Ad Ammaeum
Ad Ammaeum Hellenistic Dionysius of Halicarnassus Greek- Dionysius to his dearest Ammaeus, very many greetings.
Among many other strange and paradoxical things that one hears, which our own time has brought forth, this one too appeared to me, when I first heard it from you—that a certain one of the philosophers of the Peripatetic school, wishing to gratify Aristotle, the founder of that philosophy, in everything, undertook to make this too plain: that Demosthenes, having learned the rhetorical arts from that man, transferred them into his own speeches, and, adorning himself according to those precepts, became the strongest of all orators. At the outset, then, I supposed that it was one of the many who attempted to say these things, and I advised you not to attend to all paradoxes. But when I learned also the name of the man—whom I, both for his character and for his speeches, hold in esteem—I wondered, and, falling much into myself, I thought the matter needed a more careful consideration, lest perhaps it had escaped me that the truth was so, and that nothing had been said by the man at random; so that either I might let go the opinion which I myself formerly held, having learned for certain that the arts of Aristotle are earlier than the speeches of Demosthenes, or might persuade the man who had so judged, and who was prepared even to write it, to change his opinion before he gave out his treatise to the crowd.
And you yourself gave me no slight impulse toward examining the truth not perfunctorily, when you urged me to make plain the speeches by which I have persuaded myself that the rhetorical arts were written by Aristotle when Demosthenes was already in his prime and had already delivered his most distinguished contests. And it seemed to me that you advised this rightly too—not to confirm the matter by signs or likenesses or by alien testimonies, since none of these proofs is gathered from necessary premises, but to produce Aristotle himself, through his own arts, confessing that the truth is so. This, then, I have done, best Ammaeus, taking forethought both for the truth, which I think ought to be examined in every matter, and for the gratification of all who are earnest about political speeches—that they may not suppose this: that the Peripatetic philosophy has embraced all the rhetorical precepts, and that neither the school of Theodorus and Thrasymachus and Antiphon found anything worthy of regard, nor Isocrates and Anaximenes and Alcidamas, nor those who lived with these men as writers of artful precepts and contestants of rhetorical speeches—the school of Theodectes and Philiscus and Isaeus and Cephisodorus, and Hyperides and Lycurgus and Aeschines—nor would even Demosthenes himself, who surpassed all both before him and in his own time, and left no excess even to those who came after, have become so great, adorned by the precepts of Isocrates and Isaeus, had he not learned thoroughly the arts of Aristotle.
This is no true tale, friend Ammaeus, nor were the speeches of Demosthenes composed out of the arts of Aristotle, which were brought forth later, but according to certain other introductions; about which I shall set forth my own views in a separate writing; for the discussion about them is long, and it would not have been well to make it a by-work of another writing. But for the present I shall try to make this plain: that, when Demosthenes was already in his prime in public life, and had delivered his most distinguished contests, both the forensic and the deliberative, and was admired throughout all Greece for the cleverness of his speeches, then the philosopher wrote his rhetorical arts. And it is perhaps necessary first, as I have taken it from the common histories which those who composed the lives of the men have left us, to make a preliminary statement. And I shall make my beginning from Demosthenes.
This man was born in the year before the hundredth Olympiad, in the archonship of Timocrates. He had entered upon his seventeenth year . . . . He began to write public speeches in the archonship of Callistratus, in his twenty-fifth year. And the first of his contests prepared for a court is the one against Androtion, which he wrote for Diodorus, who was prosecuting the decree as illegal; and at the same time another, the one concerning the immunities, which he himself delivered—the most graceful and most finely written of all his speeches. In the archonship of Diotimus, after Callistratus, he delivered his first public oration among the Athenians, which those who composed the rhetorical registers entitle On the Symmories; in which he exhorted the Athenians not to dissolve the peace made with the King, nor to be the first to begin the war, unless they should prepare the naval force, in which they had their greatest strength; and he himself proposes the manner of the preparation. In the archonship of Thudemus, who ruled after Diotimus, he wrote the speech against Timocrates for Diodorus, who was prosecuting Timocrates for illegality, and he himself delivered the deliberative speech concerning the help to the Megalopolitans. After Thudemus comes the archon Aristodemus, in whose year he began his orations against Philip, and delivered a speech in the assembly concerning the dispatch of the mercenary force and of the ten exile-manned triremes to Macedonia. At this time too he wrote the speech against Aristocrates for Euthycles, who was prosecuting the decree as illegal. In the archonship of Theellus, after Aristodemus, he delivered the oration concerning the Rhodians, in which he persuades the Athenians to dissolve their oligarchy and to free the people. In the archonship of Callimachus, the third after Theellus, he delivered three orations exhorting the Athenians to send help to the Olynthians, who were being warred upon by Philip: the first, of which the beginning is "In many things, men of Athens, one might see, it seems to me"; the second, "Not the same things present themselves to me to know, men of Athens"; the third, "For much money, men of Athens, I would." In this archonship was written also the speech against Meidias, which he composed after the censure which the people voted against him. Down to this point are found twelve public speeches, of which I have spoken—among which are seven deliberative and five forensic—and all of them were earlier than the arts of Aristotle, as I shall show both from what is recorded about the man and from what was written by him, beginning from here.
Aristotle's father was Nicomachus, who traced his descent and his art to Machaon the son of Asclepius; his mother was Phaestis, a descendant of one of those who led the colony from Chalcis to Stageira. He was born in the ninety-ninth Olympiad, in the archonship of Diotrephes at Athens, three years older than Demosthenes. In the archonship of Polyzelus, his father having died, he came to Athens at the age of eighteen, and, having been introduced to Plato, he spent twenty years with him. When Plato had died, in the archonship of Theophilus, he set off to Hermias the tyrant of Atarneus, and, having spent three years with him, in the archonship of Eubulus he withdrew to Mytilene; and from there he went off to Philip in the archonship of Pythodotus, and spent eight years with him as the teacher of Alexander. After the death of Philip, in the archonship of Euaenetus, having come to Athens, he taught in the Lyceum for twelve years. In the thirteenth year, after the death of Alexander, in the archonship of Cephisodorus, having set off to Chalcis, he died of disease, having lived sixty-three years.
These, then, are the things which those who wrote up the man's life have handed down to us. But the things which the philosopher himself writes about himself—taking away every attempt of those who wish to gratify him with what does not belong to him—besides many other things, of which I need make no mention at present, which he has set down in the first book of this treatise, are the strongest proofs that he was no stripling when he composed the rhetorical arts, but had attained the strongest prime, and had already published before this both the Topics and the Analytics and the Methodics. For, having begun to display the benefits which rhetorical speech embraces, he writes thus, word for word: "Rhetoric is useful because, by nature, the true and the just are stronger than their opposites; so that, if the judgements are not made according to what is fitting, they must needs be defeated through their own fault; and this is worthy of censure. And further, with some people, not even if we should have the most exact knowledge, would it be easy to persuade them by speaking from that knowledge; for the speech that is according to knowledge is instruction, and this is impossible; but we must necessarily make our proofs and speeches through common notions, as we said also in the Topics about converse with the many."
And, having chosen to say, about examples and enthymemes, that these have the same power as inductions and syllogisms, he sets down these things about the Analytic and Methodic treatise: "And of those things proved through being shown, or appearing to be shown—just as in the Analytics—the one is induction, the other syllogism, the other apparent syllogism; so here likewise. For the example is induction, the enthymeme syllogism, and the apparent one an apparent syllogism; for I call an enthymeme a rhetorical syllogism, and an example a rhetorical induction. And all make their proofs through . . . showing anything whatever; and this is plain to us from the Analytics, that each of these is necessarily the same thing as each of those. And what the difference is between example and enthymeme is plain from the Topics; for there it has been said before, about syllogism and induction, that the showing, in the case of many like things, that something is so, is there induction, but here example; and that, certain things being so, something else besides these comes about on account of their being so, either universally or for the most part, is there called syllogism, but here enthymeme. And it is plain too that each kind of rhetoric has its own good; for, just as has been said in the Methodics, in these too it stands likewise." All that Aristotle has written about himself, expressly testifying that he composed the rhetorical arts when he was already older and had published his strongest treatises before them—these are the passages. And from them I think it has been sufficiently demonstrated what I chose to make plain, that the contests of the orator are earlier than the arts of the philosopher—if indeed the one, in his twenty-fifth year, began to engage in public life and to deliver public speeches and to write speeches for the courts, while the other, at the same time, was still with Plato and remained until his thirty-seventh year, neither presiding over a school nor having made a system of his own.
But if anyone shall be so contentious as to contradict even these things—admitting it to be true that the rhetorical arts were written later than the Analytics and Methodics and Topics, but saying that nothing prevents the philosopher from having composed all these treatises while still being educated under Plato—bringing in a frigid and unpersuasive attempt, and forcing himself to make the most roguish of arguments more persuasive, namely that the unlikely too sometimes becomes likely—I shall leave aside what I had to say against these things and turn to the testimonies of the philosopher himself, which he has set down in the third book of the Arts concerning metaphor, writing thus, word for word: "And of metaphors, there being four kinds, those by analogy are most in repute; as Pericles said that the youth which had perished in the war had so vanished from the city as if one should take the spring out of the year . . . And Cephisodotus, when Chares was eager to render his accounts of the Olynthian war, was indignant, saying that he was trying to render his accounts after bringing the people into a stranglehold."
Thus clearly does the philosopher himself demonstrate that the Arts were written by him after the Olynthian war. And this took place in the archonship of Callimachus, as Philochorus makes plain in the sixth book of the Atthis, writing thus, word for word: "Callimachus of Pergase. In his year, when the Olynthians were being warred upon by Philip and had sent envoys to Athens, the Athenians made an alliance . . . and sent help—two thousand peltasts, and thirty triremes with Chares, and eight which they manned besides." Then, having gone through the few things that happened in between, he sets down this: "And about the same time, when the Chalcidians on the coast of Thrace were hard pressed by the war and had sent envoys to Athens, the Athenians sent them Charidemus, their general in the Hellespont; who, with eighteen triremes and four thousand peltasts and a hundred and fifty cavalry, came to Pallene and Bottiaea with the Olynthians and ravaged the country." Then, about the third alliance, he says this: "And again, when the Olynthians had sent envoys to Athens and begged them not to look on while they were warred down, but, in addition to the existing forces, to send help, not mercenary but of the Athenians themselves, the people sent them another seventeen triremes and two thousand hoplites of the citizens and three hundred cavalry in horse-transports, and Chares as general of the whole fleet."
These things said, then, suffice to make plain the ambition of those who think that Demosthenes emulated the arts of Aristotle—Demosthenes, who had already happened to have delivered four Philippic orations, three Hellenic ones, and to have written five public speeches for the courts, which no one could slander as cheap and paltry and showing nothing artful, since they were composed before the arts of Aristotle. I shall not, however, having advanced so far, stop here, but shall show that his other most reputed speeches too, both the deliberative and the forensic, were delivered before the publication of these arts, again using Aristotle himself as my witness. For after the archon Callimachus, in whose year the Athenians sent the help to Olynthus, persuaded by Demosthenes, comes the archon Theophilus, in whose year Philip mastered the city of the Olynthians. Then Themistocles, in whose year Demosthenes delivered the fifth of his orations against Philip, concerning the guarding of the islanders and of the cities in the Hellespont, of which the beginning is: "What we, men of Athens, have been able to find, is this." After Themistocles, Archias, in whose year he advises the Athenians not to prevent Philip from sharing in the Amphictyony, nor to give a pretext for war, having lately made the peace with him; and the beginning of this oration is this: "I see, men of Athens, the present state of affairs." After Archias comes Eubulus; then Lyciscus, in whose year he delivered the seventh of the Philippic orations, against the embassies from the Peloponnese, making this his beginning: "Whenever, men of Athens, speeches are made." After Lyciscus comes the archon Pythodotus, in whose year he delivered the eighth of the Philippic orations against the envoys of Philip, of which the beginning is: "Men of Athens, it is not possible that the accusations"; and he composed the speech against Aeschines, when the latter was rendering his accounts for the second embassy, the one about the oaths. After Pythodotus comes Sosigenes, in whose year he went through the ninth oration against Philip, concerning the soldiers in the Chersonese, that the mercenary force under Diopeithes might not be disbanded—having this beginning: "It was right, men of Athens, that all the speakers"; and in the same archonship the tenth, in which he tries to teach that Philip is breaking the peace and is the first to bring on the war, of which the beginning is: "Many speeches, men of Athens, being made." After Sosigenes comes the archon Nicomachus, in whose year he went through the eleventh oration concerning Philip's having broken the peace, and persuades the Athenians to send help to the Byzantines, of which the beginning is: "Both holding them serious, men of Athens." After Nicomachus follows the archon Theophrastus, in whose year he persuades the Athenians nobly to endure the war, as Philip had already declared it; and this is the last of the orations against Philip, having this beginning: "That, men of Athens, Philip did not make the peace with you, but only put off the war."
And that Demosthenes delivered all these speeches which I have enumerated before the publication of the arts of Aristotle, I shall produce Aristotle himself testifying. For, having begun in the second book of the Arts to define the topics from which enthymemes are drawn, he takes up also the one from time, setting beside it his examples. And I shall set down the very words of the philosopher: "Another looks to the time; as Iphicrates did in the speech against Harmodius—that, if before doing the deed he had asked to obtain the statue on condition that he should do it, you would have given it; will you not, then, give it to him after he has done it? Do not, then, while he is still to act, make promises, but, when he has acted, take them away. And again, with regard to letting Philip pass through Boeotia into Attica—that if, before he had helped the Phocians, he had asked it, they would have promised; it is absurd, then, if, because he gave up his advantage and trusted them, they will not let him pass." And this time, in which Philip asked the Thebans to give him a passage into Attica, reminding them of the help given in the war against the Phocians, is made plain from the common history. For it was thus: After the capture of the Olynthians, in the archonship of Themistocles, agreements were made between Philip and the Athenians concerning friendship and alliance; these lasted for seven years, down to Nicomachus; and in the archonship of Theophrastus, after Nicomachus, they were dissolved, the Athenians charging Philip with beginning the war, and Philip making charges against the Athenians. The reasons for which they came to war, both saying they were wronged, and the time at which they dissolved the peace, Philochorus exactly makes plain in the sixth book of the Atthis. And I shall set down from it the most necessary things: "Theophrastus of Halae. In his year Philip, having first sailed up, attacked Perinthus, but, failing there, besieged Byzantium and brought up siege-engines." Then, having gone through all the charges which Philip made against the Athenians in his letter, he adds these things again, word for word: "And the people, having heard the letter and Demosthenes having exhorted them to war and having written the decrees, voted to take down the pillar that had been set up concerning the peace and alliance with Philip, and to man ships and to carry on the other operations of the war." Having written that these things took place in the archonship of Theophrastus, in the year after him he goes through what was done after the dissolution of the peace, in the archonship of Lysimachides. And of these too I shall set down the most necessary things: "Lysimachides of Acharnae. In his year the works concerning the ship-sheds and the arsenal were put off on account of the war against Philip; and the moneys were all voted to be military funds, on the motion of Demosthenes. And when Philip had seized Elateia and Cytinium, and had sent envoys to Thebes from the Thessalians, Aenianians, Aetolians, Dolopians, and Phthiotians, and the Athenians at the same time had sent envoys, the party of Demosthenes, they voted to ally themselves with these." The time, then, having become plain at which the envoys of the Athenians, the party of Demosthenes, and those from Philip entered Thebes—that it falls in the archonship of Lysimachides, both having already prepared for the war—Demosthenes himself will make plain, in the speech On the Crown, what the demands of both embassies were. And I shall set down, taking from his own words, what bears upon the matter: "Philip, having so disposed the cities toward one another through these means, and being elated by these decrees and answers, came with his force and seized Elateia, as though, whatever might happen, we and the Thebans would no longer breathe together." But, having gone through what then befell, and having gone through the speeches delivered by himself in the assembly, and how he was sent by the Athenians as envoy to Thebes, he adds these things, word for word: "When we arrived at Thebes, we found present the envoys of Philip and of the Thessalians and of the other allies, and our friends in fear, but his bold." Then, having bidden a certain letter be read, he adds this: "When, then, they had held the assembly, they brought those men forward first, because they held the rank of the allies. And, coming forward, they harangued, praising Philip much and bringing many charges against you, recalling everything you had ever done in opposition to the Thebans. The sum of it was, they asked them to repay the good they had received from Philip, and to take vengeance for the wrongs they had suffered from you, in whichever way they wished—either letting Philip pass through against you, or joining in the invasion of Attica." If, then, in the archonship of Lysimachides, after Theophrastus, the peace being already dissolved, the envoys from Philip were sent to Thebes, exhorting them most of all to join in the invasion of Attica, or, failing that, to grant Philip a passage, mindful of his benefactions in the Phocian war—and Aristotle mentions this embassy, as I showed a little before by producing his words—then it has been demonstrated by indisputable proofs that all the contests of Demosthenes that took place before the archonship of Lysimachides, in assemblies and courts, were earlier than the arts of Aristotle . . .
I shall add another testimony, taken from the philosopher, from which it will be still more plain that the rhetorical arts were composed by him after the war which befell the Athenians against Philip, when Demosthenes was already in his prime in public life and had delivered all the deliberative and forensic speeches which I mentioned a little before. For, going through the topics of enthymemes, the philosopher sets down also the one from cause; and I shall produce his words: "Another is from the non-cause as cause, as in the case of something having happened together with, or after, this. For they take the 'after this' as 'on account of this,' and most of all in matters of public life; as Demades took the policy of Demosthenes as the cause of all the evils; for after it . . . ." What contests, then, did Demosthenes prepare using the Aristotelian arts as guides, if all the public speeches for which he is praised and admired took place before the war, as I showed before, except one, the one On the Crown? For this alone came into court after the war, in the archonship of Aristophon, in the eighth year after the battle at Chaeronea, and the sixth after the death of Philip, at the time when Alexander won the battle at Arbela. And if anyone of those who are contentious about everything shall say that he perhaps wrote this speech—the strongest of all his speeches—having met with the arts of Aristotle, though I have much to say against him, in order that my discourse may not become longer than is needful, I promise to show that this contest too was accomplished by him before the arts of Aristotle, using the philosopher himself as my witness. For, having set forth a topic of enthymemes, the one from things relative to one another, he writes thus, word for word: "Another is from things relative to one another: for if it belongs to the one to have acted well or justly, it belongs to the other to have been so treated; and if it belongs to the one to have ordered it, then also to have done it; as the tax-farmer Diomedon said: for if it is not shameful for you to sell, neither is it for us to buy. And if to the one who has been treated the 'well and justly' belongs, it will belong also to the thing done and to the doer or the one doing it. But it is possible to reason fallaciously in this: for it is not the case that, if he suffered justly, he has also suffered justly at this man's hands. Wherefore one must consider separately whether the sufferer was worthy to suffer and the doer to do, and then use whichever way may fit. For sometimes such a thing is at variance, as in the Alcmaeon of Theodectes . . . ; and such as the suit concerning Demosthenes and those who killed Nicanor." What, then, is the suit concerning Demosthenes about which the philosopher has written, in which the most authoritative heading of the dispute was from the topic of things relative to one another? It is the one against Aeschines on behalf of Ctesiphon, who furnished Demosthenes with the decree concerning the crown and was a defendant in the indictment for illegality. For in this the question was not the common one—whether Demosthenes was worthy of honours and crowns, having given out of his own possessions the expense for the walls—but whether, at the time when he was liable to render account, the law forbidding the crowning of those liable to render account stood in the way. For the argument from things relative to one another is this: whether, just as it was permitted to the people to give, so also it was permitted to the man liable to render account to receive the crown. I, then, think that Aristotle is mentioning this suit. But if anyone shall say that it is the one concerning the gifts, which he defended in the archonship of Anticles, about the time of the death of Alexander, he will make the arts of Aristotle much later still than the contests of Demosthenes. But that it was not the orator who took from the philosopher the arts by which he prepared those wonderful speeches, but, on the contrary, that Aristotle, setting beside himself the works of Demosthenes and of the other orators, wrote these arts—this I think has been sufficiently demonstrated.