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DEMOSTHENES BEFORE THE ATHENIAN
ASSEMBLY
On the Crown
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Demosthenes' oration On the Crown.
It follows the full text transcript of
Demosthenes' On the Crown speech, delivered
on the Pnyx Hill, Athens, ancient Greece - 330 BC.
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I pray first, men
of Athens, to every god and goddess, that the
goodwill, which I ever feel towards this city
and towards all of you, may in equal measure be
vouchsafed to me by you at this present trial. |
And secondly, a
prayer which especially touches yourselves, your
consciences,
and your reputation, that the gods may put it
into your minds not to take counsel of my
adversary in regard to the spirit in which you
ought to hear me. For that would surely be a
cruel thing. But of the laws and of your oath
wherein besides all other precepts of justice,
this also is written that you shall listen to
both sides with a like mind. And this means, not
only that you should have formed no prejudice,
and should accord equal goodwill to each, but
also that you should give leave to every man who
pleads before you to adopt that order, and make
that
defense, upon which he has resolved and fixed
his choice.
I am in many respects at a disadvantage in the
present controversy, as compared with Aeschines;
and particularly, men of Athens, in two points
of importance. The first is that I am not
contending for the same stake as he. It is not
the same thing for me to lose your goodwill now,
as it is for him to fail to win his case; since
for me--but I would say nothing unpleasant at
the opening of my address--I say only that
Aeschines can well afford to risk this attack
upon me.
The second
disadvantage lies in the natural and universal
tendency of mankind to hear invective and
denunciation with pleasure, and to be offended
with those who praise themselves. And of the two
courses in question, that which contributes
to men's pleasure has been given to Aeschines,
and that which annoys (I may say) every one is
left for me. If, to avoid giving such annoyance,
I say nothing of all that I myself have done, it
will be thought that I am unable to clear myself
of the charges against me, or to show the
grounds upon which I claim to deserve
distinction. If, on the other hand, I proceed to
speak of my past acts and my political life, I
shall often be compelled to speak of myself. I
will endeavor, then, to do this as modestly as
possible; and for all that the necessities of
the case compel me to say, the blame must in
fairness be borne by the prosecutor, who
initiated a trial of such a kind as this.
I think, men of Athens, that you would all admit
that this present trial equally concerns myself
and Ctesiphon, and demands no less earnest
attention from me than from him. For while it is
a painful and a grievous thing for a man to be
robbed of anything, particularly if it is at the
hands of an enemy that this befalls him, it is
especially so, when he is robbed of your
goodwill and kindness, just in proportion as to
win these is the greatest possible gain. And
because such is the issue at stake in the
present trial, I request and entreat you all
alike to give me, while I make my defense upon
the charges that have been brought against me, a
fair hearing, as you are commanded to do by the
laws--those laws to which their original maker,
your well-wisher and the People's friend, Solon,
thought fit to give the sanction not of
enactment only, but also of an oath on the part
of those who act as judges: not because he
distrusted you (so at least it seems to me), but
because he saw that a defendant cannot escape
from the imputations and the slanders which fall
with special force from the prosecutor, because
he is the first to speak, unless each of you who
sit in judgment, keeping his conscience pure in
the sight of God, will receive the pleadings of
the later speaker also with the same favor, and
will thus, because his attention has been given
equally and impartially to both sides, form his
decision upon the case in its entirety.
And now, when I am about, as it seems, to render
an account of my whole private life and public
career, I would once more invoke the aid of the
gods; and in the presence of you all I pray,
first, that the goodwill which I ever feel
towards this city and towards all of you, may in
equal measure be vouchsafed to me by you at this
trial; and secondly, that whatsoever judgment
upon this present suit will conduce to your
public reputation, and the purity of each man's
conscience, that judgment they may put it into
all your minds to give.
Now if Aeschines had confined his charges to the
subject of the indictment, I too, in making my
defense, would have dealt at once with the
actual resolution of the Council. But since he
has devoted no less a portion of his speech to
the relation of other matters, and for the most
part has spoken against me falsely, I think it
is necessary, and at the same time just, that I
should deal briefly, men of Athens, with these,
in order that none of you may be led by
irrelevant arguments to listen less favorably to
my pleas in answer to the indictment itself.
As for his slanderous vituperation of my private
life, mark how straightforward and how just is
the reply that I make. If you know me as the man
that he charged me with being (for my life has
been spent nowhere but in your own midst), do
not even suffer me to speak--no, not though my
whole public career has been one of transcendent
merit--but rise and condemn me without delay.
But if, in your judgment and belief, I am a
better man than Aeschines, and come of better
men; if I and mine are no worse than any other
respectable persons, to use no offensive
expression, then do not trust him even in
regard to other points, for it is plain that all
that he said was equally fictitious; but once
more accord to me to-day the goodwill which
throughout the past you have so often displayed
towards
me in previous trials. Knave as you are,
Aeschines, you were assuredly more fool than
knave, when you thought that I should dismiss
all that I had to say with regard to my past
acts and political life, and should turn to meet
the abuse that fell from you. I shall not do so;
I am not so brain-sick; but I will review the
falsehoods and the calumnies which you uttered
against my political career; and then, if the
court desires it, I will afterwards refer to the
ribald language that has been so incontinently
used.
The offences charged against me are many; and
for some of them the laws assign heavy and even
the most extreme penalties. But I will tell you
what is the motive which animates the present
suit. It gives play to the malice of a personal
enemy, to his insolence, his abuse, his
contumelies, and every expression of his
hostility: and yet, assuming that the charges
and the imputations which have been made are
true, it does not enable the State to exact a
penalty that is adequate, or nearly adequate, to
the offences. For it is not right to seek to
debar another from coming before the people and
receiving a hearing, nor to do so in a spirit of
malice and envy. Heaven knows, it is neither
straightforward, nor citizen-like, nor just, men
of Athens! If the crimes by which he saw me
injuring the city were of such a magnitude as he
just now so theatrically set forth, he should
have had recourse to the punishments enjoined by
the laws at the time of the crimes themselves.
If he saw me so acting as to deserve
impeachment, he should have impeached me, and so
brought me to trial before you; if he saw me
proposing illegal measures, he should have
indicted me for their illegality. For surely, if
he can prosecute Ctesiphon on my account, he
would not have failed to indict me in person,
had he thought that he could convict me. And
further, if he saw me committing any of those
other crimes against you, which he just now
slanderously enumerated, or any other crimes
whatsoever, there are laws which deal with each,
and punishments, and lawsuits and judgments
involving penalties that are harsh and severe:
to all of these he could have had recourse; and
from the moment when it was seen that he had
acted so, and had conducted his hostilities
against me on that plan, his present accusation
of me would have been in line with his past
conduct. But as it is, he has forsaken the
straight path of justice; he has shrunk from all
attempts to convict me at the time; and after
all these years, with the imputations, the
jests, the invectives, that he has accumulated,
he appears to play his part. So it is, that
though his accusations are against me, it is
Ctesiphon that he prosecutes; and though he sets
his quarrel with me in the forefront of the
whole suit, he has never faced me in person to
settle the quarrel, and it is another whom we
see him trying to deprive of his civil rights.
Yet surely, besides everything else that may be
pleaded on behalf of Ctesiphon, this, I think,
may surely be most reasonably urged--that we
ought in justice to have brought our own quarrel
to the test by ourselves, instead of avoiding
all conflict with
one another, and looking for a third party to
whom we could do harm. Such
iniquity really passes all bounds.
From this one may
see the nature of all his charges alike,
uttered, as they have been, without justice or
regard for truth. Yet I desire also to examine
them severally, and more particularly the false
statements which he made against me in regard to
the Peace and the Embassy, when he ascribed to
me the things which he himself had done in
conjunction with Philocrates. And here it is
necessary, men of Athens, and perhaps
appropriate, that I should remind you of the
state of affairs subsisting during that period,
so that you may view each group of actions
in the light of the circumstances of the time.
When the Phocian war had broken out (not through
any action of mine, for I had not yet entered
public life), your own attitude, in the first
place, was such, that you wished for the
preservation of the Phocians, although you saw
that their actions were unjustifiable; while you
would have been delighted at anything that might
happen to the Thebans, against whom you felt an
indignation that was neither unreasonable nor
unfair; for they had not used their good fortune
at Leuctra with moderation. And, in the second
place, the Peloponnese was all disunited: those
who detested the Spartans were not strong
enough to annihilate them, and those who had
previously governed with the support of Sparta
were no longer able to maintain their
control over their cities; but both these and
all the other states were in a condition of
indeterminate strife and confusion. When Philip
saw this (for it was not hard to see), he tried,
by dispensing money to the traitors whom each
state contained, to throw them all into
collision and stir up one against another; and
thus, amid the blunders and perversity of
others, he was making his own preparations, and
growing great to the danger of all.
And when it became
clear to all that the then overbearing (but now
unhappy) Thebans, distressed by the length of
the war, would be forced to fly to you for aid,
Philip, to prevent this--to prevent the
formation of any union between the cities--made
offers of peace to you, and of assistance to
them. Now what was it that helped him, and
enabled him to find in you his almost willing
dupes? It was the baseness (if that is the right
name to use), or the ignorance, or both, of the
rest of the Hellenes, who, though you were
engaged in a long and continuous war, and that
on behalf of the interests of all, as has been
proved by the event, never assisted you either
with money or with men, or in any other way
whatsoever. And in your just and proper
indignation with them, you listened readily to
Philip. It was for these reasons, therefore, and
not through any action of mine, that the Peace
which we then conceded was negotiated; and any
one who investigates the matter honestly will
find that it is the crimes and the corrupt
practices of these men, in the course of the
negotiations, that are responsible for our
position to-day. It is in the interests of truth
that I enter into all these events with this
exactitude and thoroughness; for however strong
the appearance of criminality in these
proceedings may be, it has, I imagine, nothing
to do with me. The first man to suggest or
mention the Peace was Aristodemus the actor; and
the person who took the matter up and moved the
motion, and sold his services for the purpose,
along with Aeschines, was Philocrates of Hagnus--your
partner, Aeschines, not mine, even if you split
your sides with lying; while those who supported
him, from whatever motive (for of that I say
nothing at present), were Eubulus and
Cephisophon.
I had no part in
the matter anywhere. And yet, although the facts
are such as with absolute truth I am
representing them to be, he carried his
effrontery so far as to dare to assert that I
was not only responsible for the Peace, but had
also prevented the city from acting in
conjunction with a general assembly of the
Hellenes in making it. What? and you--oh! how
can one find a name that can be applied to
you?--when you saw me (for you were there)
preventing the city from taking this great step
and forming so grand an alliance as you just now
described, did you once raise a protest or come
forward to give information and to set forth the
crimes with which you now charge me? If I had
covenanted with Philip for money that I would
prevent the coalition of the Hellenes, your only
course was to refuse to keep silence--to cry
aloud, to protest, to reveal the fact to your
fellow countrymen. On no occasion did you do
this: no such utterance of yours was ever heard
by any one. In fact there was no embassy away at
the time on a mission to any Hellenic state; the
Hellenes had all long ago been tried and found
wanting; and in all that he has said upon this
matter there is not a single sound word. And,
apart from that, his falsehoods involve the
greatest calumnies upon this city. For if you
were at one and the same time convoking the
Hellenes with a view to war, and sending
ambassadors yourselves to Philip to discuss
peace, it was a deed for a Eurybatus, not a task
for a state or for honest men, that you were
carrying out. But that is not the case; indeed
it is not. For what could possibly have been
your object in summoning them at that moment?
Was it with a view to peace? But they all had
peace already. Or with a view to war? But you
were yourselves discussing peace. It is
therefore evident that neither was it I that
introduced or was responsible for the Peace in
its original shape, nor is one of all the other
falsehoods which he told of me shown to be true.
Again, consider the course of action which, when
the city had concluded the Peace, each of us now
chose to adopt. For from this you will know who
it was that co-operated with Philip throughout,
and who it was that acted in your interest and
sought the good of the city. As for me, I
proposed, as a member of the Council, that the
ambassadors should sail as quickly as possible
to any district in which they should ascertain
Philip to be, and receive his oath from him. But
even when I had carried this resolution, they
would not act upon it. What did this mean, men
of Athens? I will inform you. Philip's interest
required that the interval
before he took the oath should be as long as
possible; yours, that it should be as short as
possible. And why? Because you broke off all
your preparations for the war, not merely from
the day when he took the oath, but from the day
when you first hoped that Peace would be made;
and for his part, this was what he was all along
working for; for he thought (and with truth)
that whatever places he could snatch from Athens
before he took the oath, would remain securely
his, since no one would break the Peace for
their sake.
Foreseeing and
calculating upon this, men of Athens, I proposed
this decree, that we should sail to any district
in which Philip might be and receive his oath
as soon as possible, in order that the oaths
might be taken while the Thracians, your allies,
were still in possession of those strongholds of
which Aeschines just now spoke with contempt - Serrhium,
Myrtenum, and Ergiske. And that Philip might not
snatch from us the keys of the country and make
himself master of Thrace, nor obtain an abundant
supply of money and of soldiers, and so proceed
without difficulty to the prosecution of his
further designs. And now, instead of citing or
reading this decree he slanders me on the ground
that I thought fit, as a member of the Council,
to introduce the envoys. But what should I have
done? Was I to propose not to introduce those
who had come for the express purpose of speaking
with you? or to order the lessee of the theatre
not to assign them seats? But they would have
watched the play from the three penny seats, if
this decree had not been proposed. Should I have
guarded the interests of the city in petty
details, and sold them wholesale, as my
opponents did? Surely not. (To the clerk.) Now
take this decree, which the prosecutor passed
over, though he knew it well, and read it.
[The decree of Demosthenes is read.]
Though I had carried this decree, and was
seeking the good not of Philip, but of the city,
these worthy ambassadors paid little heed to it,
but sat idle in Macedonia for three whole
months, until Philip arrived from Thrace, after
subduing the whole country; when they might,
within ten days, or equally well within three or
four, have reached the Hellespont, and saved the
strongholds, by receiving his oath before he
could seize them. For he would not have touched
them when we were present; or else, if he had
done so, we should have refused to administer
the oath
to him; and in that case he would have failed to
obtain the Peace: he would not have had both the
Peace and the strongholds as well.
Such was Philip's first act of fraud during the
time of the Embassy, and the first instance of
venality on the part of these wicked men. And
over this I confess that then and now and always
I have been and am at war and at variance with
them. Now observe, immediately after this, a
second and even greater piece of villainy. As
soon as Philip had sworn to the Peace, after
first gaining possession of Thrace because these
men did not obey my decree, he obtained from
them, again by purchase, the postponement of our
departure from Macedonia, until all should be in
readiness for his campaign against the Phocians;
in order that, instead of our bringing home a
report of his intentions and his preparations
for the march, which would make you set out and
sail round to Thermopylae with your war-ships as
you did before, you might only hear our report
of the facts when he was already on this side of
Thermopylae, and you could do nothing. And
Philip was beset with such fear and such a
weight of anxiety, lest in spite of his
occupation of these places, his object should
slip from his grasp, if, before the Phocians
were destroyed, you resolved to assist them,
that he hired this despicable creature, not now
in company with his colleagues, but by himself
alone, to make to you a statement and a report
of such a character that owing to them all was
lost.
But I request and entreat you, men of
Athens, to remember throughout this whole trial,
that, had Aeschines made no accusation that was
not included in the indictment, I too would not
have said a word that did not bear upon it; but
since he has had recourse to all kinds of
imputation and slander at once, I am compelled
also to give a brief answer to each group of
charges. What then were the statements uttered
by him that day, in consequence of which all was
lost? 'You must not be
perturbed,' he said, 'at Philip's having crossed
to this side of Thermopylae; for you will get
everything that you desire, if you remain quiet;
and within two or three days you will hear that
he has become the friend of those whose enemy he
was, and the enemy of those whose friend he was,
when he first came. For,' said he, 'it is not
phrases that confirm friendships' (a finely
sententious expression!) 'but identity of
interest; and it is to the interest of Philip
and of the Phocians and of yourselves alike, to
be rid of the heartless and overbearing demeanor
of the
Thebans.' To these statements some gave a ready
ear, in consequence of the tacit ill-feeling
towards the Thebans at the time. What then
followed, and not after a long interval, but
immediately? The Phocians were overthrown. Their
cities were razed to the ground. You who had
believed Aeschines and remained inactive were
soon afterwards bringing in your effects from
the country; while Aeschines received his gold;
and besides all this, the city reaped the
ill-will of the Thebans and Thessalians, while
their gratitude for what had been done went to
Philip. To prove that this is so, (to the clerk)
read me both the decree of Callisthenes, and
Philip's letter. (To the jury.) These two
documents together will make all the facts
plain. (To the clerk.) Read.
[The decree of Callisthenes is read.]
Were these the hopes, on the strength of which
you made the Peace? Was
this what this hireling promised you? (To the
clerk.) Now read the letter which Philip sent
after this.
[Philip's letter is read.]
You hear how obviously, in this letter sent to
you, Philip is addressing definite information
to his own allies. 'I have done these things,'
he tells them, 'against the will of the
Athenians, and to their annoyance; and so, men
of Thebes and Thessaly, if you are wise, you
will regard them as enemies, and will trust me.'
He does not write in those actual terms, but
that is what he intends to indicate. By these
means he so carried them away, that they did not
foresee or realize any of the consequences, but
allowed him to get everything into his own
power: and
that is why, poor men, they have experienced
their present calamities. But the man who helped
him to create this confidence, who co-operated
with him, who brought home that false report and
deluded you, he it is who now bewails the
sufferings of the Thebans and enlarges upon
their piteousness--he, who is himself the cause
both of these and of the misery in Phocis, and
of all the other evils which the Hellenes have
endured. Yes, it is evident that you are pained
at what has come to pass, Aeschines, and that
you are sorry for the Thebans, when you have
property in Boeotia and are farming the land
that was theirs; and that I rejoice at it--I,
whose surrender was immediately demanded by the
author of the
disaster! But I have digressed into subjects of
which it will perhaps be more convenient to
speak presently. I will return to the proofs
which show that it is the crimes of these men
that are the cause of our condition to-day.
For when you had been deceived by Philip,
through the agency of these men, who while
serving as ambassadors had sold themselves and
made a report in which there was not a word of
truth--when the unhappy Phocians had been
deceived and their cities annihilated--what
followed? The despicable Thessalians and the
slow-witted Thebans regarded Philip as their
friend, their benefactor, their savior. Philip
was their all-in-all. They would not even listen
to the voice of any one who wished to express a
different opinion. You yourselves, though you
viewed what had been done with suspicion and
vexation, nevertheless kept the Peace; for there
was nothing else that you could have done. And
the other Hellenes, who, like yourselves, had
been deluded and disappointed of their hopes,
also kept the Peace, and gladly; since in a
sense they also were remotely aimed at by the
war. For when Philip was going about and
subduing the Illyrians and Triballi and some of
the Hellenes as well, and bringing many large
forces into his own power, and when some of the
members of the several States were taking
advantage of the Peace to travel to Macedonia,
and were being corrupted--Aeschines among
them--at such a time all of those whom Philip
had in view in thus making his preparations were
really being attacked by him. Whether they
failed to realize it is another
question, which does not concern me.
For I was
continually uttering warnings and protests, both
in your midst and wherever I was sent. But the
cities were stricken with disease: those who
were engaged in political and practical affairs
were taking bribes and being corrupted by the
hope of money; while the mass of private
citizens either showed no foresight, or else
were caught by the bait of ease and leisure from
day to day; and all alike had fallen victims to
some such delusive fancy, as that the danger
would come upon every one but themselves, and
that through the perils of others they would be
able to secure their own position as they
pleased. And so I suppose, it has come to pass
that the masses have atoned for their great and
ill-timed indifference by the loss of their
freedom, while the leaders in affairs, who
fancied that they were selling everything except
themselves, have realized that they had sold
themselves first of all. For instead of being
called friends and guest-friends, as they were
called at the time when they were taking their
bribes, they now hear themselves called
flatterers, and god-forsaken, and all the other
names that they deserve. For no one, men of
Athens, spends his money out of a desire to
benefit the traitor; nor, when once he has
secured the object for which he bargains, does
he employ the traitor to advise him with regard
to other objects: if it were so, nothing could
be happier than a traitor. But it is not so, of
course. Far from it! When the aspirant after
dominion has gained his object, he is also the
master of those who have sold it to him: and
because then he knows their villainy, he then
hates and mistrusts them, and covers them with
insults. For observe, for even if the time of
the events is past, the time for realizing
truths like these is ever present to wise men.
Lasthenes was
called his friend but only until he had
betrayed Olynthus. And Timolaus; but only until
he had destroyed Thebes. And Eudicus and Simus
of Larissa; but only until they had put Thessaly
in Philip's power. And now, persecuted as they
are, and insulted, and subjected to every kind
of misery, the whole inhabited world has become
filled with such men. And what of Aristratus at
Sicyon? what of Perillus at Megara? Are they not
outcasts? From these instances one can see very
clearly, that it is he who best protects his own
country and speaks most constantly against such
men, that secures for traitors and hirelings
like yourselves, Aeschines, the continuance of
your opportunities for taking bribes. It is the
majority of those who are here, those who resist
your will, that you must thank for the fact that
you live and draw your pay; for, left to
yourselves, you would long ago have perished.
There is still much that I might say about the
transactions of that time, but I think that even
what I have said is more than enough. The blame
rests with Aeschines, who has drenched me with
the stale dregs of his own villainy and crime
from which I was compelled to clear myself in
the eyes of those who are too young to remember
the events; though perhaps you who knew, even
before I said a single word, of Aeschines'
service as a hireling, may have felt some
annoyance as you listened. He calls it,
forsooth, 'friendship' and 'guest-friendship';
and somewhere in his speech just now he used the
expression, 'the man who casts in my teeth my
guest-friendship with Alexander.' I cast in your
teeth your guest-friendship with Alexander? How
did you acquire it? How came you to be thought
worthy of it? Never would I call you the
guest-friend of Philip or the friend of
Alexander--I am not so insane--unless you are to
call harvesters and other hired servants the
friends and guest-friends of those who have
hired them. But that is not the case, of
course. Far from it! Nay, I call you the
hireling, formerly of Philip, and now of
Alexander, and so do all who are present. If you
disbelieve me, ask them--or rather I will ask
them for you. Men of Athens, do you think of Aeschines as the hireling or as the guest-friend
of Alexander? You hear what they say.
I now wish, without more delay, to make my
defense upon the indictment itself, and to go
through my past acts, in order that Aeschines
may hear (though he knows them well) the grounds
on which I claim to have a right both to the
gifts which the Council have proposed, and even
to far greater than these. (To the clerk.) Now
take the indictment and read it.
[The indictment is read.]
These, men of Athens, are the points in the
resolution which the prosecutor assails; and
these very points will, I think, afford me my
first means of proving to you that the defense
which I am about to offer is an absolutely fair
one. For I will take the points of the
indictment in the very same order as the
prosecutor: I will speak of each in succession,
and will knowingly pass over nothing. Any
decision upon the statement that I 'consistently
do and say what is best for the People, and am
eager to do whatever good I can', and upon the
proposal to vote me thanks for this, depends, I
consider, upon my past political career: for it
is by an
investigation of my career that either the truth
and the propriety, or else the falsehood, of
these statements which Ctesiphon has made about
me will be discovered. Again, the proposal to
crown me, without the addition of the clause
'when he has submitted to his examination', and
the order to proclaim the award of the crown in
the theatre, must, I imagine, stand or fall with
my political career; for the question is whether
I deserve the crown and the proclamation before
my fellow countrymen or not. At the same time I
consider myself further bound to point out to
you the laws under which the defendant's
proposal could be made. In this honest and
straightforward manner, men of Athens, I have
determined to make my defense; and now I will
proceed to speak of my past actions themselves.
And let no one imagine that I am detaching my
argument from its connection with the
indictment, if I break into a discussion of
international transactions. For it is the
prosecutor who, by assailing the clause of the
decree which states that I do and say what is
best, and by indicting it as false, has rendered
the discussion of my whole political career
essentially germane to the indictment; and
further, out of the many careers which public
life offers, it was the department of
international
affairs that I chose; so that I have a right to
derive my proofs also from that department.
I will pass over all that Philip snatched from
us and secured, in the days before I took part
in public life as an orator. None of these
losses, I imagine, has anything to do with me.
But I will recall to you, and will render you an
account of all that, from the day when I entered
upon this career, he was prevented from taking,
when I have made one remark. Philip, men of
Athens, had a great advantage in his favor. For
in the midst of the Hellenic peoples--and not of
some only, but of all alike--there had sprung up
a crop of traitors--corrupt, god-forsaken
men--more
numerous than they have ever been within the
memory of man. These he took to help and
co-operate with him; and great as the mutual
ill-will and dissensions of the Hellenes already
were, he rendered them even worse, by deceiving
some, making presents to others, and corrupting
others in every way; and at a time when all had
in reality but one interest--to prevent his
becoming powerful--he divided them into a number
of factions.
All the Hellenes
then being in this condition, still ignorant of
the growing and accumulating evil, you have to
ask yourselves, men of Athens, what policy and
action it was fitting for the city to choose,
and to hold me responsible for this; for the
person who assumed that responsibility in the
State was myself. Should she, Aeschines, have
sacrificed her pride and her own dignity? Should
she have joined the ranks of the Thessalians and
Dolopes, and helped Philip to acquire the empire
of Hellas, cancelling thereby the noble and
righteous deeds of our forefathers? Or, if she
should not have done this (for it would have
been in very truth an atrocious thing), should
she have looked on, while all that she saw would
happen, if no one prevented it--all that she
realized, it seems, at a distance--was actually
taking place? Nay, I should be glad to ask
to-day the severest critic of my actions, which
party he would have desired the city to
join--the party which shares the responsibility
for the misery and disgrace which has fallen
upon the Hellenes (the party of the Thessalians
and their supporters, one may call it), or the
party which looked on while these calamities
were taking place, in the hope of gaining some
advantage for themselves--in which we should
place the Arcadians and Messenians and Argives.
But even of these, many--nay, all--have in the
end fared worse than we. For if Philip had
departed immediately after his victory, and gone
his way; if afterwards he had remained at peace,
and had given no trouble whatever to any of his
own allies or of the other Hellenes; then there
would have been some ground for blaming and
accusing those who had opposed his plans. But if
he has stripped them all alike of their dignity,
their paramountcy, and their independence--nay,
even of their free constitutions, wherever he
could do so--can it be denied that the policy
which you adopted on my advice was the most
glorious policy possible?
But I return to my former point. What was it
fitting for the city to do, Aeschines, when she
saw Philip establishing for himself a despotic
sway over the Hellenes? What language should
have been used, what measures proposed, by the
adviser of the people at Athens (for that it was
at Athens makes the utmost difference), when I
knew that from the very first, up to the day
when I myself ascended the platform, my country
had always contended for pre-eminence, honor,
and glory, and in the cause of honor, and for
the interests of all, had sacrificed more money
and lives than any other Hellenic people had
spent for their private ends: when I saw that
Philip himself, with whom our conflict lay, for
the sake of empire and absolute power, had had
his eye knocked out, his collar-bone broken, his
hand and his leg maimed, and was ready to resign
any part of his body that Fortune chose to take
from him, provided that with what remained he
might live in honor and glory? And surely no one
would dare to say that it was fitting that in
one bred at Pella, a place then inglorious and
insignificant, there should have grown up so
lofty a spirit that he aspired after the empire
of Hellas, and conceived such a project in his
mind; but that in you, who are Athenians, and
who day by day in all that
you hear and see behold the memorials of the
gallantry of your forefathers, such baseness
should be found, that you would yield up your
liberty to Philip by your own deliberate offer
and deed. No man would say this. One alternative
remained, and that, one which you were bound to
take--that of a righteous resistance to the
whole course of action by which he was doing you
injury. You acted thus from the first, quite
rightly and properly; while I helped by my
proposals and advice during the time of my
political activity, and I do not deny it. But
what ought I to
have done? For the time has come to ask you
this, Aeschines, and to dismiss everything else.
Amphipolis, Pydna, Poteidaea, Halonnesus--all
are blotted from my memory.
As for Serrhium,
Doriscus, the sack of Peparethus, and all the
other injuries inflicted upon the city, I
renounce all knowledge of their ever having
happened--though you actually said that I
involved my countrymen in hostility by talking
of these things, when the decrees which deal
with them were the work of Eubulus and
Aristophon and Diopeithes, and not mine at
all--so glibly do you assert anything that suits
your purpose! But of this too I say nothing at
present. I only ask you whether Philip, who was
appropriating Euboea, and establishing it as a
stronghold to command Attica; who was making an
attempt upon Megara, seizing Oreus, razing the
walls of Porthmus, setting up Philistides as
tyrant at Oreus and Cleitarchus at Eretria,
bringing the Hellespont into his own power,
besieging Byzantium, destroying some of the
cities of Hellas, and restoring his exiled
friends to others--whether he, I say, in acting
thus, was guilty of wrong, violating the truce
and breaking the Peace, or not? Was it fit that
one of the Hellenes should arise to prevent it,
or not? If it was not fit--if it was fit that
Hellas should become like the Mysian booty in
the proverb before men's eyes, while the
Athenians had life and being, then I have lost
my labor in speaking upon this theme, and the
city has lost its labor in obeying me: then let
everything that has been done be counted for a
crime and a blunder, and those my own! But if it
was right that one should arise to prevent it,
for whom could the task be more fitting than for
the people of Athens? That then, was the aim of
my policy; and when I saw Philip reducing all
mankind to servitude, I opposed him, and without
ceasing warned and exhorted you to make no
surrender.
But the Peace, Aeschines, was in reality broken
by Philip, when he seized the corn-ships, not by
Athens. (To the clerk.) Bring the decrees
themselves, and the letter of Philip, and read
them in order. (To the jury.) For they will make
it clear who is responsible, and for what.
[A decree is read]
This decree then was proposed by Eubulus, not by
me. And the next by Aristophon; he is followed
first by Hegesippus, and he by Aristophon again,
and then by Philocrates, then by Cephisophon,
and then by all of them. But I proposed no
decree upon this subject. (To the clerk.) Read.
[Decrees are read.]
As then I point to these decrees, so, Aeschines,
do you point to a decree of any kind, proposed
by me, which makes me responsible for the war.
You cannot do so: for had you been able, there
is nothing which you would sooner have produced.
Indeed, even Philip himself makes no charge
against me as regards the war, though he
complains of others. (To the clerk.) Read
Philip's letter itself.
[Philip's letter is read.]
In this letter he has nowhere mentioned the name
of Demosthenes, nor made any charge against me.
Why is it then that, though he complains of
others, he has not mentioned my own actions?
Because, if he had written anything about me, he
must have mentioned his own acts of wrong; for
it was these acts upon which I kept my grip, and
these which I opposed. First of all, when he was
trying to steal into the Peloponnese, I proposed
the embassy to the Peloponnese; then, when he
was grasping at Euboea, the embassy to Euboea;
then the expedition--not an embassy any more--to
Oreus, and that to Eretria, when he had
established tyrants in those cities. After that
I dispatched all the naval expeditions, in the
course of which the Chersonese and Byzantium and
all our allies were saved. In consequence of
this, the noblest rewards at the hands of those
who had benefited by your action became
yours--votes of thanks, glory, honors, crowns,
gratitude; while of the victims of his
aggression, those who followed your advice at
the time secured their own deliverance, and
those who neglected it had the memory of your
warnings constantly in their minds, and regarded
you not merely as their well-wishers, but as men
of wisdom and prophetic insight; for all that
you foretold has come to pass. And further, that Philistides would have given a large sum to
retain Oreus, and Cleitarchus to retain Eretria,
and Philip himself, to be able
to count upon the use of these places against
you, and to escape all exposure of his other
proceedings and all investigation, by any one in
any place, of his wrongful acts--all this is not
unknown to any one, least of all to you, Aeschines. For the envoys sent at that time by
Cleitarchus and Philistides lodged at your
house, when they came here, and you acted as
their patron. Though the city rejected them, as
enemies whose proposals were neither just nor
expedient, to you they were friends. None of
their attempts succeeded, slander me though you
may, when you assert that I say nothing when I
receive money, but cry out when I spend it.
That, certainly, is not your way for you cry out
with money in your hands, and will never cease,
unless those present cause you to do so by
taking away your civil rights to-day.
Now on that
occasion, gentlemen, you crowned me for my
conduct. Aristonicus proposed a decree whose
very syllables were identical with those of
Ctesiphon's present proposal; the crown was
proclaimed in the theatre; and this was already
the second proclamation in my honor: and yet
Aeschines, though he was there, neither opposed
the decree, nor indicted the mover. (To the
clerk.) Take this decree also and read it.
[The decree of Aristonicus is read.]
Now is any of you aware of any discredit that
attached itself to the city owing to this
decree? Did any mockery or ridicule ensue, such
as Aeschines said must follow on the present
occasion, if I were crowned? But surely when
proceedings are recent and well known to all,
then it is that, if they are satisfactory, they
meet with gratitude, and if they are otherwise,
with punishment. It appears, then, that on that
occasion I met with gratitude, not with blame or
punishment. Thus the fact that, up to the time
when these events took place, I acted throughout
as was best for the city, has been acknowledged
by the victory of my advice and my proposals in
your deliberations, by the successful execution
of the measures which I proposed, and the award
of crowns in consequence of them to the city and
to myself and to all, and by your celebration of
sacrifices to the gods, and processions, in
thankfulness for these blessings.
When Philip had been expelled from Euboea--and
while the arms which expelled him were yours,
the statesmanship and the decrees (even though
some of my opponents may split their sides) were
mine--he proceeded to look for some other
stronghold from which he could threaten the
city. And seeing that we were more dependent
than any other people upon imported corn, and
wishing to get our corn-trade into his power, he
advanced to Thrace. First, he requested the
Byzantines, his own allies, to join him in the
war against you; and when they refused and said
(with truth) that they had not made their
alliance with him for such a purpose, he erected
a stockade against the city, brought up his
engines, and proceeded to besiege it. I will not
ask again what you ought to have done when this
was happening; it is manifest to all. But who
was it that went to the
rescue of the Byzantines, and saved them? Who
was it that prevented the Hellespont from
falling into other hands at that time? It was
you, men of Athens--and when I say 'you', I mean
this city. And who was it that spoke and moved
resolutions and acted for the city, and gave
himself up unsparingly to the business of the
State? It was I. But of the immense benefit thus
conferred upon all, you no longer need words of
mine to tell you, since you have had actual
experience of it. For the war which then ensued,
apart from the glorious reputation that it
brought you, kept you supplied with the
necessaries of life in greater plenty and at
lower prices than the present Peace, which these
worthy men are guarding to their country's
detriment, in their hopes of something yet to be
realized. May those hopes be disappointed! May
they share the fortune which you, who wish for
the best, ask of the gods, rather than cause you
to share that upon which their own choice is
fixed! (To the clerk.) Read out to the jury the
crowns awarded to the city in consequence of her
action by the Byzantines and by the Perinthians.
[The decree of the
Byzantines is read.]
Read out also the crowns awarded by the peoples
of the Chersonese.
[The decree of the peoples of the Chersonese is
read.]
Thus the policy which I had adopted was not only
successful in saving the Chersonese and
Byzantium, in preventing the Hellespont from
falling at that time into the power of Philip,
and in bringing honors to the city in
consequence, but it revealed to the whole world
the noble gallantry of Athens and the baseness
of Philip. For all saw that he, the ally of the
Byzantines, was besieging them--what could be
more shameful or revolting? and on the other
hand, it was seen that you, who might fairly
have urged many well-founded complaints against
them for their inconsiderate conduct towards you
at an earlier period, not only refused to
remember your grudge and to abandon the victims
of aggression, but actually
delivered them; and in consequence of this, you
won glory and goodwill on
all hands. And further, though every one knows
that you have crowned many
public men before now, no one can name any but
myself--that is to say, any
public counselor and orator--for whose merits
the city has received a crown.
In order to prove to you, also, that the
slanders which he uttered against the Euboeans
and Byzantines, as he recalled to you any
ill-natured action that they had taken towards
you in the past, are disingenuous calumnies, not
only because they are false (for this, I think,
you may all be assumed to know), but also
because, however true they might be, it was
still to your advantage to deal with the
political situation as I have done, I desire to
describe, and that briefly, one or two of the
noble deeds which this city has done in your own
time. For an individual and a State should
strive always, in their respective spheres, to
fashion their future conduct after the highest
examples that their past affords. Thus, men of
Athens, at a time when the Spartans were masters
of land and sea, and were retaining their hold,
by means of governors and garrisons, upon the
country all round Attica--Euboea, Tanagra, all
Boeotia, Megara, Aegina, Ceos, and the other
islands--and when Athens possessed neither ships
nor walls, you marched forth to Haliartus, and
again, not many days later, to Corinth, though
the Athenians of that day might have borne a
heavy grudge against both the Corinthians and
the
Thebans for the part they had played in
reference to the Deceleian War. But they bore no
such grudge. Far from it! And neither of these
actions, Aeschines, was taken by them to help
benefactors; nor was the prospect before them
free from danger. Yet they did not on that
account sacrifice those who fled to them for
help. For the sake of glory and honor they were
willing to expose themselves to the danger; and
it was a right and a noble spirit that inspired
their counsels. For the life of all men must end
in death, though a man shut himself in a chamber
and keep watch; but brave men must ever set
themselves to do that which is noble,
with their joyful hope for their buckler, and
whatsoever God gives, must bear it gallantly.
Thus did your forefathers, and thus did the
elder among yourselves: for, although the
Spartans were no friends or benefactors of
yours, but had done much grievous wrong to the
city, yet, when the Thebans, after their victory
at Leuctra, attempted to annihilate them, you
prevented it, not terrified by the strength or
the reputation which the Thebans then enjoyed,
nor reckoning up what the men had done to you,
for whom you were to face this peril. And thus,
as you know, you revealed to all the Hellenes,
that whatever offences may be committed against
you, though under all other circumstances you
show your resentment of them, yet if any danger
to life or freedom overtakes the transgressors,
you will bear no grudge and make no reckoning.
Nor was it in these
instances only that you were thus disposed. For
once more, when the Thebans were appropriating
Euboea, you did not look on while it was done;
you did not call to mind the wrong which had
been done to you in the matter of Oropus by
Themison and Theodorus: you helped even these;
and it was then that the city for the first time
had voluntary trierarchs, of whom I was one. But
I will not speak of this yet. And although to
save the island was itself a noble thing to do,
it was a yet nobler thing by far, that when
their lives and their cities were absolutely in
your power, you gave them back, as it was right
to do, to the very men who had
offended against you, and made no reckoning,
when such trust had been placed in you, of the
wrongs which you had suffered. I pass by the
innumerable instances which I might still
give--battles at sea, expeditions [by land,
campaigns] both long ago and now in our day; in
all of which the object of the city has been to
defend the freedom and safety of the other
Hellenic peoples. And so, when in all these
striking examples I had beheld the city ever
ready to strive in defense of the
interests of others, what was I likely to bid
her do, what action was I likely to recommend to
her, when the debate to some extent concerned
her own interests? 'Why,' you would say, 'to
remember her grudge against those who wanted
deliverance, and to look for excuses for
sacrificing everything!' And who would not have
been justified in putting me to death, if I had
attempted to bring shame upon the city's high
traditions, though it were only by word? The
deed itself you would never have done, I know
full well; for had you desired to do it, what
was there to hinder you? Were you not free so to
act? Had you not these men here to propose it?
I wish now to return to the next in succession
of my political acts; and here again you must
ask yourselves, what was the best thing for the
city? For, men of Athens, when I saw that your
navy was breaking up, and that, while the rich
were obtaining exemption on the strength of
small payments, citizens of moderate or small
means were losing all that they had; and
further, that in consequence of these things the
city was always missing her opportunities; I
enacted a law in accordance with which I
compelled the former--the rich--to do their duty
fairly; I put an end to the injustice done to
the poor, and (what was the greatest service of
all to the State) I caused our preparations to
be made in time. When I was indicted for this, I
appeared before you at the ensuing trial, and
was acquitted; the prosecutor failed to obtain
the necessary fraction of the votes. But what
sums do you think the leaders of the
Taxation-Boards, or those who stood second or
third, offered me, to induce me, if possible,
not to enact the law, or at least to let it drop
and lie under sworn notice of prosecution? They
offered sums so large, men of Athens, that I
should hesitate to mention them to you. It was a
natural course for them to take. For under the
former laws it was possible for them to
divide their obligation between sixteen persons,
paying little or nothing themselves, and
grinding down their poorer fellow citizens:
while by my law each must pay down a sum
calculated in proportion to his property; and a
man came to be charged with two warships, who
had previously been one of sixteen subscribers
to a single one (for they used now to call
themselves no longer captains of their ships,
but subscribers). Thus there was nothing that
they were not willing to give, if only the new
plan could be brought to nothing, and they could
escape being compelled to do their duty fairly.
(To the clerk.) Now read me, first, the decree
in
accordance with which I had to meet the
indictment; and then the lists of those liable
under the former law, and under my own,
respectively. Read.
[The decree is read.]
Now produce that noble list.
[A list is read.]
Now produce, for comparison with this, the list
under my own law.
[A list is read.]
Was this, think you, but a trifling assistance
which I rendered to the poor among you? Would
the wealthy have spent but a trifling sum to
avoid doing their duty fairly? I am proud not
only of having refused all compromise upon the
measure, not only of having been acquitted when
I was indicted, but also of having enacted a law
which was beneficial, and of having given proof
of it in practice. For throughout the war the
armaments were equipped under my law, and no trierarch ever laid the suppliants' branch
before you in token of grievance, nor took
sanctuary at Munychia; none was imprisoned by
the Admiralty Board; no warship was abandoned at
sea and lost to the State, or left behind here
as unseaworthy. Under the former laws all these
things used to happen; and the reason was that
the obligation rested upon the poor, and in
consequence there were many cases of inability
to discharge it. I transferred the duties of the
trierarchy from the poor to the rich; and
therefore every duty was properly fulfilled.
Aye, and for this very reason I deserve to
receive praise--that I always adopted such
political measures
as brought with them accessions of glory and
honor and power to the city. No measure of mine
is malicious, harsh, or unprincipled; none is
degrading or unworthy of the city. The same
spirit will be seen both in my domestic and my
international policy. For just as in home
affairs I did not set the favor of the rich
above the rights of the many, so in
international affairs I did not embrace the
gifts and the friendship of Philip, in
preference to the common interests of all the
Hellenes.
It still remains for me, I suppose, to speak
about the proclamation, and about my
examination. The statement that I acted for the
best, and that I am loyal to you throughout and
eager to do you good service, I have proved, I
think, sufficiently, by what I have said. At the
same time I am passing over the most important
parts of my political life and actions; for I
conceive that I ought first to render to you in
their proper order my arguments in regard to the
alleged illegality itself: which done, even if I
say nothing about the rest of my political acts,
I can still rely upon that personal knowledge of
them which each of you possesses.
Of the arguments which the prosecutor jumbled
together in utter confusion with reference to
the laws accompanying his indictment, I am quite
certain that you could not follow the greater
part, nor could I understand them myself. But I
will simply address you straightforwardly upon
the question of right. So far am I from claiming, as he just now slanderously declared, to be
free from the liability to render an account,
that I admit a life-long liability to account
for every part of my
administration and policy. But I do not admit
that I am liable for one single day, you hear
me, Aeschines? to account for what I have given
to the People as a free-will offering out of my
private estate. Nor is any one else so liable,
not even if he is one of the nine archons.
What
law is so replete with injustice and
churlishness, that when a man has made a present
out of his private property and done an act of
generosity and munificence, it deprives him of
the gratitude due to him, hales him before a
court of disingenuous critics, and sets them to
audit accounts of sums which he himself has
given? There is no such law. If the prosecutor
asserts that there is, let him produce it, and I
will resign myself and
say no more. But the law does not exist, men of
Athens; this is nothing but an informer's trick
on the part of Aeschines, who, because I was
Controller of the Festival Fund when I made this
donation, says, 'Ctesiphon proposed a vote of
thanks to him when he was still liable to
account.' The vote of thanks was not for any of
the things for which I was liable to account; it
was for my voluntary gift, and your charge is a
misrepresentation. 'Yes,' you say, 'but you were
also a Commissioner of Fortifications.' I was,
and thanks were rightly accorded me on the very
ground that, instead of charging the sums which
I spent, I made a present
of them. A statement of account, it is true,
calls for an audit and scrutineers; but a free
gift deserves gratitude and thanks; and that is
why the defendant proposed this motion in my
favor. That this principle is not merely laid
down in the laws, but rooted in your national
character, I shall have no difficulty in proving
by many instances. Nausicles, to begin with, has
often been crowned by you, while general, for
sacrifices which he had made from his private
funds. Again, when
Diotimus gave the shields, and Charidemus
afterwards, they were crowned. And again,
Neoptolemus here, while still director of many
public works, has received honors for his
voluntary gifts. It would really be too bad, if
any one who held any office must either be
debarred thereby from making a present to the
State, or else, instead of receiving due
gratitude, must submit accounts of the sums
given. To prove the truth of my statements, (to
the clerk) take and read the actual decrees
which were passed in honor of these persons.
Read.
[Two decrees are read.]
Each of these persons, Aeschines, was
accountable as regards the office which he held,
but not as regards the services for which he was
crowned. Nor am I, therefore; for I presume that
I have the same rights as others with reference
to the same matters. I made a voluntary gift.
For this I receive thanks; for I am not liable
to account for what I gave. I was holding
office. True, and I have rendered an account of
my official expenditure, but not of what I gave
voluntarily. Ah! but I exercised my office
iniquitously! What? and you were there, when the
auditors brought me before them, and did not
accuse me?
Now that the court may see that the prosecutor
himself bears me witness that I was crowned for
services of which I was not liable to render an
account, (to the clerk) take and read the decree
which was proposed in my honor, in its entirety.
(To the jury.) The points which he has omitted
to indict in the Council's resolution will show
that the charges which he does make are
deliberate misrepresentations. (To the clerk.)
Read.
[The decree is read.]
My donations then, were these, of which you have
not made one the subject of indictment. It is
the reward for these, which the Council states
to be my due, that you attack. You admit that it
was legal to accept the gifts offered, and you
indict as illegal the return of gratitude for
them. In Heaven's name, what must the perfect
scoundrel, the really heaven-detested, malignant
being be like? Must he not be a man like this?
But as regards the proclamation in the theatre,
I pass by the fact that ten thousand persons
have been thus proclaimed on ten thousand
different occasions, and that my own name has
often been so proclaimed before. But, in
Heaven's name, Aeschines, are you so perverse
and stupid, that you cannot grasp the fact that
the recipient of the crown feels the same pride
wherever the crown is proclaimed, and that it is
for the benefit of those who confer it that the
proclamation is made in the theatre? For those
who hear are stimulated to do good service to
the State, and commend those who return
gratitude for such service even more than they
commend the recipient of the crown. That is why
the city has enacted this law. (To the clerk.)
Take the law itself and read it.
[The law is read.]
Do you hear, Aeschines, the plain words of the
law? 'Except such as the People or the Council
shall resolve so to proclaim. But let these be
proclaimed.' Why, wretched man, do you lay this
dishonest charge? Why do you invent false
arguments? Why do you not take hellebore to cure
you? What? Are you not ashamed to bring a case
founded upon envy, not upon any crime--to alter
some of the laws, and to leave out parts of
others, when they ought surely, in justice, to
be read entire to those who have sworn to give
their votes in accordance with the laws? And
then, while you act in this way, you enumerate
the qualities which should be found in a friend
of the People, as if you had contracted for a
statue, and discovered on receiving it that it
had not the features required by the contract;
or as if a friend of the People was known by a
definition, and not by his works and his
political measures! And you shout out
expressions, proper and improper, like a reveler on a cart--expressions which apply to
you and your house, not to me. I will add this
also, men of Athens. The difference between
abuse and accusation is, I imagine, that an
accusation is founded upon crimes, for which the
penalties are assigned by law; abuse, upon such
slanders as their own character leads enemies to
utter about one another. And I conceive that our
forefathers built these courts of law, not that
we might assemble you here and revile one
another with improper expressions suggested by
our adversary's private life, but that we might
convict any one who happens to have committed
some crime against the State. Aeschines knew
this as well as I; and yet he chose to make a
ribald attack instead of an accusation. At the
same time, it is not fair that he should go off
without getting as much as he gives, even in
this respect; and when I have asked him one
question, I will at once proceed to the attack.
Are we to call
you, Aeschines, the enemy of the State, or of
myself? Of myself, of course. What? And when you
might have exacted the penalty from me, on
behalf of your fellow countrymen, according to
the laws--at public examinations, by indictment,
by all other forms of trial--did you always omit
to do so? And yet to-day, when I am unassailable
upon every ground--on the ground of law, of
lapse of time, of the statutable limit, of the
many previous trials which I have undergone upon
every
charge, without having once been convicted of
any crime against you to this day--and when the
city must necessarily share to a greater or
smaller degree in the glory of acts which were
really acts of the people, have you confronted
me upon such an issue as this? Take care lest,
while you profess to be my enemy, you prove to
be the enemy of your fellow countrymen!
Since then I have shown you all what is the vote
which religion and justice demand of you, I am
now obliged, it would seem, by the slanders
which he has uttered (though I am no lover of
abuse) to reply to his many falsehoods by saying
just what is absolutely necessary about himself,
and showing who he is, and whence he is sprung,
that he so lightly begins to use bad language,
pulling to pieces certain expressions of mine,
when he has himself used expressions which any
respectable man would have shrunk from uttering;
for if the accuser were Aeacus or Rhadamanthus
or Minos, instead of a scandal-monger, an old
hand in the marketplace, a pestilent clerk, I do
not believe that he would have spoken thus, or
produced such a stock of ponderous phrases,
crying aloud, as if he were acting a tragedy, 'O
Earth and Sun and Virtue,' and the like; or
again, invoking 'Wit and Culture, by which
things noble and base are discerned apart'--for,
of course, you heard him speaking in this way.
Scum of the earth! What have you or yours to do
with virtue? How should you discern what is
noble and what is not? Where and how did you get
your qualification to do so? What right have you
to mention culture anywhere? A man of genuine
culture would not only never have asserted such
a thing of himself, but would have blushed to
hear another do so: and
those who, like you, fall far short of it, but
are tactless enough to claim it, succeed only in
causing distress to their hearers, when they
speak--not in seeming to be what they profess.
But though I am not at a loss to know what to
say about you and yours, I am at a loss to know
what to mention first. Shall I tell first how
your father Tromes was a slave in the house of
Elpias, who kept an elementary school near the
temple of Theseus, and how he wore shackles and
a wooden halter? Or how your mother, by
celebrating her daylight nuptials in her hut
near the shrine of the Hero of the Lancet, was
enabled to rear you, her beautiful statue, the
prince of third-rate actors? But these things
are known to all without my telling them. Shall
I tell how Phormio, the ship's piper, the slave
of Dion of Phrearrii, raised her up out of this
noble profession? But, before God and every
Heavenly Power, I shudder lest in using
expressions which are fitly applied to you, I
may be thought to have chosen a subject upon
which it ill befits myself to speak. So I will
pass this by, and will begin with the acts of
his own life; for they were not like any chance
actions, but such as the people curses. For only
lately--lately, do I say? only yesterday or the
day before--did he become at once an Athenian
and an orator, and by the addition of two
syllables converted his father from Tromes into
Atrometus, and gave his mother the imposing name
of Glaucothea, when every one knows that she
used to be called Empusa--a name which was
obviously given her because
there was nothing that she would not do or have
done to her; for how else
should she have acquired it? Yet, in spite of
this, you are of so ungrateful and villainous a
nature, that though, thanks to your countrymen,
you have risen from slavery to freedom, and from
poverty to wealth, far from feeling gratitude to
them, you devote your political activity to
working against them as a hireling. I will pass
over every case in which there is any room for
the contention that he has spoken in the
interests of the city, and will remind you of
the acts which he was
manifestly proved to have done for the good of
her enemies.
Which of you has not heard of Antiphon, who
was struck off the list of citizens, and came
into the city in pursuance of a promise to
Philip that he would burn the dockyards? I found
him concealed in the Peiraeus, and brought him
before the Assembly; but the malignant Aeschines
shouted at the top of his voice, that it was
atrocious of me, in a democratic country, to
insult a citizen who had met with misfortune,
and to go to men's houses without a decree; and
he obtained his release. And unless the Council
of Areopagus had taken notice of the matter,
and, seeing the inopportuneness of the ignorance
which you had shown, had
made a further search for the man, and arrested
him, and brought him before you again, a man of
that character would have been snatched out of
your hands, and would have evaded punishment,
and been sent out of the country by this pompous
orator. As it was, you tortured and executed
him--and so ought you also to have treated Aeschines. The Council of Areopagus knew the
part which he had played in this affair; and for
this reason, when, owing to the same ignorance
which so often leads you to sacrifice the public
interests, you elected him to advocate your
claims in regard to the Temple of Delos, the
Council (since you had appointed it to assist
you and entrusted it with full authority to act
in the matter)
immediately rejected Aeschines as a traitor, and
committed the case to Hypereides. When the
Council took this step, the members took their
votes from the altar, and not one vote was
given for this abominable man. To prove that
what I say is true, (to the clerk) call the
witnesses who testify to it.
[The witnesses are called.]
Thus when the Council rejected him from the
office of advocate, and committed the case to
another, it declared at the same time that he
was a traitor, who wished you ill. Such was one
of the public appearances of this fine fellow,
and such its character--so like the acts with
which he charges me, is it not? Now recall a
second. For when Philip sent Python of
Byzantium, and with him envoys from all his
allies, in the hope of putting the city to shame
and showing her to be in the wrong, I would not
give way before the torrent of insolent rhetoric
which Python poured out upon you, but rose and
contradicted him, and would not betray the
city's rights, but proved the iniquity of
Philip's actions so manifestly, that even his
own allies rose up and admitted it. But Aeschines supported Python; he gave testimony in
opposition to his country, and that testimony
false. Nor was this sufficient for him; for
again after this he was detected going to meet
Anaxinus the spy in the house of Thrason. But
surely one who met the emissary of the enemy
alone and conferred with him, must himself have
been already a born spy and an enemy of his
country. To prove the truth of what I say, (to
the clerk) call the witnesses to these
facts.
[The witnesses are called.]
There are still an infinite number of things
which I might relate of him; but I pass them
over. For the truth is something like this. I
could still point to many instances in which he
was found to be serving our enemies during that
period, and showing his spite against me. But
you do not store such things up in careful
remembrance, to visit them with the indignation
which they deserve; but, following a bad custom,
you have given great freedom to any one who
wishes to trip up the proposer of any
advantageous measure by dishonest
charges--bartering, as you do, the advantage of
the State for the pleasure and gratification
which you derive
from invective; and so it is always easier and
safer to be a hireling in the service of the
enemy, than a statesman who has chosen to defend
your cause.
To co-operate with Philip before we were openly
at war with him was --I call Earth and Heaven to
witness--atrocious enough. How could it be
otherwise--against his own country?
Nevertheless, concede him this, if you will,
concede him this. But when the corn-ships had
been openly plundered, and the Chersonese was
being ravaged, and the man was on the march
against Attica; when the position of affairs was
no longer in doubt, and war had begun; what
action did this malignant mouther of verses ever
do for your good? He can point to none. There is
not a single decree, small or great, with
reference to the interests of the city, standing
in the name of Aeschines. If he asserts that
there is, let him produce it in the time
allotted to me. But no such decree exists. In
that case, however, only two alternatives are
possible: either he had no fault to find at the
time with
my policy, and therefore made no proposal
contrary to it; or else he was
seeking the advantage of the enemy, and
therefore refrained from bringing
forward any better policy than mine.
Did he then abstain from speaking, as he
abstained from proposing any motion, when any
mischief was to be done? On the contrary, no one
else had a chance of speaking. But though,
apparently, the city could endure everything
else, and he could do everything else
unobserved, there was one final deed which was
the culmination of all that he had done before.
Upon this he expended all that multitude of
words, as he went through the decrees relating
to the Amphisseans, in the hope of distorting
the truth. But the truth cannot be distorted. It
is impossible. Never will you wash away the
stain of your actions there! You will not say
enough for that! I call upon all the gods and
goddesses who protect this land of Attica, in
the presence of you all, men of Athens; and upon
Apollo of Pytho, the paternal deity of this
city, and I pray to them all, that if I should
speak the truth to you--if I spoke it at that
very time without delay, in the presence of the
people, when first I saw this abominable man
setting his hand to this business (for I knew
it, I knew it at once),--that then they may give
me good fortune and life: but if, to gratify my
hatred or any private quarrel, I am now bringing
a false accusation against this man, then they
may take from me the fruition of every
blessing.
Why have I uttered this imprecation with such
vehemence and earnestness? Because, although I
have documents lying in the public archives by
which I will prove the facts clearly, although I
know that you remember what was done, I have
still the fear that he may be thought too
insignificant a man to have done all the evil
which he has wrought--as indeed happened before,
when he caused the ruin of the unhappy Phocians
by the false report which he brought home. For
the war at Amphissa, which was the cause of
Philip's coming to Elateia, and of one being
chosen commander of the Amphictyons, who
overthrew the fortunes of the
Hellenes--he it is who helped to get it up; he,
in his sole person, is to blame for disasters to
which no equal can be found. I protested at the
time, and cried out, before the Assembly, 'You
are bringing war into Attica, Aeschines, an
Amphictyonic War.' But a packed group of his
supporters refused to let me speak, while the
rest were amazed, and imagined that I was
bringing a baseless charge against him, out of
personal animosity. But what the true nature of
these proceedings was, men of Athens--why this
plan was contrived, and how it was executed--you
must hear from me to-day, since you were
prevented from doing so at the time. You will
behold a business cunningly organized; you will
advance
greatly in your knowledge of public affairs; and
you will see what
cleverness there was in Philip.
Philip had no prospect of seeing the end of the
war with you, or ridding himself of it, unless
he could make the Thebans and Thessalians
enemies of Athens. For although the war was
being wretchedly and inefficiently conducted by
your generals, he was nevertheless suffering
infinite damage from the war itself and from the
freebooters. The exportation of the produce of
his country and the importation of what he
needed were both impossible. Moreover, he was
not at that time superior to you at sea, nor
could he reach Attica, if the Thessalians would
not follow him, or the Thebans give him a
passage through their country; and although he
was overcoming in the field the generals whom
you sent out, such as they were (for of this I
say nothing), he found himself suffering from
the geographical conditions themselves,
and from the nature of the resources which
either side possessed. Now if he tried to
encourage either the Thessalians or the Thebans
to march against you in order to further his own
quarrel, no one, he thought, would pay any
attention to him; but if he adopted their own
common grounds of action and were chosen
commander, he hoped to find it easier to deceive
or to persuade them, as the case might be. What
then does he do? He attempts (and observe with
what skill) to stir up an Amphictyonic War, and
a
disturbance in connection with the meeting of
the Council. For he thought that they would at
once find that they needed his help, to deal
with these.
Continue with Page 2 of On
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