DEMOSTHENES THE GREATEST ORATOR OF ATHENS
Demosthenes had spoken in the law courts, but he was not content. His
great ambition now was to speak in the assembly of Athens. He wished
to remind the Athenians of their glorious past, he wished to encourage
them to fight against the enemies of their country.
His first attempt was a failure. His voice was weak, his sentences
long, and before he had finished what he wished to say, the people were
laughing and jeering, so that he was forced to sit down.
As he left the assembly he was so unhappy that he thought he would
never speak to the people again. He walked along the streets, scarcely
knowing, in his distress, where he went.
Suddenly he felt some one touch his arm, and looking up he saw a very
old man who had been in the assembly, and had heard him speak. He had
seen how disappointed Demosthenes was as he left the hall, and he
had determined to encourage him. So first he praised the crestfallen
orator, saying that his speech had reminded him of the great orator
Pericles, and then he upbraided the young man for being so easily
discouraged by the laughter of the people.
Demosthenes allowed himself to be comforted and made up his mind to try
again, thinking that perhaps after all he would be able to make the
people listen to him. But in spite of all his efforts he could not hold
their attention, and he left the assembly, hiding his face in his cloak
that none might see his sorrow.
An actor, named Satyrus, who knew him well, followed him home, for he
guessed that Demosthenes would be in despair. The orator did not hide
his trouble from his friend. ‘The citizens will listen to any one, even
to those who have not studied, rather than to me,’ he said in bitter
anger. ‘A sailor with a foolish story will make them applaud, while if
I tell them tales of the glorious deeds of their own countrymen they
pay no heed.’
‘You say true, Demosthenes,’ answered Satyrus, ‘but I will soon tell
you how this is if you will recite to me some lines from one of our
great poets.’
Demosthenes did as his friend asked. But although he said the words
correctly, his voice was dull and his attitude was stiff and awkward.
Satyrus said nothing when his friend ended, but himself began to repeat
the same lines. Yet you would scarcely have known that they were the
same, for the eyes of the actor flashed, his voice rang clear, then
sank to a whisper, his body swayed now this way, now that, as he sought
to make the meaning of the poem plain.
Then Demosthenes understood as he had never done before how it was that
his carefully studied speeches did not interest the Athenians. He must
not only read or recite them, he must act them, so that the things of
which he spoke might become real to those who listened.
From that day Demosthenes began to work in a different way. He made one
of the cellars of his house into a study, that there, undisturbed, he
might practise his voice and gestures. He stayed in this strange study
for two or three months at a time, and lest he should be tempted to
go to theatres or games, he shaved one side of his head, ‘that so for
shame he might not go abroad, though he desired it ever so much.’
[Illustration: He left the assembly, hiding his face in his cloak]
At other times to strengthen his voice he would go to the seashore
while a storm was raging, and putting pebbles in his mouth he would try
to make his words heard above the roar of the waves. He also recited
speeches while he was out of breath from running up some steep hill,
and at home he would stand before a large mirror to watch his gestures
and the expression of his face.
And his hard work and perseverance were rewarded, for Demosthenes
became what he most desired to be, the greatest orator of Athens. His
enemies learned to fear his speeches, his friends to count upon them to
aid their cause.
Demosthenes was thirty-three years of age when he made his first speech
against Philip of Macedon, who now, in 356 B.C., invaded Greece.
The king would gladly have made an alliance with the Athenians and
gained their goodwill. But they, wishing to recover Amphipolis, which
he had taken from them, refused to make peace.
Demosthenes lost no opportunity to speak against Philip. He reminded
his countrymen that the king was ‘not the man to rest’ content with
that he has subdued, but is always adding to his conquests, and casts
his snare around us while we sit at home postponing.’ In another speech
he told the Athenians that they chose their captains, ‘not to fight,
but to be displayed like dolls in the market-place.’
These and other speeches against the king of Macedon were called ‘The
Philippics’ of Demosthenes, and still to-day, if some one makes a
speech against a special person, although his name is not Philip, we
call the speech a ‘Philippic.’