A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DEMOSTHENES.
does not appear to have been always strictly observed, as it was merely intended to prevent frivolous
and unfounded accusations. If, on the other hand,
Demosthenes did receive the thirty minae, it does
not follow that it was a bribe, for that sum may
have been required of him as a fine for dropping his
accusation against Meidias, or Demosthenes may
have regarded that sum as a satisfactory acknowledgement of the guilt of his enemy. This affair
belongs to the year B. c. 353, in which also the
extant oration against Meidias was written, but as
Demosthenes did not follow up the suit, the oration
was left in its present unfinished state.
Demosthenes had some years before this event
come forward as a speaker in the public assembly,
for in B. c. 355 he had delivered the orations
against Leptines and Androtion (Dionys. Ep.
ed Anom. i. 4), and in B. c. 353 the oration
against Timocrates. The general esteem which
Demosthenes enjoyed- as early as that time is
sufficiently attested by the fact, that in B. c.
354, in spite of all the intrigues of Meidias, he
was confirmed in the dignity of $ovmevurIs, to
which he had been elected by lot (Dem. c. Meid.
p. 551), and that in the year following he conducted, in the capacity of architheoros, the usual
theoria, which the state of Athens sent to the festival of the Nemean Zeus (c. Meid. p. 552). The
active part he took in public affairs is further
attested by the orations which belong to this period:
in B. c. 354 he spoke against the projected expedition to Euboea, though without success, and he
himself afterwards joined in it under Phocion.
(Dem. de Pace, p. 58, c. Meid. p. 558.) In the
same year he delivered the oration rrept oCu/AlcoptCv,
in which he successfully dissuaded the Athenians
from their foolish scheme of undertaking a war
against Persia (Dem. de Rhod. lib. p. 192), and in
u. c. 353 he spoke for the Megalopolitans (iTrEp
Me'yahorohlrcV), and opposed the Spartans, who
had solicited the aid of Athens to reduce Megalopolis.
The one hundred and sixth Olympiad, or the
period from B. c. 356, is the beginning of the career
of Demosthenes as one of the leading statesmen of
Athens, and henceforth the history of his life is
closely mixed up with that of his country; for
there is no question affecting the public good
in which he did not take the most active part, and
support with all the power of his oratory what he
considered right and beneficial to the state. King
Philip of Macedonia had commenced in B. c. 358
his encroachments upon the possessions of Athens
in the north of the Aegean, and lie had taken possession of the towns of Amphipolis, Pydna, Potidaea, and Methone. During those proceedings he
had contrived to keep the Athenians at a distance,
to deceive them and keep them in good humour by
delusions and apparently favourable promises.
Demosthenes was not, indeed, the only man who
saw that these proceedings were merely a prelude
to greater things, and that unless the king was
checked, he would attempt the subjugation, not
only of Athens but of all Greece; but Demosthenes was the only person who had the honesty
and the courage openly to express his opinions,
and to call upon the Greeks to unite their strength
against the common foe. His patriotic feelings
and convictions against Macedonian aggrandizement are the groundwork of his Philippics, a series
of the most splendid and spirited orations. They

DEMOSTHENES. 983
did not, it is true, produce the desired results, but
the fault was not his, and the cause of their failure
must be sought in the state of general dissolution
in the Greek republics at the time; for while
Philip occupied his threatening position, the Phocians were engaged in a war for life and death
with the Thebans; the states of Peloponnesus
looked upon one another with mistrust and hatred,
and it was only with great difficulty that Athens
could maintain a shadow of its former supremacy.
The Athenians themselves, as Demosthenes says,
were indolent, even when they knew what ought
to be done; they could not rouse themselves to an
energetic opposition; their measures were in most
cases only half measures; they never acted at the
right time, and indulged in spending the treasures
of the republic upon costly pomps and festivities,
instead of employing them as means to ward off
the danger that was gathering like a storm at a
distance. This disposition was, moreover, fostered
by the ruling party at Athens. It was further an
unfortunate circumstance for Athens that, although
she had some able generals, yet she had no military
genius of the first order to lead her forces against
the Macedonian, and make head against him. It
was only on one occasion, in B. c. 353, that the
Athenians gained decided advantages by a diversion of their fleet, which prevented Philip passing
Thermopylae during the war between the Phocians
and Thebans. But a report of Philip's illness and
death soon made room for the old apathy, and the
good-will of those who would have acted with
spirit was paralyzed by the entire absence of any
definite plan in the war against Macedonia, although the necessity of such a plan had been
pointed out, and proposals had been made for it by
Demosthenes in his first Philippic, which was
spoken in B. c. 352. Philip's attack upon Olynthus
in B. c. 349, which terminated in the year following with the conquest of the place, deprived the
Athenians of their last stronghold in the north.
At the request of several embassies from the Olynthians, and on the impressive exhortation of Demosthenes in his three Olynthiac orations, the
Athenians had indeed made considerable efforts to
save Olynthus (Dem. de Fals. Leg. p. 426; Dionys.
Ep. ad Anom. i. 9), but their operations were
thwarted in the end by a treacherous plot which
was formed at Olynthus itself,. and the town fell
into the hands of Philip.
The next event in which Demosthenes took an
active part is the peace with Philip, which from
its originator is called the peace of Philocrates, and&
is one of the most obscure points in the history of
Demosthenes and of Athens, since none of the historians whose works are extant enter into the
details of the subject. Our only sources of information are the orations of Demosthenes and Aeschines on the embassy (repi 7rapap7rpeo-eilas), which
contain statements so much at variance and so
contradictory, that it is next to impossible to come
to any certain conclusions, although, if we consider
the characters of the two orators, the authority of
Demosthenes is entitled to higher credit than that
of Aeschines. The former may, to some extent,
have been labouring under a delusion, but Aeschines had the intention to deceive. The following
particulars, however, may be looked upon as well
established. During the Olynthian war, Philip
had expressed his willingness to conclude a peace
and alliance with Athens, and the Athenians, who