Chares

I cannot prevaricate— and a hundred and fifty triremes which he took from the dockyards he failed to bring back, a story which the accusers of Chares are never tired of telling you in the courts;

The situation was so precarious and dangerous that Cephisophon of Paeania, one of the friends and companions of Chares, was compelled to make the motion that Antiochus, who commanded the dispatch boats, should sail immediately and hunt up the general who had been put in charge of our forces, and in case he should happen to find him anywhere, should tell him that the people of Athens were astonishe …

Letter

At length, when they were in desperate straits, they arranged that Chares should escort their supply train.

Now the Phliasians, together with Chares, went on ahead, and when they came upon the enemy they immediately set to work, and, cheering one another on, pressed their attack, while at the same time they shouted to Chares to come to their aid.

While these matters were in this state, Chares arrived at Cenchreae with a fleet.

changed his mind, and agreed with Chares.

—To prove that this statement of mine is true, take Chares’ letter.

but by mere lapse of time the business came to such a pass, with these men dawdling and refusing to take any plain, honest action in your service, that we sent a relief expedition to Euboea, and Chares, on returning with his mercenaries, was sent out by you to the Chersonesus as plenipotentiary.

We, Lysimachus of Alopece, Demeas of Sunium, Chares of Thoricus, Philemon of Sphetta, Moschus of Paeania, know that at the date when the indictment was presented to the Council charging Aristarchus, the son of Moschus, with the murder of Nicodemus, Meidias, who is now being tried at the suit of Demosthenes, for whom we appear, came before the Council and stated that Aristarchus, and no one else, w …

and learning furthermore that no conclusion was being reached in the matter, but that, while the people were ready to grant that the Aenians should pay the contribution which they had agreed upon with the general Chares, this abominable fellow had taken upon himself to carry on the same practices as the traitor Charinus—learning all this, I say, they took the course which necessity forced upon the …

So, when it is possible for all to behold object-lessons of such a kind and on such a scale, from which everyone would conclude that it does not pay to espouse the cause of the people, I begin to fear that some day you may become destitute of men who will speak on your behalf, especially when of the friends of the people some are being taken away by man’s natural destiny, by accident, and by the l …

but you who sit here are by now in such a mood that if anyone comes forward and asserts that the cause of all our evil is Diopithes or Chares or Aristophon, or any other citizen that he happens to name, you at once agree and applaud the truth of the remark.

Aeschines, he said, had prepared himself to denounce the general Chares, hoping to cajole you by his eloquent treatment of that topic.

If, then, Aeschines shirks the issue, if he tries to lead you astray by talking of anything rather than the charges I bring, I will tell you how to receive his irrelevance.