The Lives of the Ten Orators (10-13)

Deinarchus, son of Socrates or Sostratus, an Athenian according to some, but, as others think, a Corinthian, came to Athens while still young at the time when Alexander was invading Asia,[*] settled there, and became a pupil of Theophrastus, who had succeeded Aristotle as head of his School[*]; but he also attended the lectures of Demetrius of Phalerum. He took part most actively in public affairs after the death of Antipater,[*] since some of the public men had been put to death and the rest were in exile. Since he became a friend of Cassander he prospered exceedingly through the fees he charged for the speeches which he wrote for those who requested his services; and he had as his opponents the most distinguished public men, although he did not speak before the popular assembly (for he was unable to do so[*]); but he merely wrote speeches for their opponents. And when Harpalus absconded he composed many speeches against those who were accused of having accepted bribes from him, and these he furnished to their accusers. But at a later time he was accused of having dealings with Antipater and Cassander in connexion with their occupation of Munichia when it was garrisoned by Antigonus and Demetrius in the archonship of Anaxicrates,[*] whereupon he turned most of his property into cash and went into exile at Chalcis. And after living in exile about fifteen years and amassing considerable wealth, he returned, his restoration, and at the same time

that of the other exiles, having been effected by Theophrastus and his friends. He lodged at the house of a friend of his named Proxenus and lost his money, when he was already an old man and his eyes were weak, and when Proxenus refused to investigate the matter[*] he brought a suit against him, and then for the first time he spoke in a court of law. His speech is extant, too.[*] There are sixty-four speeches of his extant which are regarded as genuine; of these some are handed down as by Aristogeiton. He was a zealous follower of Hypereides or, as some say on account of his emotional and vehement qualities, of Demosthenes. He certainly is an imitator of the latter’s figures of speech.

Demochares[*] of Leuconoê, son of Laches, asks for Demosthenes of Paeania, son of Demosthenes, the grant of a bronze statue in the Market-place and maintenance in the Prytaneum and the privilege of front seats at the public spectacles for him and for the eldest of his descendants in perpetuity, because he has shown himself as a public benefactor and counsellor, and has brought about many benefits for the people of the Athenians, not only having relinquished his property for the common weal but also having contributed eight talents and a trireme when the people freed Euboea, and another trireme when Cephisodorus sailed to the Hellespont, and another when Chares and Phocion were sent as generals to Byzantium by the vote of the popular assembly, and having ransomed many of those who were taken prisoners

by Philip at Pydna, Methonê, and Olynthus,[*] and having contributed the expense of a chorus of men because when the members of the tribe of Pandionis failed to furnish this chorus, he contributed the money and, besides, furnished arms to the citizens who lacked them; and when elected Commissioner of the Fortifications by the popular assembly he supplied the money for the work, himself contributing three talents in addition to the cost of two trenches about the Peiraeus, which he dug as his contribution. And after the battle of Chaeroneia he contributed a talent, and in the scarcity of food he contributed a talent for the food-supply. And because, through persuasion, benefactions, and the advice by which he moved them, he brought into alliance with the people the Thebans, Euboeans, Corinthians, Megarians, Achaeans, Locrians, Byzantines, and Messenians and gained troops for the people and its allies, namely ten thousand foot, one thousand horse, and a contribution of money which he as envoy persuaded the allies to give for the war - more than five hundred talents - and because he prevented the Peloponnesians from going to the aid of the Boeotians, giving money and going in person as envoy. And he advised the people to adopt many other excellent measures, and of all his contemporaries he performed the best public actions in the cause of liberty and democracy. And having been exiled by the oligarchy when the democracy had been destroyed, and having died at Calauria on account of his devotion to the democracy, when soldiers were sent against him by Antipater, persisting in his loyalty and devotion to the democracy and neither surrendering to its enemies nor doing anything in his time of danger that was unworthy of the democracy.

Archon Pytharatus,[*] Laches, son of Demochares, of Leuconoê, asks from the senate and people of the Athenians

for Demochares, son of Laches, of Leuconoê, a grant of a bronze statue in the Market-place, and maintenance in the Prytaneum for him and the eldest of his descendants in perpetuity, and the privilege of a front seat at all public spectacles, because he proved himself a benefactor and a good counsellor to the people of the Athenians and benefited the people as follows: He was a good ambassador, proposer of legislation, and statesman [⋯, and he superintended] the building of the walls and the preparation of armour, missiles, and engines of war, he fortified the city at the time of the four years’ war[*] and made peace, truce, and alliance with the Boeotians, in return for which he was banished by those who overthrew the democracy. When he was recalled by the people in the archonship of Diocles,[*] he first reduced the expenses of the administration and was sparing of the public resources; he went as envoy to Lysimachus and secured for the people thirty talents of silver and again one hundred more; he proposed the sending of an embassy to Ptolemy in Egypt, and those who took part in it brought back for the people fifty talents of silver; he was envoy to Antipater and secured twenty talents of silver which he brought to Eleusis for the people. He won the assent of the people to all these measures and accomplished them; he was exiled for the sake of the democracy, he took no part in any oligarchy, he held no office after the democracy had been overthrown, and he was the only Athenian of those who were engaged in public life in his time who never plotted to alter the government of the country by changing it to a form other than democracy; he made the decisions of the courts, the laws, the courts, and property, safe for all Athenians by the policy he pursued, and he never did anything adverse to the democracy by word or deed.

Lycophron, son of Lycurgus, of the deme Butadae, presented in writing a claim for maintenance in the Prytaneum for himself in accordance with the gift presented by the people to Lycurgus of the deme Butadae. In the archonship of Anaxicrates,[*] in the sixth prytany, that of the tribe Antiochis, Stratocles, son of Euthydemus, of the deme Diomeia, made the following motion: Whereas Lycurgus, son of Lycophron, of the deme Butadae, having inherited from early times from his ancestors that loyalty to the democracy which has been peculiar to his family, and the progenitors of Lycurgus, Lycomedes and Lycurgus, were not only honoured by the people during their lives, but also after their death the people granted them for their courage and virtue public burials in the Cerameicus; and whereas Lycurgus himself during his public career made many excellent laws for his country, and when he was treasurer of the public revenues of the city for three periods of four years distributed from the public revenue eighteen thousand nine hundred talents; and having received in trust large funds from private citizens, from which he made loans previously agreed upon in order to meet the exigencies of the city and the people, in all six hundred and fifty talents; and, because he was believed to have administered all these funds justly, was often crowned by the State; and whereas when chosen by the people he brought together large sums of money upon the Acropolis, providing adornment for the Goddess, solid gold Victories, gold and silver vessels for the processions, and ornaments of gold for one hundred basket-carriers,[*] and when chosen to be in charge of the equipment for the war he brought to the Acropolis many pieces of armour and fifty thousand missiles and fitted out four hundred triremes ready to set sail, providing the equipment for some of them and causing some to be built from the beginning;

and besides all this he finished the ship-sheds and the arsenal, which were half done when they came into his hands, and completed the Panathenaic stadium and erected the gymnasium at the Lyceum, and adorned the city with many other edifices. And when King Alexander, after overthrowing all Asia, assumed to give orders to all the Greeks in common and demanded that Lycurgus be surrendered because he was acting in opposition to him, the city did not surrender him in spite of fear of Alexander. And although he had many times submitted his accounts while the city was free and had a democratic form of government, he never was convicted of wrongdoing or of taking bribes through all his career. Therefore, that all may know that those who choose to act justly in public life in behalf of democracy and freedom are held in the highest esteem while living and receive after death enduring gratitude: With good Fortune: Be it resolved by the people to commend Lycurgus, son of Lycophron, of the deme Butadae, for his virtue and justice, and to set up a bronze statue of him in the Market-place, only not in any place where the law forbids its erection, and to grant maintenance in the Prytaneum to the eldest descendant of Lycurgus for all time, and that all his decrees be valid, and that the secretary of the people inscribe them on stone tablets arid place them on the Acropolis near the dedicatory offerings; and that the treasurer of the people give for inscribing the tablets fifty drachmas from the funds expended by the people for decrees.