Demosthenes

So the Athenians, after fortifying in six days the side towards the interior, and what most required it, left Demosthenes there with five ships to protect the place, while with the main body of the fleet they hastened on their voyage to Corcyra and Sicily.

Demosthenes, who had continued in a private capacity since his return from Acarnania, was, at his own request, authorized by them to use that fleet, if he wished, for service about the Peloponnese.

While the Peloponnesians were yet sailing up, Demosthenes anticipated them by secretly sending two ships with a message to Eurymedon and the Athenians on board the fleet at Zacynthus to join him, as the place was in danger.

Demosthenes in his speech against Aristocrates, exclaims, “By all that is sacred, is it not a dreadful and open violation of law, not only of written law, but of that law which is the unwritten rule of all men, to be debarred from the right of using force against the robber as well as against the enemy;

The old law of Solon, to which Demosthenes, in his speech against Timocrates, appeals, agrees with it.

so in all political measures the motives and pretexts ought to be laid deeply in the principles of truth and justice.

But that Demosthenes was in fact subject to audit at the time when the defendant made his motion, since he held the office of Superintendent of the Theoric Fund as well as the office of Commissioner for the Repair of Walls, and at that time bad not rendered to you his account and reckoning for either office, this I will now try to show you from the public records.

In order, then, that he may lose his confidence, and that you may be instructed in advance, and that I may reply, in the presence of the jury, Demosthenes, and of all the other citizens who are standing there outside the bar, and of all the other Greeks who have taken the trouble to listen to this case—and I see that not a few are here, more in fact than have ever attended a public trial within th …

But if, as I briefly recall the dates, and cite the resolutions which Demosthenes moved in cooperation with Philocrates, the truthful audit of the facts shall convict Demosthenes of having moved more resolutions than Philocrates concerning the original peace and alliance, and of having flattered Philip and his ambassadors with a shamelessness which was beyond measure, and of being responsible to t …

Before them neither Lucius Crassus will defend you nor Marcus Antonius, nor — since the case will be tried before Greek judges — will you be able to call in Demosthenes;

And so Aeschines inveighs against Demosthenes because he sacrificed victims on the seventh day after his daughter's death.

Who said he grieved if ever he were outdone by the before-dawn industry of the craftsmen.

In the archonship of Chaerondas, on the sixth day of Elaphebolion, Aeschines, son of Atrometus, of Cothocidae, indicted Ctesiphon, son of Leosthenes, of Anaphlystus, before the Archon for a breach of the constitution, in that he proposed an unconstitutional decree, to wit, that Demosthenes, son of Demosthenes, of Paeania should be crowned with a golden crown, and that proclamation should be made i …

In the archonship of Mnesiphilus, on the thirtieth day of Hecatombaeon, the tribe Pandionis then holding the presidency, Demosthenes, son of Demosthenes, of Paeania, proposed that, whereas Philip has sent ambassadors and has agreed to articles of peace, it be resolved by the Council and People of Athens, with a view to the ratification of the peace as accepted by vote of the first Assembly, to cho …

Further, out of many spheres of public activity I chose Hellenic affairs as my province, and therefore I am justified in taking Hellenic policy as the basis of my demonstration.

You know that evidence has already been given before the Assembly,—and that evidence shall now be repeated,—that I had started with a talent in my pocket for their ransom;

I denounced these men, and told the whole story, point by point, beginning with those earlier hopes created by the reports of Ctesiphon and Aristodemus, going on to the more recent orations of Aeschines at the approval of the peace, and showing to what straits they had reduced the city.

But if I fail to prove all these five charges, or any one of them, then call me an impostor, and acquit him.

But if I, waiving the profit which a private suit would bring, entrust his punishment to the State, and if I have chosen this particular form of action from which I can receive no benefit myself, then surely it ought to win me your favour and not prejudice my case.

It was not against the individual named Demosthenes that his brutality was directed on that occasion, but also against your chorus-master;

for the chorus was a state-chorus, the apparel was being prepared entirely for a public festival, and I, the aggrieved party, was official chorus-master.

Now when I had said this and more beside, at last came Demosthenes’ turn to speak.

After we had spoken, last of all Demosthenes arose, and with that imposing air of his, and rubbing his forehead, when he saw that the people approved my report and were satisfied with it, he said that he was amazed at both parties, as well the listeners as the ambassadors, for they were carelessly wasting time—the listeners wasting the time for taking counsel, the ambassadors the time for giving i …

But Demosthenes, I think, is not fond of fair argument, nor is that the sort of preparation he has made.

But when I had loosed it and gone through it all point by point, I was moved to laughter—partly from pleasure at hearing nothing alarming, and partly because I was judging your case against that of Demosthenes.

But perceiving that certain of the enemies of peace were going to trouble your august courts against us, we expected to be summoned by your Magnanimity, so as to be taught the truth from us;

To Demosthenes, as from the Community.

Men of Athens, I once fell out with a worthless, quarrelsome, unprincipled fellow, with whom in the end the whole city also fell out,—I mean Androtion.

Also it is so much easier to curry favour privately with certain persons than to stand up in defence of your rights that, while Timocrates has their fee in his pocket, and never introduced his law until he got it, I,so far from getting any reward from you, am risking a thousand drachmas in your defence.

When I discovered that he had defrauded the whole commonwealth in the collection of the property-tax and in the manufacture of processional utensils, and that he held and refused to restore a great deal of money belonging to the Goddess, the Heroes, and the State, I proceeded against him with the aid of Euctemon, thinking it a favorable opportunity for doing the State a service, and at the same ti …

You yourself are often compelled to write replies and to argue against Demosthenes, that most formidable orator and sorcerer, and against the others who play their part in the politics of Athens.

"And I should have been glad," said Philip in jest, "to cede Amphipolis to the Athenians in exchange for Demosthenes' formidable power.

Athens was once wronged in the matter of her orators, and Demosthenes was led off, when Fortune no longer watched over Athens.

Demosthenes in oratione de libertate Rhodiorum:

Demosthenes in his speech on the liberty of the Rhodians says that it was necessary for those who wished to be free to keep away from treaties which were imposed upon them, because such treaties were almost the same as slavery.

“For,” as Demosthenes has said, “every one fights his hardest to recover what he has lost;

and Demosthenes by way of a jest presents himself as an example, for he poses as a man who knows how to indulge in pleasantries and to joke about his own manner of life.

in the case of Demosthenes, too, it was common report, and not his nurse, that gave him his nickname;

The eminent orator Demosthenes says that you must either wipe out your laws, or else no attention must be paid to my words.

Yes, and when Thucydides had said, "to have alone faced the danger at Marathon," Demosthenes said, "By those who faced the danger at Marathon.

" But also, when Demosthenes had said, "To all of us death is owed," and the rest, Phanocles in his Loves, or Beautiful Ones, writes, "But the thread of the Fates is not to be undone, nor can any of us who feed upon the earth ever flee it.

" Again, when Homer had made, "I say that no man of mortals has escaped his fate," Archinus says, "To all men it is owed to die, either earlier or later";

To pass over other occasions, seven times, Aristogeiton, have you indicted me, when you had taken the pay of Philip’s agents, and twice you accused me at my audit.

When I saw you in the Assembly indicating and proposing me as the accuser of Aristogeiton, I was troubled, and I call Heaven to witness that I did not relish the task.

For myself, I admit it was our duty to undertake the prosecution and to deliver full speeches in accordance with custom and for your information;

Gentlemen of the jury, it is chiefly because I consider that the State will benefit by the repeal of this law, but partly also out of sympathy with the young son of Chabrias, that I have consented to support the plaintiffs to the best of my ability.

Just so far as it is better to be thought artless than unscrupulous, it is more honorable to repeal this law than to enact it.

For my own part, I shall forbear to retort that it is unjust to take away this privilege from all because you find fault with some;

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 …

I beg of those who for private reasons were at odds with Lycurgus to endure to hear what in truth and justice may be said in his behalf;

For it happens that, although sojourning in an out-of-the-way place, I hear many people censuring you for your treatment of the sons of Lycurgus.

As for orators, I see they are praised, any of our men who have imitated Hyperides or Demosthenes.

'Do not ask me, who have even gone down to the Phaleric shore, in which place they say Demosthenes was wont to declaim against the surf, that he might accustom himself to overcome the roar with his voice.

for "what each man wishes, that also he thinks," according to the Athenian orator.

Demosthenes, my father, men of the jury, left at his death an estate of nearly fourteen talents, a son, myself, aged seven, and my sister, aged five, and his widow, our mother, who had brought him a fortune of fifty minae.

My father, men of the jury, left two factories, both doing a large business.

This was the amount of productive capital which my father left, as these men will themselves admit, the principal amounting to four talents and five thousand drachmae, and the proceeds to fifty minae each year.

For you will find that the evidence adduced proves not that my grandfather is a state-debtor, but that he was one.

Of the many outrageous lies which Aphobus uttered in his address to you, I shall try to refute first, that one at which I felt greater indignation than at anything else he said.

For when I was on the point of instituting this suit against them they attacked me by having an exchange of estates tendered me, in order that, if I accepted it, I might not be allowed to pursue my action against them, since (they thought) this suit would then belong to the one tendering the exchange;

Besides this, my mother was ready to call to her side my sister and myself, and swear, with imprecations on our heads if she spoke falsely—we were her only children, and it was for our sakes that she gave herself up to a life of widowhood—that my father when he was about to die had set this man free, and that Milyas was regarded by us as free thereafter.

I instituted suit, men of the jury, against Demophon, Therippides and the plaintiff for breach of trust in their guardianship, for I had been defrauded by them of all my inheritance.

I offered to surrender to him for examination by torture a slave who knew how to read and write, and who had been present when Aphobus made the admission in question, and who wrote down the statement of the witness.

why, in short, I found nothing to say at any time earlier than the passing of this decree.

And that is what the orators have constantly done in respect of Charidemus, as you will agree when I have given you an account of his past career.

I conceive that to speak against grants which he might accept without being likely to do serious injury to the State, is the act of one who has either a private grievance or the spirit of an informer, but that to set myself in opposition to a project by which he was concerting very serious detriment to the commonwealth is the act of an honest man and a patriotic citizen.