Philocrates

Then Philocrates rose, and said, in a very supercilious manner:

Now look at the decree, which Philocrates afterwards drafted and handed to the clerk.

but Aeschines and Philocrates posted themselves one on either side of me—shouting, interrupting, and finally jeering.

Finally this thing prevailed, Demosthenes forcing you to it by his talk, and Philocrates moving the resolution.

Presiding over the assembly on the 25th, for he had gained a seat in the senate by intrigue, he, with the help of Philocrates, betrayed Cersobleptes;

for Philocrates unobserved slipped this clause in among the provisions of his resolution, and Demosthenes put it to the vote, that The members of the synod of the allies do on this day give their oaths to the ambassadors from Philip.

When the case came to trial Philocrates was ill, and called as his advocate Demosthenes, not me.

Next Philocrates moved that ten ambassadors be chosen to go to Philip and discuss with him both the question of peace and the common interests of the Athenians and Philip.

Then it was, and not till then, that Philocrates of Hagnus offered a motion, which was passed by unanimous vote of the people that Philip be allowed to send to us a herald and ambassadors to treat for peace.

That Philocrates, the bird-seller, played us a scurvy trick, when he pretended these two guides could help us to find Tereus, the Epops, who is a bird, without being born of one.

A talent to him among you who shall kill Philocrates, the Struthian;

He tortures the thrushes by blowing them out, so that they may look bigger, sticks their own feathers into the nostrils of blackbirds, and collects pigeons, which he shuts up and forces them, fastened in a net, to decoy others.

and that he will lug in my speeches, and find fault with the peace which was brought about through Philocrates and myself, until he shall call out such bursts of applause from the jurors that I will not even face him in the court-room to defend myself when I render account of my service on the embassy, but will consider myself lucky if I get off with a moderate fine instead of being punished with death.

Next I will ask the clerk to call the Prytanes in office at the time, Philocrates and his colleagues.

Phaedrus, Gniphonides, Isonomus, Hephaestodorus, Cephisodorus, himself, Diognetus, Smindyrides, Philocrates, Antiphon, Teisarchus, Pantacles.

—when Philocrates here himself joined me on the tribune and conversed with me, his hand on my arm, addressing me by my name as I addressed him by his.

Philocrates yonder presented himself before the Heliaea of the Thesmothetae on the very day of the boy’s burial, and declared that I had murdered his brother, a member of the chorus, by forcing him to drink poison.

whereas Philocrates yonder tormented other magistrates who had to render account of their office with vexatious complaints, he failed to come forward with any grievance when this particular Basileus, whose conduct, we are told, had been so outrageously high handed, was rendering account of his.

If Aristogeiton is in plain language a rascally and malicious blackmailer, the sort of man in fact that he professes to be, then you have my hearty consent, Philocrates, to support one who so closely resembles you;

Surely a cook has no use for a knife that does not cut, and in the same way a man who wants by his own efforts to cause trouble and annoyance to everybody has no use for a blackmailer who is ready to sell such services.

But of the rest of our citizens—to confine the reproach to as few as possible—his pupil, or, if you like, his teacher, Philocrates of Eleusis, is the only one whom I account as such, not as if there were not more (for I would that no one else found satisfaction in Aristogeiton), but I have no right publicly to bring a charge against other citizens which I shrink from bringing against you.

For the decree of Philocrates, through which you lost Amphipolis, was itself contrary to the earlier decrees by which you claimed possession of that territory.

So it was this decree of Philocrates that was unconstitutional, nor would it have been possible to draft a constitutional proposal in conformity with his unconstitutional decree.

He made these statements, however, not in order that all those advantages that Philip had paid so much money to secure might be struck out of the treaty, but because he had been so instructed by his schoolmasters here in Athens, who did not imagine that anyone would propose to annul the decree of Philocrates, which lost us Amphipolis.

then we have Hegesippus, then Aristophon again, then Philocrates, then Cephisophon, and so on.

I wish, however, to examine them one by one, and especially the falsehoods he told to my discredit about the peace and the embassy, attributing to me what was really done by himself with the aid of Philocrates.

The first man to raise the question of peace in a speech was Aristodemus, the actor, and the man who took up the cue, moved the resolution, and, with Aeschines, became Philip’s hired agent, was Philocrates of Hagnus—your confederate, Aeschines, not mine, though you lie till you are black in the face.

Philocrates of Hagnus, whose political career has been marked by the utmost daring and wantonness.

But you could not include in your impeachment the things which you allege Euxenippus to have said against the best interests of the people.

A fresh force having afterwards come from Athens in consequence of these occurrences, under the command of Philocrates son of Demeas, and the inhabitants being now vigorously blockaded, after there had also been some treachery practised by their own men, they surrendered at discretion to the Athenians;

and while sailing thither he fell in with Philocrates, the son of Ephialtes, sailing with ten triremes from Athens to Cyprus for the purpose of aiding Euagoras, and captured all ten.