VI. AESCHINES

Aeschines was the son of Atrometus,A catalogue of the tribe Oeneis, ² 2408, gives his full name: Ἀτρόμητος Αἰσχίνου Κοθοκίδης. It gives also the name of Aeschines’ son Ἀτρόμητος. 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 DemosthenesDemosthenes, xviii. 261; xix. 246. The festivals in question are those held in the small towns of Attica. Aristodemus was one of the most noted tragic actors of his time. Born at Metapontum, he was granted Athenian citizenship and was one of the envoys (among whom were Aeschines, Demosthenes, and Philocrates) who made the peace of Philocrates with Philip in 346 b.c. he was for a long time under-secretary and regularly played as a third-rate actor with Aristodemus at the Dionysiac festivals,More accurately in Photius, the dramatic festivals held in the small towns of Attica. For the ancient accounts of Aeschines’ career as an actor see O’Connor, , pp. 74 ff. Kelly Rees, , pp. 31 ff., has shown that the term tritagonist was invented by Demosthenes as an opprobrious epithet and it is applied in antiquity to not other actor than Aeschines; also that it meant, not actor of third-rate roles, but third-rate actor; Cf. Bekker, , p. 309. 31 ἀδοκιμώτατος τῶν ὑποκριτῶν, ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ τάξει καταριθμούμενος. repeating the old tragediesOld tragedies are those which had been performed in Athens before. 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,But see below, 840 e, where the more probable statement is made that he had no teacher. Cf. the anonymous , 13, Quintilian, ii. 17. 12, and Blass, , 2nd ed., iii. p. 157. 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.Aeschines was sent in 347 and 346 b.c. on two embassies to Philip concerning peace. The second is probably the one especially referred to here. In his orations (346 b.c.) and (343 b.c.) Demosthenes attacks Aeschines and his colleagues. 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.The author’s extreme brevity reduces to two sentences the events of about eight years. The acquittal of Aeschines took place in 343 b.c. 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.Anyone who brought a suit against another for proposing a measure forbidden by law was subject to a fine and was debarred from bringing any similar suit if he received less than one-fifth of the votes cast by the dicasts. 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 saysDemosthenes, xviii. () 259, 308. and from the oration of Demochares.

Four orations are current under his name: that , that ,In L.C.L. Aeschines, pp. 15 ff. and that ,Ibid. pp. 303 ff. and these alone are genuine, since the one entitled the 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.Demosthenes, xviii. () p. 271, 134. He had, as he himself says,Aeschines, , 149. 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.Demosthenes xix. () 2 and 285. 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,Aeschines, , 178. he confirmed the peace with oaths, was tried for it, and was acquitted, as has been said above.

VII. LYCURGUS

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,The Hellenotamiae were a board of ten members who collected and administered the tribute paid to Athens by the members of the Delian Confederacy. 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 years338-326 b.c. The title of his office is not known. No regular office so extensive as this is mentioned in Aristotle’s . He may have been in charge of the theoric fund or the military fund, or both, by virtue of a special commission, which in the next generation became a regular office; see Ferguson, , p. 10, Tarn, , vi. p. 441. The period meant may be the quinquennium. in charge of fourteen thousand talents, or, as some say (and among them the man who proposed the vote of honours for him,See Decree III, below, 852. Stratocles the orator), eighteen thousand, six hundred and fifty.Roughly equivalent to £3,026,000 or $15,130,000, or more at present values. 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.Probably while he was in control of the finances. Cf. Dörpfeld and Reisch, , pp. 39 f. 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 PotsThe third day of the Anthesteria, the thirteenth day of the month Anthesterium. and that the victor’s name be inscribed as eligible for the City Dionysia,The τραγῳδοὶ and κωμῳδοὶ alone were eligible to be chosen by lot as protagonists for the tragedies and comedies to be presented at the City Dionysia, the subordinate roles being assigned to plain ὑποκριταί. Prior to the passage of the law of Lycurgus those only were eligible who had previously won a victory at the City Dionysia. The effect of the law of Lycurgus was, therefore, to increase the number of thos efrom whom the archon could choose a κωμῳδός for each of the five comedies to be presented. See Rohde, , xxxviii. p. 276, and J. B. O’Connor, , pp. 57 ff. 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 masterPrisoners of war were usually auctioned off into slavery regardless of their previous condition. If such a captive could prove his free birth through the testimony of the man who owned him when taken captive, he could not under this new law be purchased by any Athenian for slavery, cf. M. H. E., Meier, , xxxix. ff.; 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 EleusisThis refers to the great annual procession to Eleusis in the celebration of the mysteries of Demeter and Persephonê. 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. The story may well be apocryphal. The saying of Lycurgus, repeated by Plutarch in his , 3, is not there connected with the Eleusis incident; and Aelian, xiii. 24, expressly states that the statesman’s wife paid a fine after legal condemnation, not a bribe to the informer. 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,The tax was twelve drachmas. 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,Several decrees moved by him are extant, e.g. ii.² 337, 338. 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! The Corcyraean whip was especially stinging, and the orator’s outbreak means: I would give a great deal to use a cat-o’-nine-tails on you people. 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 AtheniansCf. Demosthenes, iii., and Aeschines, xii. 14. 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 MelanthiusJudeich, ², p. 409, conjectures that the garden of Melanthius was in the neighbourhood of the Academy.; 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,The Bouleuterion was the meeting-place of the Boulê or Senate; the foundations of this and of the temple of the Great Mother have recently been found on the west side of the Agora. See T. L. Shear, , iv. pp. 349 ff. 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,His death occurred about 324 b.c. 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.338-337 b.c. 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,At Eleusis in connexion with the Eleusinian Mysteries. 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,The Torch-bearer was an important functionary in the Eleusinian Mysteries. The office was hereditary. 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.Of these only the speech against Leocrates has come down to us. He was crowned by the people many times and was honoured with statues. A bronze statueThe inscription on the base of this statue is probably preserved in ii.² 3776. Another statue stood not far from the Prytaneium; Cf. Pausanius, i. 8. 2. of him stands in the Cerameicus, set up in accordance with a decree passed in the archonship of Anaxicrates,307-306 b.c. See the Decree below, 851 ff. 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.The drachma was worth, in silver, about 9d. or 18 cents, the mina 100 drachmas, the talent 60 minas. The sums mentioned are therefore roughly equivalent to £1: 16s. ($9), £40,960 ($172,800), and £3: 12 s. ($18), but the fluctuations in the value of modern currencies render such calculations very inexact. See Decree III. below, 851 f-852 e. 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.Aristophanes, , 1296 and scholium. But it was the grandfather of the orator and statesman to whom Aristophanes referred. 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 ApolloThis altar may have stood in front of the temple of Apollo Patroüs; Cf. Judeich, ², p. 345, n. 4. 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.334-333 b.c.