Whoever it was, Sosius, that wrote the poem in honor of Alcibiades,
upon his winning the chariot-race at the Olympian Games, whether it was
Euripedes, as is most commonly thought, or some other person he tells
us, that to a man's being happy it is pre-eminently requisite that he
should be born in "some famous city."
But if anybody undertakes to write a history, that has to be collected
from materials gathered by observation and the reading of works not easy
to be got in all places, nor written always in his own language, but
many of them foreign and dispersed in other hands, for him, undoubtedly,
it is above all things most necessary, to reside in some city of good
note, devoted to liberal arts, and populous; where he may have plenty of
all sorts of books, and upon inquiry may hear and inform himself of such
particulars as, having escaped the pens of writers, are more faithfully
preserved in the memories of men.
But for me, I live in a little town, where I am willing to continue,
lest it should grow less; and having had no leisure, while I was in Rome
and other parts of Italy, to practice myself in the Roman language, on
account of public business and of those who came to be instructed by me
in philosophy, it was very late, and in the decline of my age, before
I applied myself to the reading of Latin authors. But to appreciate the
graceful and ready pronunciation of the Roman tongue, to understand the
various figures and connection of words, and such other ornaments, in
which the beauty of speaking consists, is, I doubt not, an admirable
and delightful accomplishment; but it requires a degree of practice
and study which is not easy, and will better suit those who have more
leisure, and time enough yet before them for the occupation.
And so in this book of my Parallel Lives, in giving an account of
Demosthenes and Cicero, my comparison of their natural dispositions and
their characters will be formed upon their actions and their lives
as statesmen, and I shall not pretend to criticise their orations one
against the other, to show which of the two was the more charming or the
more powerful speaker. For there, as Ion says,
We are but like a fish upon dry land.
The divine power seems originally to have designed Demosthenes and
Cicero upon the same plan, giving them many similarities in their
natural characters, as their passion for distinction and their love of
liberty in civil life, and their want of courage in dangers and war,
and at the same time also to have added many accidental resemblances. I
think there can hardly be found two other orators, who, from small and
obscure beginnings, became so great and mighty; who both contested with
kings and tyrants; both lost their daughters, were driven out of their
country, and returned with honor; who, flying from thence again, were
both seized upon by their enemies, and at last ended their lives with
the liberty of their countrymen. So that if we were to suppose that
there had been a trial of skill between nature and fortune, as there
is sometimes between artists, it would be hard to judge, whether that
succeeded best in making them alike in their dispositions and manners,
or this, in the coincidences of their lives. We will speak of the eldest
first.
Demosthenes, the father of Demosthenes, was a citizen of good rank and
quality, as Theopompus informs us, surnamed the Sword-maker, because he
had a large workhouse, and kept servants skilful in that art at work.
Demosthenes, when only seven years old, was left by his father in
affluent circumstances, the whole value of his estate being little
short of fifteen talents, but was wronged by his guardians, part of his
fortune being embezzled by them, and the rest neglected; insomuch that
even his teachers were defrauded of their salaries. This was the reason
that he did not obtain the liberal education that he should have had;
besides that on account of weakness and delicate health, his mother
would not let him exert himself, and his teachers forebore to urge him.
He was meagre and sickly from the first, and hence had the nickname
of Batalus, given him, it is said, by the boys, in derision of his
appearance; Batalus being a certain enervated flute-player, in ridicule
of whom Antiphanes wrote a play.
The first occasion of his eager inclination to oratory, they say, was
this. Callistratus, the orator, was to plead in open court for Oropus,
and the expectation of the issue of that cause was very great, as
well for the ability of the orator, who was then at the height of
his reputation, as also for the fame of the action itself. Therefore,
Demosthenes, having heard the tutors and schoolmasters agreeing among
themselves to be present at this trial, with much importunity persuades
his tutor to take him along with him to the hearing; who, having some
acquaintance with the doorkeepers, procured a place where the boy might
sit unseen, and hear what was said. Callistratus having got the day, and
being much admired, the boy began to look upon his glory with emulation,
observing how he was courted on all hands, and attended on his way by
the multitude; but his wonder was more than all excited by the power of
his eloquence, which seemed able to subdue and win over any thing. From
this time, therefore, bidding farewell to other sorts of learning
and study, he now began to exercise himself, and to take pains in
declaiming, as one that meant to be himself also an orator. He made use
of Isaeus as his guide to the art of speaking, though Isocrates at that
time was giving lessons; whether, as some say, because he was an orphan,
and was not able to pay Isocrates his appointed fee of ten minae, or
because he preferred Isaeus's speaking, as being more business-like and
effective in actual use.
As soon, therefore, as he was grown up to man's estate, he began to go
to law with his guardians, and to write orations against them; who,
in the meantime, had recourse to various subterfuges and pleas for new
trials, and Demosthenes, though he was thus, as Thucydides says, taught
his business in dangers, and by his own exertions was successful in his
suit, was yet unable for all this to recover so much as a small
fraction of his patrimony. He only attained some degree of confidence in
speaking, and some competent experience in it. And having got a taste of
the honor and power which are acquired by pleadings, he now ventured
to come forth, and to undertake public business. And, as it is said of
Laomedon, the Orchomenian, that by advice of his physician, he used to
run long distances to keep off some disease of his spleen, and by that
means having, through labor and exercise, framed the habit of his body,
he betook himself to the great garland games, and became one of the
best runners at the long race; so it happened to Demosthenes, who, first
venturing upon oratory for the recovery of his own private property, by
this acquired ability in speaking, and at length, in public business,
as it were in the great games, came to have the pre-eminence of all
competitors in the assembly. But when he first addressed himself to
the people, he met with great discouragements, and was derided for his
strange and uncouth style, which was cumbered with long sentences and
tortured with formal arguments to a most harsh and disagreeable excess.
Besides, he had, it seems, a weakness in his voice, a perplexed and
indistinct utterance and a shortness of breath, which, by breaking and
disjointing his sentences, much obscured the sense and meaning of what
he spoke. So that in the end, being quite disheartened, he foresook
the assembly; and as he was walking carelessly and sauntering about
the Piraeus, Eunomus, the Thriasian, then a very old man, seeing him,
upbraided him, saying that his diction was very much like that of
Pericles, and that he was wanting to himself through cowardice and
meanness of spirit, neither bearing up with courage against popular
outcry, nor fitting his body for action, but suffering it to languish
through mere sloth and negligence.
Another time, when the assembly had refused to hear him, and he was
going home with his head muffled up, taking it very heavily, they
relate that Satyrus, the actor followed him, and being his familiar
acquaintance, entered into conversation with him. To whom Demosthenes
bemoaned, that although he had been the most industrious of all the
pleaders, and had spent almost the whole strength and vigor of his
body in that employment, he could not yet find any acceptance with the
people, while drunken sots, mariners, and illiterate fellows were heard,
and had the hustings for their own. "You say true, Demosthenes," replied
Satyrus, "but I will quickly remedy the cause of all this, if you
will repeat to me some passage out of Euripides or Sophocles." When
Demosthenes had pronounced one, Satyrus presently taking it up after
him, gave the same passage, in his rendering of it, such a new form, by
accompanying it with the proper mien and gesture, that to Demosthenes it
seemed quite another thing. By this being convinced how much grace and
ornament language acquires from action, he began to esteem it a
small matter, and as good as nothing for a man to exercise himself in
declaiming, if he neglected enunciation and delivery. Hereupon he built
himself a place under ground to study in (which was still remaining in
our time), and hither he would come constantly every day to form
his action, and to exercise his voice; and here he would continue,
oftentimes without intermission, two or three months together, shaving
one half of his head, so that for shame he might not go abroad, though
he desired it never so much.
Nor was this all, but he also made his conversation with people abroad,
his common speech, and his business, subservient to his studies, taking
from hence occasions and arguments as matter to work upon. For as soon
as he was parted from his company, down he would go at once into his
study, and run over everything in order that had passed, and the reasons
that might be alleged for and against it. Any speeches, also, that he
was present at, he would go over again with himself, and reduce into
periods; and whatever others spoke to him, or he to them, he would
correct, transform, and vary in several ways. Hence it was, that he was
looked upon as a person of no great natural genius, but one who owed all
the power and ability he had in speaking to labor and industry. He
was very rarely heard to speak off-hand, but though he were by name
frequently called upon by the people, as he sat in the assembly, yet he
would not rise unless he had previously considered the subject, and come
prepared for it. So that many of the popular pleaders used to make it
a jest against him; and Pytheas once, scoffing at him, said that his
arguments smelt of the lamp. To which Demosthenes gave the sharp answer,
"It is true, indeed, Pytheas, that your lamp and mine are not conscious
of the same things." To others, however, he would not deny it, but
would admit frankly enough, that he neither entirely wrote his speeches
beforehand, nor yet spoke wholly extempore. And he would affirm, that
it was the more truly popular act to use premeditation, such preparation
being a kind of respect to the people.
How then, some may say, was it, that Aeschines speaks of him as a person
much to be wondered at for his boldness in speaking? And, when Lamachus,
the Myrinaean, had written a panegyric upon king Philip and Alexander,
in which he uttered many things in reproach of the Thebans and
Olynthians, and at the Olympic Games recited it publicly, Demosthenes,
then rising up, and recounting historically and demonstratively what
benefits and advantages all Greece had received from the Thebans and
Chalcidians, and on the contrary, what mischiefs the flatterers of the
Macedonians had brought upon it, so turned the minds of all that were
present that the sophist, in alarm at the outcry against him, secretly
made his way out of the assembly. But Demosthenes, it would seem,
regarded the reserve and sustained manner of Pericles, and his
forbearing to speak on the sudden, or upon every occasion, as being the
things to which he principally owed his greatness, and this he followed,
and endeavored to imitate, neither wholly neglecting the glory which
present occasion offered, nor yet willing too often to expose his
faculty to the mercy of chance. For, in fact, the orations which were
spoken by him had much more of boldness and confidence in them than
those that he wrote. Eratosthenes says that often in his speaking he
would be transported into a kind of ecstasy, and Demetrius, that he
uttered the famous metrical adjuration to the people,
By the earth, the springs, the rivers, and the streams,
as a man inspired, and beside himself. One of the comedians calls him
a rhopoperperethras--a loud declaimer about petty matters; from rhopos,
small wares, and perperos, a loud talker; and another scoffs at him for
the use of antithesis:--
And what he took, took back; a phrase to please
The very fancy of Demosthenes.
Unless, indeed, this also is meant by Antiphanes for a jest upon the
speech on Halonesus, which Demosthenes advised the Athenians not to take
at Philip's hands, but to take back.
All, however, used to consider Demades, in the mere use of his natural
gifts, an orator impossible to surpass, and that in what he spoke on the
sudden, he excelled all the study and preparation of Demosthenes. And
Ariston, the Chian, has recorded a judgment which Theophrastus passed
upon the orators; for being asked what kind of orator he accounted
Demosthenes, he answered, "Worthy of the city of Athens;" and then, what
he thought of Demades, he answered, "Above it." And the same philosopher
reports, that Polyeuctus, the Sphettian, one of the Athenian politicians
about that time, was wont to say that Demosthenes was the greatest
orator, but Phocion the ablest, as he expressed the most sense in the
fewest words. And, indeed, it is related, that Demosthenes himself,
as often as Phocion stood up to plead against him, would say to his
acquaintance, "Here comes the knife to my speech." Yet it does not
appear whether he had this feeling for his powers of speaking, or for
his life and character, and meant to say that one word or nod from a man
who was really trusted, would go further than a thousand lengthy periods
from others.
Demetrius, the Phalerian, tells us, that he was informed by Demosthenes
himself, when old, that the ways he made use of to remedy his natural
bodily infirmities and defects were such as these: his inarticulate
and stammering pronunciation he overcame and rendered more distinct
by speaking with pebbles in his mouth; his voice he disciplined by
declaiming and reciting speeches or verses when he was out of breath,
while running or going up steep places; and that in his house he had
a large looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his
exercises. It is told that some one once came to request his assistance
as a pleader, and related how he had been assaulted and beaten. "I am
sure," said Demosthenes, "nothing of the kind can have happened to
you." Upon which the other, raising his voice, exclaimed loudly, "What,
Demosthenes, nothing has been done to me?" "Ah," replied Demosthenes,
"now I hear the voice of one that has been injured and beaten." Of so
great consequence towards the gaining of belief did he esteem the tone
and action of the speaker. When a thief, who had the nickname of the
Brazen, was attempting to upbraid him for sitting up late, and writing
by candlelight, "I know very well," said he, "that you had rather
have all lights out; and wonder not, O ye men of Athens, at the many
robberies which are committed, since we have thieves of brass and walls
of clay."
His first entering into public business was about the time of
the Phocian war. But the object which he chose for himself in the
commonwealth was noble and just, the defence of the Greek against
Philip; and in this he behaved himself so worthily that he soon grew
famous, and excited attention everywhere for his eloquence and courage
in speaking. He was admired through all Greece, the king of Persia
courted him, and by Philip himself he was more esteemed than all the
other orators. His very enemies were forced to confess that they had to
do with a man of mark; for such a character even Aeschines and Hyperides
give him, where they accuse and speak against him.
Demosthenes would never turn aside or prevaricate, either in word or
deed. Panaetius, the philosopher, said, that most of his orations were
written, as if they were to prove this one conclusion: that only what is
honest and virtuous is to be chosen; as that of the Crown, that against
Aristocrates, that for the Immunities, and the Philippics; in all which
he persuades his fellow-citizens to pursue not that which seems most
pleasant, easy, or profitable; but declares over and over again,
that they ought in the first place to prefer that which is just and
honorable, before their own safety and preservation.
Excepting only Phocion, he far surpassed, even in his life and manners,
the other orators of his time. None of them addressed the people so
boldly; he attacked the faults, and opposed himself to the unreasonable
desires of the multitude, as may be seen in his orations. Theopompus
writes, that the Athenians having by name selected Demosthenes, and
called upon him to accuse a certain person, he refused to do it; upon
which the assembly being all in an uproar, he rose up and said, "Your
counselor, whether you will or no, O ye men of Athens, you shall always
have me; but a sycophant or false accuser, I shall never be." And his
conduct in the case of Antiphon was perfectly aristocratical; whom,
after he had been acquitted in the assembly, he took and brought before
the court of Areopagus, and, setting at naught the displeasure of
the people, convicted him there of having promised Philip to burn the
arsenal; whereupon the man was condemned by that court, and suffered for
it. He accused, also, Theoris, the priestess, among other misdemeanors,
of having instructed and taught the slaves to deceive and cheat their
masters, for which the sentence of death was passed upon her, and she
was executed.
It was evident, even in time of peace, what course Demosthenes would
steer in the commonwealth; for whatever was done by the Macedonian, he
criticised and found fault with, and upon all occasions was stirring up
the people of Athens, and inflaming them against him. Therefore, in the
court of Philip, no man was so much talked of, or of so great account as
he; and when he came thither, as one of the ten ambassadors who was sent
into Macedonia, his speech was answered with most care and exactness.
But in other respects, Philip entertained him not so honorably as the
rest, neither did he show him the same kindness and civility with which
he applied himself to the party of Aeschines and Philocrates. So that,
when the others commended Philip for his able speaking, his beautiful
person, nay, and also for his good companionship in drinking,
Demosthenes could not refrain from cavilling at these praises;
the first, he said, was a quality which might well enough become a
rhetorician, the second a woman, and the last was only the property of a
sponge; no one of them was the proper commendation of a prince.
Not long after, he undertook an embassy through the States of Greece,
which he solicited and so far incensed against Philip, that a few only
excepted, he brought them all into a general league. So that, besides
the forces composed of the citizens themselves, there was an army
consisting of fifteen
thousand foot and two thousand horse, and the money to pay these
strangers was levied and brought in with great cheerfulness. On which
occasion it was, says Theophrastus, on the allies requesting that their
contributions for the war might be ascertained and stated, Crobylus, the
orator, made use of the saying, "War can't be fed at so much a day." Now
was all Greece up in arms, and in great expectation what would be the
event. The Euboeans, the Achaeans, the Corinthians, the Megarians, the
Leucadians, and Corcyraeans, their people and their cities, were all
joined together in a league. But the hardest task was yet behind, left
for Demosthenes, to draw the Thebans into this confederacy with the
rest. Their country bordered next upon Attica, they had great forces for
the war, and at that time they were accounted the best soldiers of all
Greece, but it was no easy matter to make them break with Philip, who
by many good offices, had so lately obliged them in the Phocian war;
especially considering how the subjects of dispute and variance between
the two cities were continually renewed and exasperated by petty
quarrels, arising out of the proximity of their frontiers.
But after Philip, puffed up with his good success at Amphissa, on a
sudden surprised Elatea and possessed himself of Phocis, the Athenians
were in a great consternation, none durst venture to rise up to
speak, all were at a loss, and the whole assembly was in silence and
perplexity. In this extremity of affairs, Demosthenes was the only man
who appeared, his counsel to them being alliance with the Thebans. And
having in other ways encouraged the people, and, as his manner was,
raised their spirits up with hopes, he, with some others was sent
ambassador to Thebes. To oppose him, as Marsyas says, Philip also sent
thither his envoys. Now the Thebans, in their consultations, were well
enough aware what suited best with their own interest, but every one
had before his eye the terrors of war, and their losses in the Phocian
troubles were still recent: but such was the force and power of the
orator, fanning up their courage, and firing their emulation, that,
casting away every thought of prudence, fear, or obligation, in a sort
of divine possession, they chose the path of honor, to which his words
invited them. And this success, thus accomplished by an orator,
was thought to be so glorious and of such consequence, that Philip
immediately sent heralds to treat and petition for a peace: all Greece
was aroused, and up in arms to help. And the commanders-in-chief, not
only of Attica, but of Boeotia, applied themselves to Demosthenes, and
observed his directions. He managed all the assemblies of the Thebans,
no less than those of the Athenians; he was beloved both by the one and
by the other, and exercised the same supreme authority with both; and
that not by unfair means, or without just cause, but it was no more than
was due to his merit.
But there was, it should seem, some divinely-ordered fortune,
commissioned, in the revolution of things, to put a period at this time
to the liberty of Greece, which opposed and thwarted all their actions,
and by many signs foretold what should happen. Such were the sad
predictions uttered by the Pythian priestess, and this old oracle cited
out of the Sibyl's verses:
The battle on Thermodon that shall be
Safe at a distance I desire to see,
Far, like an eagle, watching in the air.
Conquered shall weep, and conqueror perish there.
This Thermodon, they say, is a little rivulet here in our country in
Chaeronea, running into the Cephisus. But we know of none that is so
called at the present time; and can only conjecture that the streamlet
which is now called Haemon, and runs by the Temple of Hercules,
where the Greeks were encamped, might perhaps in those days be called
Thermodon.
But of Demosthenes it is said, that he had such great confidence in
the Greek forces, and was so excited by the sight of the courage and
resolution of so many brave men ready to engage the enemy, that he would
by no means endure they should give any heed to oracles, or hearken to
prophecies, but gave out that he suspected even the prophetess herself,
as if she had been tampered with to speak in favor of Philip. He put the
Thebans in mind of Epaminondas, the Athenians of Pericles, who always
took their own measures and governed their actions by reason, looking
upon things of this kind as mere pretexts for cowardice. Thus far,
therefore, Demosthenes acquitted himself like a brave man. But in the
fight he did nothing honorable, nor was his performance answerable
to his speeches. For he fled, deserting his place disgracefully, and
throwing away his arms, not ashamed, as Pytheas observed, to belie
the inscription written on his shield, in letters of gold, "With good
fortune."
In the meantime Philip, in the first moment of victory, was so
transported with joy, that he grew extravagant, and going out, after he
had drunk largely, to visit the dead bodies, he chanted the first words
of the decree that had been passed on the motion of Demosthenes,
The motion of Demosthenes, Demosthenes's son,
dividing it metrically into feet, and marking the beats.
But when he came to himself, and had well considered the danger he was
lately under, he could not forbear from shuddering at the wonderful
ability and power of an orator who had made him hazard his life and
empire on the issue of a few brief hours. The fame of it also
reached even to the court of Persia, and the king sent letters to his
lieutenants, commanding them to supply Demosthenes with money, and to
pay every attention to him, as the only man of all the Greeks who was
able to give Philip occupation and find employment for his forces near
home, in the troubles of Greece.
At this time, however, upon the ill success which now happened to the
Greeks, those of the contrary faction in the commonwealth turned upon
Demosthenes, and took the opportunity to frame several informations and
indictments against him. But the people not only acquitted him of these
accusations, but continued towards him their former respect, and when
the bones of those who had been slain at Chaeronea were brought home
to be solemnly interred, Demosthenes was the man they chose to make the
funeral oration. The speech, therefore, was spoken by Demosthenes. But
the subsequent decrees he would not allow to be passed in his own name,
but made use of those of his friends, one after another, looking upon
his own as unfortunate and inauspicious; till at length he took courage
again after the death of Philip, who did not long outlive his victory at
Chaeronea. And this, it seems, was that which was foretold in the last
verse of the oracle,
Conquered shall weep, and conqueror perish there.
Demosthenes had secret intelligence of the death of Philip, and laying
hold of this opportunity to prepossess the people with courage and
better hopes for the future, he came into the assembly with a cheerful
countenance, pretending to have had a dream that presaged some great
good fortune for Athens; and, not long after, arrived the messengers who
brought the news of Philip's death. No sooner had the people received
it, but immediately they offered sacrifice to the gods, and decreed
that Pausanias should be presented with a crown. Demosthenes appeared
publicly in a rich dress, with a chaplet on his head, though it were
but the seventh day since the death of his daughter, as is said by
Aeschines, who upbraids him upon this account, and rails at him as
one void of natural affection towards his children. Whereas, Aeschines
rather betrays himself to be of a poor spirit, if he really means
to make wailings and lamentation the only signs of a gentle and
affectionate nature. I must commend the behavior of Demosthenes, who
leaving tears and lamentations and domestic sorrows to the women, made
it his business to attend to the interests of the commonwealth.
But now to return to my narrative. The cities of Greece were inspirited
once more by the efforts of Demosthenes to form a league together. The
Thebans, whom he had provided with arms, set upon their garrison, and
slew many of them; the Athenians made preparations to join their forces
with them; Demosthenes ruled supreme in the popular assembly, and wrote
letters to the Persian officers who commanded under the king in Asia,
inciting them to make war upon the Macedonian, calling him child and
simpleton. But as soon as Alexander had settled matters in his own
country, and come in person with his army into Boeotia, down fell the
courage of the Athenians, and Demosthenes was hushed; the Thebans,
deserted by them, fought by themselves, and lost their city. After
which, the people of Athens, all in distress and great perplexity,
resolved to send ambassadors to Alexander, and amongst others, made
choice of Demosthenes for one; but his heart failing him for fear of the
king's anger, he returned back from Cithaeron, and left the embassy. In
the mean time, Alexander sent to Athens, requiring eight of the
orators to be delivered up to him,--Demosthenes, Polyeuctus, Ephialtes,
Lycurgus, Moerocles, Demon, Callisthenes, and Charidemus. It was upon
this occasion that Demosthenes related to them the fable in which the
sheep are said to deliver up their dogs to the wolves; himself and
those who with him contended for the people's safety, being, in his
comparison, the dogs that defended the flock, and Alexander "the
Macedonian arch wolf." He further told them, "As we see corn-dealers
sell their whole stock by a few grains of wheat which they carry about
with them in a dish, as a sample of the rest, so you, by delivering
up us, who are but a few, do at the same time unawares surrender up
yourselves all together with us." The Athenians were deliberating, and
at a loss what to do, when Demades, having agreed with the persons whom
Alexander had demanded, for five talents, undertook to go ambassador,
and to intercede with the king for them; and, whether it was that he
relied on his friendship and kindness, or that he hoped to find him
satiated, as a lion glutted with slaughter, he certainly went, and
prevailed with him both to pardon the men, and to be reconciled to the
city.
So he and his friends, when Alexander went away, were great men, and
Demosthenes was quite put aside. Yet when Agis, the Spartan, made his
insurrection, he also for a short time attempted a movement in his
favor; but he soon shrunk back again, as the Athenians would not
take any part in it, and, Agis being slain, the Lacedaemonians were
vanquished. During this time it was that the indictment against
Ctesiphon, concerning the Crown, was brought to trial. The action was
commenced a little before the battle in Chaeronea, when Chaerondas
was archon, but it was not proceeded with till about ten years after,
Aristophon being then archon. Never was any public cause more celebrated
than this, alike for the fame of the orators, and for the generous
courage of the judges, who, though at that time the accusers of
Demosthenes, were in the height of power, and supported by all the
favor of the Macedonians, yet would not give judgment against him, but
acquitted him so honorably, that Aeschines did not obtain the fifth part
of their suffrages on his side, so that, immediately after, he left
the city, and spent the rest of his life in teaching rhetoric about the
island of Rhodes, and upon the continent in Ionia.
It was not long after that Harpalus fled from Alexander, and came to
Athens out of Asia; knowing himself guilty of many misdeeds into which
his love of luxury had led him, and fearing the king, who was now grown
terrible even to his best friends. Yet this man had no sooner addressed
himself to the people, and delivered up his goods, his ships, and
himself to their disposal, but the other orators of the town had their
eyes quickly fixed upon his money, and came in to his assistance,
persuading the Athenians to receive and protect their suppliant.
Demosthenes at first gave advice to chase him out of the country, and
to beware lest they involved their city in a war upon an unnecessary and
unjust occasion. But some few days after, as they were taking an account
of the treasure, Harpalus, perceiving how much he was pleased with a cup
of Persian manufacture, and how curiously he surveyed the sculpture and
fashion of it, desired him to poise it in his hand, and consider the
weight of the gold. Demosthenes, being amazed to feel how heavy it was
asked him what weight it came to. "To you," said Harpalus, smiling, "it
shall come with twenty talents." And presently after, when night drew
on, he sent him the cup with so many talents. Harpalus, it seems, was a
person of singular skill to discern a man's covetousness by the air of
his countenance, and the look and movement of his eyes. For Demosthenes
could not resist the temptation, but admitting the present, like an
armed garrison, into the citadel of his house, he surrendered himself up
to the interest of Harpalus. The next day he came into the assembly with
his neck swathed about with wool and rollers, and when they called on
him to rise up and speak, he made signs as if he had lost his voice. But
the wits, turning the matter to ridicule, said that certainly the orator
had been seized that night with no other than a silver quinsy. And soon
after, the people, becoming aware of the bribery, grew angry, and would
not suffer him to speak, or make any apology for himself, but ran him
down with noise; and one man stood up and cried out, "What, ye men of
Athens, will you not hear the cup-bearer?" So at length they banished
Harpalus out of the city; and fearing lest they should be called to
account for the treasures which the orators had purloined, they made a
strict inquiry, going from house to house.
Demosthenes resisted the inquisition, and proposed a decree to refer the
business to the court of Areopagus, and to punish those whom that court
should find guilty. But being himself one of the first whom the court
condemned, when he came to the bar, he was fined fifty talents, and
committed to prison; where, out of shame of the crime for which he was
condemned, and through the weakness of his body, growing incapable of
supporting the confinement, he made his escape, by the carelessness of
some and by the connivance of others of the citizens. He did not show
much fortitude in his banishment, spending his time for the most part
in Aegina and Troezen, and, with tears in his eyes, looking towards the
country of Attica. The young men that came to visit and converse with
him, he deterred from meddling with state affairs, telling them, that
if at first two ways had been proposed to him, the one leading to the
speaker's stand and the assembly, the other going direct to destruction,
and he could have foreseen the many evils which attend those who deal in
public business, such as fears, envies, calumnies, and contentions, he
would certainly have taken that which led straight on to his death.
But now happened the death of Alexander, while Demosthenes was in this
banishment which we have been speaking of. And the Greeks were once
again up in arms, encouraged by the brave attempts of Leosthenes, who
was then drawing a circumvallation about Antipater, whom he held close
besieged in Lamia. Pytheas, therefore, the orator, and Callimedon,
called the Crab, fled from Athens, and taking sides with Antipater, went
about with his friends and ambassadors to keep the Greeks from revolting
and taking part with the Athenians. But, on the other side, Demosthenes,
associating himself with the ambassadors that came from Athens, used
his utmost endeavors and gave them his best assistance in persuading the
cities to fall unanimously upon the Macedonians, and to drive them out
of Greece. With this conduct the people of Athens were so well pleased,
that they decreed the recall of Demosthenes from banishment. The decree
was brought in by Demon the Paeanian, cousin to Demosthenes. So they
sent him a ship to Aegina, and he landed at the port of Piraeus, where
he was met and joyfully received by all the citizens, not so much as an
Archon or a priest staying behind. And Demetrius, the Magnesian, says,
that he lifted up his hands towards heaven, and blessed this day of his
happy return, as far more honorable than that of Alcibiades; since he
was recalled by his countrymen, not through any force or constraint
put upon them, but by their own good-will and free inclinations. There
remained only his pecuniary fine, which, according to law, could not be
remitted by the people. But they found out a way to elude the law. It
was a custom with them to allow a certain quantity of silver to those
who were to furnish and adorn the altar for the sacrifice of Jupiter
Soter. This office, for that turn, they bestowed on Demosthenes, and for
the performance of it ordered him fifty talents, the very sum in which
he was condemned.
Yet it was no long time that he enjoyed his country after his return,
the attempts of the Greeks being soon all utterly defeated. And in the
month of Pyanepsion following Demosthenes died after this manner.
Upon the report that Antipater was coming to Athens, Demosthenes with
his party took their opportunity to escape privily out of the city; but
sentence of death was, upon the motion of Demades, passed upon them by
the people. They dispersed themselves, flying some to one place, some
to another; and Antipater sent about his soldiers into all quarters to
apprehend them. Archias, formerly an actor, was their captain, and
was thence called the exile-hunter. This Archias finding Hyperides the
orator, Aristonicus and Himeraeus in Aegina, took them by force out of
the temple of Aeacus, whither they had fled for safety, and sent them to
Antipater, and put them all to death; and Hyperides, they say, had his
tongue cut out.
Demosthenes, he heard, had taken sanctuary at the temple of Neptune at
Calauria, and, crossing over thither in some light vessels, as soon as
he had landed himself, and the Thracian spear-men that came with him, he
endeavored to persuade Demosthenes to accompany him to Antipater, as
if he should meet with no hard usage from him. But Demosthenes, in his
sleep the night before, had a strange dream. It seemed to him that he
was acting a tragedy, and contended with Archias for the victory; and
though he acquitted himself well, and gave good satisfaction to the
spectators, yet for want of better furniture and provision for the
stage, he lost the day. And so, while Archias was discoursing to him
with many expressions of kindness, he sat still in the same posture,
and looking up steadfastly upon him, said: "O Archias, I am as little
affected by your promises now as I used formerly to be by your acting."
Archias at this beginning to grow angry and to threaten him, "Now," said
Demosthenes, "you speak like the genuine Macedonian oracle; before you
were but acting a part. Therefore forebear only a little, while I write
a word or two home to my family." Having thus spoken, he withdrew into
the temple, and taking a scroll, as if he meant to write, he put the
reed into his mouth, and biting it, as he was wont to do when he was
thoughtful or writing, he held it there for some time. Then he bowed
down his head and covered it. The soldiers that stood at the door,
supposing all this to proceed from want of courage and fear of death,
in derision called him effeminate, and faint-hearted, and coward. And
Archias, drawing near, desired him to rise up, and repeating the same
kind things he had spoken before, he once more promised him to make his
peace with Antipater. But Demosthenes, perceiving that now the poison
had pierced and seized his vitals, uncovered his head, and fixing
his eyes upon Archias, "Now," said he, "as soon as you please you may
commence the part of Creon in the tragedy, and cast out this body of
mine unburied. But, O gracious Neptune, I, for my part, while I am yet
alive, arise up and depart out of this sacred place; though Antipater
and the Macedonians have not left so much as thy temple unpolluted."
After he had thus spoken and desired to be held up, because already he
began to tremble and stagger, as he was going forward, and passing by
the altar, he fell down, and with a groan gave up the ghost.
Ariston says that he took the poison out of a reed, as we have shown
before. And Eratosthenes also says that he kept the poison in a hollow
ring, which he wore about his arm. There are various other statements
made by the many authors who have related the story, but there is no
need to enter into their discrepancies; yet I must not omit what is said
by Demochares, the relation of Demosthenes, who is of opinion, it was
not by the help of poison that he met with no sudden and so easy a
death, but that by the singular favor and providence of the gods he
was thus rescued from the cruelty of the Macedonians. He died on
the sixteenth of Pyanepsion, the most sad and solemn day of the
Thesmophoria, which the women observe by fasting in the temple of the
goddess.
Soon after his death, the people of Athens bestowed on him such honors
as he had deserved. They erected his statue of brass; they decreed that
the eldest of his family should be maintained in the Prytaneum; and on
the base of his statue was engraven the famous inscription,--
Had you for Greece been strong, as wise you were,
The Macedonian had not conquered her.
A little before we went to Athens, the following incident was said to
have happened. A soldier, being summoned to appear before his superior
officer, and answer to an accusation brought against him, put a little
gold which he had into the hands of Demosthenes's statue. The fingers
of this statue were folded one within another, and near it grew a small
plane-tree, from which many leaves, either accidentally blown thither by
the wind, or placed so on purpose by the man himself, falling together,
and lying round about the gold, concealed it for a long time. In the
end, the soldier returned, and found his treasure entire, and the fame
of this incident was spread abroad. And many ingenious persons of
the city competed with each other, on this occasion, to vindicate the
integrity of Demosthenes, in several epigrams which they made on the
subject.
As for Demades, he did not long enjoy the new honors he now came in
for, divine vengeance for the death of Demosthenes pursuing him into
Macedonia, where he was justly put to death by those whom he had basely
flattered.