his country') in the
corresponding clause.
§ 237. _vase-cases_: i.e. boxes to contain bottles of oil or perfume
for toilet use.
§ 245. _the cock-pit_. That this is the meaning seems to be proved by
the words of Aeschines (against Timarchus, § 53); otherwise the natural
translation would be 'to the bird-market'. Cocks were no doubt sold in
the bird-market; but Aeschines refers directly to cock-fighting, not to
the purchase of the birds.
§ 246. _hack-writers_: lit. 'speech-writers,' who composed speeches for
litigants, and no doubt padded them out with quotations from poets, as
well as with rhetorical commonplaces. Demosthenes taunts Aeschines
particularly with ransacking unfamiliar plays, instead of those he knew
well.
§ 249. _reared up... greatness_: or possibly, 'reared up all these sons
of hers.'
_Hero-Physician_. See Speech on the Crown, § 129 n.
_Round Chamber_, in the Prytaneum or Town Hall (see § 31 n.).
§ 252. _at the risk of his own life_. He tried to avoid the risk by
feigning madness. Salamis was in the hands of the Megareans, and the
Athenians had become so weary of their unsuccessful attempts to recover
it, that they decreed the penalty of death upon any one who proposed to
make a fresh attempt. The verses, however, which are quoted in the
text, are probably derived not from the poem which Solon composed for
this purpose, but from another of his political poems.
§ 255. _with a cap on your head_. Plutarch (Solon 82 c) says that
'Solon burst into the market-place suddenly, with a cap on his head'.
The cap was intended to suggest that he had just returned from Salamis,
since it was the custom to wear a cap only when on a journey, or in
case of illness (of. Plato, _Republic_, iii. 406_d_). There may
possibly be an allusion also to Aeschines' own alleged sickness (§ 136
above), but this is very doubtful. The words more probably mean,
'however closely you copy Solon' (as you copied his attitude in
speaking), 'when you run about declaiming against me.'
§ 257. _accepted the challenge_. At the examination before the Board of
Auditors (Logistae) the question was almost certainly put, whether any
one present wished to challenge the report of the ambassador under
examination.
§ 259. _claim_ ([Greek: axioumenoi]): or, 'are thought worthy'; but the
first sense is much better in the parallel passage in § 295, and this
'middle' use seems to be sufficiently attested, though the active voice
is used in the same sense in § 338.
§ 260. _paramount position_: i.e. among the tribes of North Greece
(Magnetes, Perrhaebi, &c.).
§ 264. _concluded the war, &c_. In 383 B.C. In fact, however, they only
obtained peace by joining the Spartan alliance.
§ 271. _Arthmius_: see Philippic III. § 42 (and note).
§ 273. _Callias_, in 444 B.C. Cf. Speech for the Rhodians, § 29. The
Chelidonian Islands lay off the south coast of Lycia, the Cyanean rocks
at the northern mouth of the Bosporus.
§ 277. _Epicrates_ was sent as ambassador to Persia early in the fourth
century, and received large presents. According to Plutarch he escaped
condemnation; but he may have been tried more than once. The comic
poets make fun of his long beard.
_who brought the people back from the Peiraeus_. Thrasybulus occupied
the Peiraeus in 403, secured the expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants from
Athens, and restored the democracy.
§ 278. _the decree_: i.e. the decree by which Epicrates and his
colleagues were condemned.
§ 279. _for this is the splendid thing_: cf. § 120 n.
§ 280. _exiled_ and _punished_. We should perhaps (with Weil) read
[Greek: _e] ('or') for [Greek: kai] ('and').
_descendant of Harmodius_: i.e. Proxenus, who had been only recently
condemned, and is therefore not named.
§ 281. _another priestess_. According to the scholiast, the reference
is to Ninus, a priestess of Sabazios, who was prosecuted by Menecles
for making love-potions for young men. The connexion of this offence
with the meetings of the initiated is left to be understood.
§ 282. _the burden undertaken_. Such burdens as the duties of choregus,
trierarch, &c., might be voluntarily undertaken, as they were by
Demosthenes (see n. on Philippic I. § 36).
§ 287. _Cyrebion_, or 'Light-as-Chaff', was the nickname of Epicrates,
Aeschines' brother-in-law (not the Epicrates of § 277). _as a
reveller_, no doubt in some Dionysiac revel, in which it was not
considered decent to take part without a mask. (The original purpose of
masks, however, was not to conceal one's identity from motives of
shame, though Demosthenes suggests it as a motive here.)
_were water flowing upstream_. A half-proverbial expression implying
that the world was being turned upside-down, when such a person could
prosecute for such offences.
§ 290. _Hegesilaus_ was one of the generals sent to Euboea to help
Plutarchus; cf. Speech on the Peace, § 5 n. He was accused of abetting
Plutarchus in the deception which he practised upon Athens. For
Thrasybulus, cf. § 277.
_the primary question_: i.e. of the guilt or innocence of the
defendant. If he was pronounced guilty, the question of sentence (or
damages) had to be argued and decided separately.
§ 295. _claim to be_: cf. n. on § 259.
_churning the butter_ ([Greek: etyrheue]): i.e. concocting the plot.
(For the metaphor cf. Aristophanes, _Knights_ 479.)
§ 299. _Zeus and Dione_. These names show that the oracles referred to
were probably given at Dodona.
§ 303. _oath of the young soldiers_. When the young Athenian came of
age, he received a shield and spear in the temple of Aglaurus, and
swore to defend his country and to uphold its constitution (cf.
Lycurgus, _Against Leocrates_, § 76).
§ 314. _keeping step with Pythocles_, who was a tall man, while
Aeschines was short.
§ 326. _Drymus and Panactum_ were on the border between Boeotia and
Attica. Nothing else is known of the expedition.
§ 332. _Chares_. See nn. on Philippic I. §§ 24, 46; Olynthiac II. § 28,
and Introductions.
§ 333. _of one of whom_, &c.: i.e. of Philip (see § 111 ff., and
Introd. to Speech on the Peace).
§ 342. _Euthycrates_. See Introd. to Olynthiacs.