The Lives of the Ten Orators (5-9)

Isaeus was a Chalcidian by birth, but came to Athens and went to school [to Isocrates. He resembled] Lysias[*] in his melodious diction and in his skilful arrangement and treatment of the subject matter in his speeches, so that unless a person were thoroughly familiar with their particular styles, he could not easily tell to which of the two orators

many of the speeches belong. He was in his prime after the Peloponnesian War, as may be inferred from his speeches, and lived until the reign of Philip. He taught Demosthenes,[*] not at his school, but privately, for ten thousand drachmas, whereby he acquired great distinction. And he himself composed for Demosthenes the speeches against his guardians, as some said. He has left behind him sixty-four speeches, fifty of which are genuine, and some rules of rhetoric of his own. He was also the first to give artistic form to his speech[*] and to turn his attention to the urbane style of the orator; in which Demosthenes has closely imitated him. Theopompus the comic playwright mentions him[*] in the Theseus.

Aeschines was the son of Atrometus,[*] who was exiled in the time of the Thirty and helped to restore the democracy, and of Glaucothea. He belonged to the deme of the Cothocidae and was not of distinguished family or great wealth. When he was young and physically strong he worked hard in the gymnasia; and afterwards, since he had a clear voice, he practised tragedy; and according to Demosthenes[*] he was for a long time under-secretary and regularly played as a third-rate actor with Aristodemus at the

Dionysiac festivals,[*] repeating the old tragedies[*] in his spare time. And while still a child he helped his father to teach letters, and as a young man he served in the patrol of the frontiers. After studying with Isocrates and Plato, as some say, but with Leodamas according to Caecilius,[*] he was prominent in public life in the party opposed to that of Demosthenes, and was sent on many embassies, among them the one to Philip concerning the peace.[*] For this he was accused by Demosthenes of having destroyed the Phocian nation and moreover of having stirred up war between the Amphissians, who were building the harbour when he was chosen as delegate to the Amphictyonic Council, and the Amphictyons; as a result of which the Amphictyons turned to Philip for protection, and he, assisted by Aeschines, took matters in hand and conquered Phocis. But through the aid of Eubulus, son of Spintharus, of the deme of Probalinthus, who had influence with the people, he was acquitted by thirty votes; but some say that though the orators composed their speeches, yet the suit never came to trial because the battle of Chaeroneia intervened.[*] At a later time, when Philip was dead and Alexander was crossing over to Asia, he brought a suit against Ctesiphon for illegal conduct in proposing the honours for Demosthenes; and when he did not receive one-fifth of the votes cast, he went into exile at Rhodes, not being willing to pay a fine of a thousand drachmas for his defeat.[*] But some say that he was further punished by disfranchisement and did not leave the city of his own accord, and that he went to Alexander at Ephesus. During the confusion following Alexander’s death he sailed to Rhodes, set up a school there, and taught. He read to the Rhodians his oration against Ctesiphon as an exhibition of his powers, and when they all wondered that after delivering that speech he had lost his case, You would not wonder, Rhodians, he said, if you had heard Demosthenes speak in reply to it. And he left a school behind him there, called the Rhodian school. Then he sailed to Samos and not long after, while lingering on that island, died. He had an excellent voice, as is clear from what Demosthenes says[*] and from the oration of Demochares.

Four orations are current under his name: that Against Timarchus, that On the False Legation,[*] and that Against Ctesiphon,[*] and these alone are genuine, since the one entitled the Delian Oration is not by Aeschines; for he was, to be sure, appointed associate advocate in the trial relating to the sanctuary

at Delos, but he did not deliver the speech; for Hypereides was elected in his place, as Demosthenes says.[*] He had, as he himself says,[*] two brothers, Aphobetus and Philochares. He was the first to bring to the Athenians the news of the victory at Tamynae, for which he was crowned a second time.

Some have said that Aeschines did not study under any teachers, but rose from the under-clerkship in the courts, which he held at that time. And they say that his first speech before the people was against Philip, by which he gained such reputation as to be chosen envoy to the Arcadians; and when he came to them he raised the ten thousand troops with which to oppose Philip. He also prosecuted for unchastity Timarchus, who gave up the defence and hanged himself, as Demosthenes says somewhere.[*] He was elected envoy to Philip with Ctesiphon and Demosthenes to treat for peace, on which occasion he was more successful than Demosthenes; and the second time, when he was one of ten,[*] he confirmed the peace with oaths, was tried for it, and was acquitted, as has been said above.

Lycurgus was the son of Lycophron and grandson of the Lycurgus whom the Thirty Tyrants put to death, his execution being brought about by Aristodemus

of Batê, who also, after having been one of the Hellenotamiae,[*] was banished under the democracy. Lycurgus was of the deme of the Butadae and the family of the Eteobutadae. He attended the lectures of Plato the philosopher and at first devoted himself to philosophy; then, after being a pupil of the orator Isocrates, he had a notable public career both as a speaker and as a man of action, and he was also entrusted with the management of the finances of the State; for he was made treasurer for three periods of four years[*] in charge of fourteen thousand talents, or, as some say (and among them the man who proposed the vote of honours for him,[*] Stratocles the orator), eighteen thousand, six hundred and fifty.[*] He was elected in his own person the first time, but afterwards he entered the name of one of his friends, though he himself administered the office, because a law had previously been introduced forbidding anyone elected treasurer of the public funds to hold the office more than four years; and he was always intent upon the public business summer and winter. When he was elected to provide munitions of war he restored many edifices in the city, he provided four hundred triremes for the people, he constructed the gymnasium in the Lyceum and planted trees in it, he built the palaestra and finished the Dionysiac theatre when he was the commissioner in charge of that work.[*] He took care of two hundred and fifty talents entrusted to him on deposit by private persons, he provided for the city objects of gold and silver for use in processions and golden Victories, and many buildings which came into his hands half-finished he completed, among them the ship-sheds and the arsenal. And he put the foundation-walls round the Panathenaic stadium. This he accomplished, and also the levelling of the ravine, because a certain Deinias who owned this plot of land gave it to the city when Lycurgus suggested to him that he make the gift.

He was charged also with guarding the city and arresting malefactors, whom he drove out entirely, so that some of the sophists said that Lycurgus signed warrants against evil-doers with a pen dipped, not in ink, but in death. And therefore, when King Alexander demanded his surrender, the people did not give him up. When Philip was carrying on the second war with the Athenians, Lycurgus went as envoy with Polyeuctus and Demosthenes to the Peloponnesus and to some other States. Throughout his life he was always highly esteemed among the Athenians and considered a just man, so that in the courts of law the word of Lycurgus was regarded as a help to anyone requiring an advocate.

He also introduced laws: the law relating to comic actors, that a competitive performance be held on the festival of Pots[*] and that the victor’s name

be inscribed as eligible for the City Dionysia,[*] which had not been permitted before, and thus he revived a contest which had fallen out of use; the law that bronze statues of the poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides be erected, that their tragedies be written out and kept in a public depository, and that the clerk of the State read them to the actors who were to perform their plays for comparison of the texts and that it be unlawful to depart from the authorized text in acting; a third law that no Athenian or foreign resident of Athens should be permitted to buy from among captives a person of free birth to be a slave without the consent of his former master[*]; furthermore, that a festival of Poseidon should be held in Peiraeus, consisting of no fewer than three cyclic choruses, that not less than ten minas be given to the victors, eight to those ranked second by the judges, and six to those ranked third; furthermore, that no woman should go to Eleusis[*] in a carriage, lest the women of the people appear inferior to the rich, and if any woman should be caught doing this, she should pay a fine of six thousand drachmas. His own wife disobeyed, the informers caught her in the act, and he gave them a talent; and at a later time, wrhen accused of this in the popular assembly, he said, At any rate I am found to have been the giver, not the receiver. [*] And once when a taxcollector laid hands on Xenocrates the philosopher and Lycurgus met him as he was leading him away to enforce payment of his tax as a resident alien,[*] he brought his walking-stick down on the tax-collector’s head, set Xenocrates free, and shut the other man up in prison for improper conduct. As he was generally commended for his act, Xenocrates, happening to meet Lycurgus’s children some days later, said I have repaid your father quickly for the favour he did me, boys; for he is widely commended for coming to my assistance.

He also proposed decrees,[*] making use of a certain Olynthian named Eucleides, who was an expert in decrees. And although he was well-to-do, he wore one and the same cloak winter and summer and put on sandals only on days when they wTere necessary. He studied night and day, since he had no natural gift for extemporaneous speaking, and he lay on a cot with only a sheepskin and a pillow on it, so that he might wake up easily and study. When someone found fault with him for paying money to sophists although he made words his profession, he replied that if anyone would promise to make his sons better, he would pay him, not thousands only, but half his property. He was an outspoken speaker on account of his good birth. Once, indeed, when the Athenians

were showing dissent as he was speaking, he burst out with: O Corcyraean whip, how ma ly talents you are worth! [*] And when they were proclaiming Alexander a god, What sort of god, he said, is he when those who come out of his temple have to sprinkle themselves with holy water? After his death his sons were handed over to the eleven executioners on the accusation of Menesaechmus, the indictment being written by Thrasycles; but when Demosthenes, who was at that time in exile, wrote a letter to the Athenians[*] saying that their reputation was suffering because of Lycurgus’s sons, they changed their mind and released them, Democles, a pupil of Theophrastus, speaking in their defence. He himself and some of his descendants were buried at public expense; and their monuments are opposite the Paeonian Athena in the garden of the philosopher Melanthius[*]; they are in the form of tables, and those of Lycurgus and his children have inscriptions and are still preserved in our day. His greatest achievement was the raising of the State revenue to twelve hundred talents when it had previously been sixty. When he was at the point of death he gave orders that he be carried to the temple of the Great Mother and into the Bouleuterion,[*] as he wished to give an accounting for his public acts; and when no one had the face to accuse him except Menesaechmus, he freed himself from his false accusations, was carried to his house, and died,[*] having been considered a honourable man throughout his whole life, and highly praised for his speeches. He never was convicted, though many brought accusations against him.

He had three children by Callisto, the daughter of Habron and sister of Callias the son of Habron of the deme Batê, the one who was treasurer of military funds in the archonship of Charondas.[*] Deinarchus, in his speech against Pistius, tells about this connexion by marriage. He left three sons, Habron, Lycurgus, and Lycophron, of whom Habron and Lycurgus died without issue. However, Habron at any rate had a distinguished public career before he died; but Lycophron married Callistomachê, daughter of Philippus of Aexonê, and had a daughter Callisto. She was married to Cleombrotus of Acharnae, son of Deinocrates, to whom she bore a son Lycophron, who was adopted by his grandfather Lycophron and died without issue. After Lycophron’s death Socrates married Callisto and had a son Symmachus. Symmachus had a son Aristonymus, he a son Charmides, and Charmides a daughter Philippa. Her son by Lysander was Medeius, who became an expounder of rites,[*] being of the family of the Eumolpidae. He and Timothea, daughter of Glaucus, had three children, Laodameia and Medeius, who held the priestship of Poseidon-Erechtheus, and Philippa, who afterwards became priestess of Athena; but before that Diocles of Melitê married her, and their son was the Diocles who was general in command of the heavy-armed force. He married Hedistê, daughter

of Habron, and bad two children, Philippides and Nicostrata. Themistocles, the Torch-bearer,[*] son of Theophrastus, married Nicostrata and had two sons, Theophrastus and Diocles. He also organized the priesthood of Poseidon-Erechtheus.

Fifteen speeches of the orator are current.[*] He was crowned by the people many times and was honoured with statues. A bronze statue[*] of him stands in the Cerameicus, set up in accordance with a decree passed in the archonship of Anaxicrates,[*] in which year Lycurgus and his eldest descendant were granted maintenance in the Prytaneum by the same decree. After Lycurgus died his eldest son, Lycophron, brought a suit for the grant. Lycurgus spoke also many times on religious matters, bringing suit against Autolycus the Areopagite, Lysicles the general, Demades the son of Demeas, Menesaechmus, and many others, and he caused them all to be convicted. He also brought Diphilus to trial, who removed from the silver mines the rock props which supported the weight above and made himself rich from them contrary to the law; and though the penalty for this was death, Lycurgus brought about his conviction, and from the confiscated estate distributed fifty drachmas to every citizen, since the total sum collected was one hundred and sixty talents or, as some say, he distributed a mina to each

citizen.[*] He it was who called Aristogeiton, Leocrates, and Autolycus to account for cowardice. Lycurgus was nicknamed Ibis,

An ibis for Lycurgus, for Chaerephon a bat.[*]

His family was derived ultimately from Erechtheus, the son of Gaea and Poseidon, but in the nearest generations from Lycomedes and Lycurgus, whom the people honoured with funerals at the public expense; and this succession from father to son of those of the family who have been priests of Poseidon exists on a complete tablet which has been set up in the Erechtheum, painted by Ismenias the Chalcidian; and there are wooden statues of Lycurgus and his sons Habron, Lycurgus, and Lycophron, made by Timarchus and Cephisodotus, the sons of Praxiteles. But the tablet was put up by his son Habron, who received the priesthood by inheritance and handed it over to his brother Lycophron; and that is why Habron is represented as handing Lycophron the trident. And Lycurgus had a record made of all his acts as a public official and set it up on a tablet, for all men to see who wished, in front of the palaestra that he had built; no one, however, could convict him of embezzlement. He made the motion to crown Neoptolemus the son of Anticles and to set up a statue of him because he had promised to gild the altar of Apollo[*] in the Market-place in accordance with the God’s prophecy. He also moved a decree granting honours to Diotimus, son of Diopeithes, of the deme Euonymus, in the archonship of Ctesicles.[*]

Demosthenes, son of Demosthenes and Cleobulê daughter of Gylon, was of the deme Paeania. He was left an orphan at the age of seven years[*] by his father, along with his five-year-old sister, and lived during his minority with his mother. Some say that he went to school to Isocrates, but most authorities say that he went to Isaeus of Chalcis, who was a pupil of Isocrates living in Athens. He imitated Thucydides and also the philosopher Plato, whose instruction, some say, he followed with especial zeal. But Hegesias of Magnesia says that he asked his attendant to let him hear Callistratus of Aphidna, son of Empedus, a noted orator who had been a commander of cavalry and had set up the altar to Hermes-of-the-Market[*] and was about to address the popular assembly; and Demosthenes, when he had heard him speak, fell in love with oratory. Demosthenes heard him, it is true, for only a short time, as long as Callistratus remained in Athens; but when he had been banished to Thrace and Demosthenes had finished his service as ephebe,[*] he went over to Isocrates

and Plato; then he took Isaeus into his house and for four years exerted himself to imitate his speeches. But Ctesibius says in his work On Philosophy that through Callias of Syracuse he obtained the speeches of Zethus of Amphipolis and through Charicles of Carystus those of Alcidamas and that he studied them thoroughly.

When he attained his majority, because he received from his guardians less than was right, he brought them to trial for their administration, in the archonship of Timocrates.[*] There were three of them: Aphobus, Therippides, and Demophon or Demeas, and he accused the last-named especially, since he was his mother’s brother.[*] He fixed the penalty in each suit at ten talents, and he obtained conviction of all three defendants; but he exacted no part of the penalty, for he let them off, some for money and some as an act of grace. When Aristophon[*] at last on account of age resigned political leadership, Demosthenes was even made choregus.[*] And wThen Meidias of the deme of Anagyros struck him as he was performing his duties in the theatre as choregus, he sued him for the act, but on receipt of three thousand drachmas he dropped the suit. They say that when he was still a young man he withdrew into a cave and studied there, shaving half of his head to keep himself from going out; also that he slept on a

narrow bed in order to get up quickly, and that since he could not pronounce the sound of R he learned to do so by hard work, and since in declaiming for practice he made an awkward movement with his shoulder, he put an end to the habit by fastening a spit or, as some say, a dagger from the ceiling to make him through fear keep his shoulder motionless. They say, too, that as he progressed in his ability to speak he had a mirror made as large as himself and kept his eyes on it while practising, that he might correct his faults; and that he used to go down to the shore at Phalerum and address his remarks to the roar of the waves, that he might not be disconcerted if the people should ever make a disturbance; and that because he was short of breath he paid Neoptolemus the actor ten thousand drachmas to teach him to speak whole paragraphs without taking breath.

And when he entered upon political life, finding that the public men of the city were divided into two parties, one favouring Philip and the other addressing the populace in defence of liberty, he enrolled himself among those opposed to Philip and always constantly advised the people to support the cause of those peoples which were in danger of being subjected by Philip, in which policy he was associated with Hypereides, Nausicles, Polyeuctus, and Diotimus; and thus he also brought the Thebans, Euboeans, Corcyraeans, Corinthians, Boeotians, and many others into alliance with the Athenians. Once he was hissed out of the assembly and was walking home feeling discouraged; but Eunomus of the deme Thria, who was already an old man, happened to meet him and encouraged him, and more than anyone else the actor

Andronicus,[*] by telling him that his words were excellent but that his delivery was deficient, and then Andronicus declaimed from memory the speech which Demosthenes had delivered in the assembly; whereupon Demosthenes was convinced and put himself in the hands of Andronicus. Therefore when someone asked him what was the first thing in oratory, he replied Delivery, and what the second, Delivery, and the third, Delivery. [*] And when he spoke again in the assemblies he was hissed for some new-fangled expressions, so that Antiphanes and Timocles made fun of him in their comedies,

By earth, by founts, by rivers, and by floods,[*]

for it was by swearing in this way that he had caused an uproar in the assembly. He used also to swear by Asclepius, putting the accent on the third syllable from the end, though it is properly on the final syllable; and he offered, a proof that he was right, for he said that the god was mild (epios). For this also he often provoked a clamour from the audience. But by going to school to Eubulides the Milesian philosopher he corrected all his faults. Once when he was at the Olympic festival and heard Lamachus of Tereina reading a eulogy of Philip and Alexander fand decrying the Thebans and Olynthians, he stood up and quoted the words of the ancient poets testifying to the glorious deeds of the Thebans and Olynthians, with the result that Lamachus was silenced and fled from the festival. And Philip said to those who reported to him the public speeches of Demosthenes against him, I myself, if I had heard Demosthenes speak, would have elected the man general to carry on the war against me. And Philip used to say that Demosthenes’ speeches were like soldiers because of their warlike power, but those of Isocrates were like athletes, because they afforded pleasure like that of a show.

When he was thirty-seven years old, reckoning from the archonship of Dexitheus[*] to that of Callimachus,[*] who was in office when an embassy came from the Olynthians asking for help because they were being hard pressed by Philip in the war, he persuaded the Athenians to send the help; but in the following year, in which Plato died,[*] Philip overthrew the Olynthians. Xenophon, the follower of Socrates, knew him either in his youth or in his prime; for Xenophon’s Hellenica ended with the battle of Mantineia and the archonship of Charicles,[*] and Demosthenes had already before that time, in the archonship of Timocrates,[*] caused the conviction of his guardians. When Aeschines fled after his condemnation,[*] he followed him on horseback, and Aeschines, thinking he was arresting him, fell at his feet and covered his head, but Demosthenes raised him up, encouraged him, and gave him a talent of silver. And he advised the people to support a force

of mercenaries at Thasos, and sailed out as commander of a trireme on that occasion. After he had been in charge of the food supply he was accused of embezzlement but was acquitted. When Philip had taken Elateia Demosthenes himself went out with those who fought at Chaeroneia,[*] on which occasion it appears that he deserted his post, and that, as he was running away, a bramble-bush caught his cloak, whereupon he turned and said, Take me alive. And he had as a device on his shield the words With good fortune. [*] However, he delivered the funeral address for those who fell.[*] And after that, directing his efforts to the improvement of the city and being elected commissioner in charge of the fortifications, he contributed out of his own pocket the funds expended, amounting to one hundred minae; he also presented ten thousand drachmas[*] for sacred envoys,[*] and he made a cruise in a trireme to the allied cities collecting money. For these activities he was crowned many times, on earlier occasions on motions offered by Demomeles, Aristonicus, and Hypereides with golden crowns, and the last time on the motion of Ctesiphon; and when the decree granting this honour was attacked as illegal by Diodotus and Aeschines, he was so successful in his defence that the accuser did not receive one-fifth of the votes.

And at a later time, when Alexander was campaigning in Asia and Harpalus[*] came fleeing to Athens

with money, at first Demosthenes kept him from being admitted, but after he had entered the harbour, Demosthenes accepted one thousand darics and changed his attitude, and when the Athenians wished to surrender the man to Antipater, he spoke against it and made a motion that Harpalus deposit the money on the Acropolis without even stating the amount to the people; and although Harpalus stated that he had brought with him seven hundred talents, that which was taken up to the Acropolis was found to amount to only three hundred and fifty or a little more, as Philochorus says. And after this, when Harpalus escaped from the prison in which he was being kept until a representative of Alexander should arrive, and had gone to Crete or, as some say, to Taenarum in Laconia, Demosthenes was accused of bribe-taking and of having this reason for not mentioning the amount of the money taken up or the carelessness of the guard. He was brought to trial by Hypereides, Pytheas, Menesaechmus, Himeraeus, and Patrocles, and they obtained his conviction by the Senate of the Areopagus; and after his conviction he went into exile, not being able to pay back five times the amount (he was accused of having accepted thirty talents), or, as some say, he did not wait for the trial. After this time the Athenians sent Polyeuctus as envoy to the commonwealth of the Arcadians in order to detach them from their alliance with the Macedonians, and when Polyeuctus was unable to persuade them, Demosthenes appeared to help him and did persuade them. For this he was admired, and after some time he was permitted to return, a decree in his favour having been passed and a trireme dispatched to bring him. When the Athenians passed a decree proposed by his cousin Demon of Paeania that he should use the thirty talents which he owed in adorning the altar of Zeus the Saviour at Peiraeus and should then be absolved, he returned on those conditions to public life.

When Antipater was shut up in Lamia by the Greeks, and the Athenians were making thankofferings for the good news, he said to his friend Agesistratus that he did not agree with the rest about these matters, for, he said, I know that the Greeks have both the knowledge and the strength for a stadium dash[*] in warfare, but cannot hold out for a long-distance run. When Antipater had taken Pharsalus and threatened to besiege the Athenians unless they surrendered the orators, Demosthenes left the city and fled first to Aegina to sit as suppliant in the sanctuary of Aeacus, but was frightened and changed over to Calauria; and when the Athenians voted to surrender the orators including himself, he took his seat as a suppliant there in the temple of Poseidon. And when Archias,[*] nicknamed Exile Hunter, who had been a pupil of the orator Anaximenes, came to fetch him and urged him to leave his sanctuary, indicating that Antipater would receive him as a friend, he said, Your acting in tragedy was not convincing to me, nor will your advice be convincing now; and when Archias tried to use force, the authorities of the city prevented him, and Demosthenes

said, I took refuge in Calauria, not to save my life, but to convict the Macedonians of using force even against the sanctuaries of the gods, and asking for writing materials he wrote - so Demetrius of Magnesia says - the distich which was later inscribed by the Athenians upon his statue:

Had you possessed but the strength, Demosthenes, like to your spirit;

Never would Macedon’s war Greece to submission have brought.[*]

The statue, a work of Polyeuctus, is placed near the Roped-off Enclosure[*] and the altar of the Twelve Gods. But according to some authorities he was found to have written Demosthenes to Antipater, greeting. [*] Philochorus[*] says that he died by drinking poison, but Satyrus the historian says that the pen with which he began to write the letter was poisoned, and he died by sucking it; and Eratosthenes says that for a long time he wore a poisoned bracelet on his arm through fear of the Macedonians. There are those who say that he died by holding his breath, but others assert that it was by sucking poison from his seal ring. He lived, according to those who give the higher number, seventy years, according to those who giye the lower, sixty-seven. He was active in politics twenty-two years.

When Philip died,[*] Demosthenes came out from his house dressed in a white garment, in spite of the fact that his daughter had lately died, thus showing his joy at the death of the Macedonian.[*] He also assisted the Thebans when they were at war with Alexander, and he always encouraged the rest of the Greeks; for which reason Alexander after razing Thebes demanded him of the Athenians and threatened them if they should refuse to surrender him. And when Alexander was making war on the Persians and called upon the Athenians for a naval force, he spoke against it, saying that it was not clear whether Alexander would not employ the force against those who furnished it.

He left two sons by one wife of noble family, daughter of a certain Heliodorus; and he had one daughter who died unmarried while still a child. He had also a sister to whom and her husband Laches of Leuconoë his nephew Demochares was born, a man both brave in war and inferior to none in political speeches. There is a statue of him in the Prytaneum,[*] the first on the right as you go in towards the hearth, wearing both a cloak and a sword; for he is said to have worn this costume in addressing the people when Antipater was demanding the surrender of the orators. At a later time the Athenians voted maintenance in the Prytaneum to the relatives of Demosthenes and erected to him after his death the statue in the Market-place,[*] in the archonship of Gorgias.[*] The grants to him were requested by his nephew

Demochares, for whom in turn his son Laches, son of Demochares, of Leuconoê, asked in the archonship of Pytharatus,[*] the tenth year after, for grants extending to the erection of the statue in the Market-place, maintenance in the Prytaneum for Demochares and his eldest descendant in perpetuity, and front seats at all competitive spectacles. And the decrees in favour of both are inscribed, but the statue of Demochares mentioned above was transferred to the Prytaneum.

Sixty-five genuine speeches of Demosthenes are current. Some say that he lived a dissolute life, wearing women’s clothes and indulging in revels on every occasion, on which account he was nicknamed Batalus[*]; but others say that this was a diminutive derived from the name of his nurse and was given to him in reproach. And Diogenes the Cynic, seeing him once in a tavern looking ashamed and trying to withdraw from sight, said, The more you withdraw, the more you will be in the tavern. And he jeered at him, saying that in his speeches he was a Scythian, but in battle a city man. He received money from Ephialtes also, one of the politicians, who had been on an embassy to the King of Persia and came secretly bringing funds for distribution among the politicians for the purpose of stirring up the war against Philip; and they say that he received a private bribe of three thousand darics from the King. He arrested a certain Anaxilas of Oreus, who had been a guest-friend of his, subjected him to torture as a spy, and when he confessed nothing proposed a decree

that he be handed over to the executioners. And once when he was being prevented by the Athenians from speaking in the assembly, he said that he only wished to speak briefly to them, and when they became silent he said, A young man in the summer time hired an ass to go from the city to Megara. When noon came and the sun was blazing fiercely, both he and the owner of the ass wished to lie down in its shadow. Each tried to prevent the other from so doing, the owner maintaining that he had rented him the ass, not its shadow, and the one who had hired the ass that he had complete rights in him. When he had said this, he began to go away; and when the Athenians stopped him and asked him to tell the rest of the tale, he said, You are willing to listen when I speak about the shadow of an ass,[*] but when I speak of serious matters, you refuse. Once when Polus the actor told him that he received a talent as pay for acting two days, he replied, And I five talents for being silent one day. And when his voice failed in the assembly and the people jeered at him, he said It is actors who should be judged by their voices, but statesmen by their opinions. And when Epicles rebuked him for always preparing his speeches, he said, I should be ashamed to speak off-hand to such a great people. They say that he never put out his lamp until he was fifty years old - polishing his speeches. And he says himself that he was a waterdrinker.[*] Lysias the orator was acquainted with him, and Isocrates saw him engaged in public affairs until the battle of Chaeroneia, as did some of the Socratic philosophers. He delivered most of his speeches extemporaneously, as he was well endowed for that by nature.[*] The first who moved that he be crowned with a crown of gold was Aristonicus of Anagyrus, son of Nicophanes, but Diondas prevented it by an affidavit.

Hypereides was the son of Glaucippus and grandson of Dionysius, of the deme of Collytê. He had a son, Glaucippus, named after his grandfather, who was an orator and writer of speeches.[*] He in turn had a son Alphinous. After being a pupil of the philosopher Plato, along with Lycurgus, and of the orator Isocrates, Hypereides entered upon public life at Athens at the time when Alexander was interfering in the affairs of Greece. And he spoke in opposition to him concerning the generals whose surrender he demanded of the Athenians and concerning the triremes. He also advised against disbanding the mercenary force at Taenarum under the command of Chares, since he was well disposed towards that general. At first he pleaded in suits at law in return for a fee. And since he was believed to have shared the Persian funds[*] with Ephialtes, and was elected trierarch when Philip was besieging Byzantium, he was sent out to aid the Byzantines; and in that year he bore the expense of a chorus,[*]

when others were released from all contributions to the public service. He also proposed honours for Demosthenes, and when suit was brought by Diondas on the ground that the decree was contrary to law, he was acquitted. Although he was a friend of Demosthenes, Lysicles, Lycurgus, and their associates, he did not remain so to the end; but when Lysicles and Lycurgus were dead and Demosthenes was being tried for receiving bribes from Harpalus, he was chosen from all the orators (for he alone was unbribed) and brought the accusation against him. And when he was brought to trial by Aristogeiton for illegal conduct in proposing a decree after the battle of Chaeroneia to grant citizenship to the resident aliens, to set the slaves free, and to put the sacred objects, the children, and the women in Peiraeus for safekeeping, he was acquitted. And when certain persons blame d him for having disregarded many laws in his decree, he said, The shields of the Macedonians cast a shadow[*] over my eyes, and It was not I, but the battle of Chaeroneia, that proposed the decree. After this, however, Philip was frightened and granted permission to remove the bodies of the slain, though before that he had refused it to the heralds who came from Lebadeia. Later, however, after the battle of Crannon,[*] when his surrender was demanded by Antipater and the people was on the point of surrendering him, he fled from the city to Aegina along with those against whom decrees had been passed. Here he met Demosthenes and excused himself for his disagreement with him. After leaving Aegina he was seized forcibly by Archias,[*] nicknamed The Exile-Hunter (a Thurian by birth, at first an actor, but at that time an assistant of Antipater), in the temple of Poseidon[*] while clinging to the statue of the god. He was brought to Antipater at Corinth, and when put to the torture he bit off his tongue that he might not be able to utter any secrets of his native city. And in this way he died, on the ninth day of the month of Pyanepsion. But Hermippus[*] says that he went to Macedonia, where his tongue was cut out and he was thrown out unburied, and that Alphinous, who was his cousin (or, as some say, the son of his son Glaucippus), obtained possession of the body by the aid of a physician named Philopeithes, burned it and brought the bones to Athens to his relatives contrary to the decrees of the Athenians and the Macedonians; for they had ordered, not only that he be exiled, but that he be not even buried in his own country. And others say that he died at Cleonae after being brought there with the rest, where his tongue was cut out and he perished in the manner related above; and that his relatives obtained the bones and buried them with his ancestors before the gates of the Hippades,[*] as Heliodorus says in the third book of his work On Monuments. But now the monument has fallen in ruins and cannot be identified.

He is said to have excelled all in addressing the people; and by some critics he is ranked above Demosthenes. Seventy-seven speeches are current

under his name, fifty-two of which are genuine.[*] He was also very prone to sexual indulgence, so that he turned his son out of the house and brought in Myrrhina, the most expensive prostitute, kept Aristagora in Peiraeus, and at his own estate in Eleusis kept the Theban girl Phila, whom he had ransomed for twenty minas. He used to walk in the Fish-market every day.[*] And, as it is indeed reasonable to suppose, it was because he had been intimate also with Phrynê[*] the courtesan that when she was on trial for impiety he became her advocate; for he makes this plain himself at the beginning of his speech.[*] And when she was likely to be found guilty, he led the woman out into the middle of the court and, tearing off her clothes, displayed her breasts. When the judges saw her beauty, she was acquitted.[*] He quietly compiled accusations against Demosthenes and the fact became known; for once, when he was ill, Demosthenes came to his house to visit him and found him with the document against himself in his hand; and when Demosthenes was angry, Hypereides said, It will do you no harm while you are my friend, but if you become my enemy, it will prevent your doing anything against me. He also proposed a decree conferring honours upon Iolas, who was supposed to have given Alexander the poison.[*] He took part with Leosthenes in the Lamian War[*] and delivered the funeral oration for the fallen in marvellous fashion. When Philip was preparing to sail against Euboea, and the Athenians were afraid, he assembled forty triremes by private contributions, and in his own name and his son’s he gave two triremes, the first contribution made. And when a dispute arose with the Delians as to which people should have control of the sanctuary, although Aeschines was chosen Athenian advocate, the senate of the Areopagus elected Hypereides; and his speech is the one entitled The Delian. He was also an envoy to the Rhodians. And when envoys came from Antipater and praised their sender as a good man, in replying to them he said, We know that he is good, but we do not want a good master. It is said that in addressing the public he did not employ the actor’s art, that he merely related the facts of the case and did not bore the jurors even with these. He was sent also to the Eleans to defend the athlete Callippus against the charge of having used corruption in the contest, and he won his case; but when he brought a suit against the grant of a gift for Phocion, which Meidias, son of Meidias, of the deme Anagyros, proposed in the archonship of Xenias,[*] on the twentyfourth day of Gamelion, he was defeated.