CHAP. XCV.] DEMOSTHENES DE CORONA. 391 sthenes, of having omitted promising seasons for anti-Macedonian operations. Partly for this reason, probably, Demosthenes does not notice them in his reply; still more, perhaps, on another ground, that it was not safe to speak out what he thought and felt about Alexander. His reply dwells altogether upon the period before the death of Philip. Of the boundless empire subsequently acquired, by the son of Philip, he speaks only to mourn it as a wretched visitation of fortune, which has desolated alike the Hellenic and the barbaric world-in which Athens has been engulphed along with others-and from which even those faithless and trimming Greeks, who helped to aggrandise Philip, have not escaped better than Athens, nor indeed so well'. I shall not here touch upon the Demosthenic speech De Coronâ in a rhetorical point of view, nor add anything to those encomiums which have been pronounced upon it with one voice, both in ancient and in modern times, as the unapproachable masterpiece of Grecian oratory. To this work it belongs as a portion of Grecian history; a retrospect of the efforts made by a patriot and a statesman to uphold the dignity of Athens and the autonomy of the Grecian world, against a dangerous aggressor from without. How these efforts were directed, and how they lamentably failed, has been recounted in my last preceding volume. Demosthenes here passes them in review, replying to the criminations against his public conduct during the interval of ten years, between the peace of 346 B.c. (or the period imme1 Demosthen. De Corona, p. 311-316. Reply of sthenes Demo oration De Coronâ. diately preceding it) and the death of Philip. It is remarkable, that though professing to enter upon a defence of his whole public life', he nevertheless can afford to leave unnoticed that portion of it which is perhaps the most honourable to him—the early period of his first Philippics and Olynthiacs-when, though a politician as yet immature and of no established footing, he was the first to descry in the distance the perils threatened by Philip's aggrandisement, and the loudest in calling for timely and energetic precautions against it; in spite of apathy and murmurs from older politicians as well as from the general public. Beginning with the peace of 346 B.C., Demosthenes vindicates his own share in the antecedents of that event against the charges of Eschines, whom he denounces as the cause of all the mischief; a controversy which I have already tried to elucidate, in my last volume. Passing next to the period after that peace-to the four years first of hostile diplomacy, then of hostile action, against Philip, which ended with the disaster of Charoneia -Demosthenes is not satisfied with simple vindication. He reasserts this policy as matter of pride and honour, in spite of its results. He congratulates his countrymen on having manifested a Panhellenic patriotism worthy of their forefathers, and takes to himself only the credit of having been forward to proclaim and carry out this glorious sentiment common to all. Fortune has been adverse; yet the vigorous anti-Macedonian policy was no 1 Demosthen. De Corona, p. 227. μέλλων τοῦ τε ἰδίου βίου παντὸς, ὡς ἔοικε, λόγον διδόναι τήμερον καὶ τῶν κοινῇ πεπολιτευμένων, &c. CHAP. XCV.] TRIUMPH OF DEMOSTHENES. 393 mistake; Demosthenes swears it by the combatants of Marathon, Platæa and Salamis'. To have had a foreign dominion obtruded upon Greece, is an overwhelming calamity; but to have had this accomplished without strenuous resistance on the part of Athens, would have been calamity aggravated by dishonour. Funeral oration of Grecian Conceived in this sublime strain, the reply of Demosthenes to his rival has an historical value, as extinct a funeral oration of extinct Athenian and Grecian freedom. freedom. Six years before, the orator had been appointed by his countrymen to deliver the usual public oration over the warriors slain at Charoneia. That speech is now lost, but it probably touched upon the same topics. Though the sphere of action, of every Greek city as well as of every Greek citizen, was now cramped and confined by irresistible Macedonian force; there still remained the sentiment of full political freedom and dignity enjoyed during the past-the admiration of ancestors who had once defended it successfully-and the sympathy with leaders who had recently stood forward to uphold it, however unsuccessfully. It is among the most memorable facts in Grecian history, that in spite of the victory of Philip at Charoneia -in spite of the subsequent conquest of Thebes by Alexander, and the danger of Athens after it-in spite of the Asiatic conquests which had since thrown all Persian force into the hands of the 1 Demosthen. De Corona, p. 297. ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως ἡμάρτετε, ἄνδρες Αθηναῖοι, τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἁπάντων ἐλευθερίας καὶ σωτηρίας κίνδυνον ἀράμενοι-οὐ μὰ τοὺς Μαραθῶνι προκινδυνεύσαντας τῶν προγόνων καὶ τοὺς ἐν Πλαταιαῖς παραταξαμένους καὶ τοὺς ἐν Σαλαμῖνι vavμaxnσavтas, &c., the oath so often cited and admired. Verdict of the Dikasts Macedonian king--the Athenian people could never be persuaded either to repudiate Demosthenes, or to disclaim sympathy with his political policy. How much art and ability was employed, to induce them to do so, by his numerous enemies, the speech of Æschines is enough to teach us. And when we consider how easily the public sicken of schemes which end in misfortune-how great a mental relief is usually obtained by throwing blame on unsuccessful leaders-it would have been no matter of surprise, if, in one of the many prosecutions wherein the fame of Demosthenes was involved, the Dikasts had given a verdict unfavourable to him. That he always came off acquitted, and even honourably acquitted, is a proof of rare fidelity and steadiness of mind in the Athenians. It is a proof that those noble, patriotic, and Pan-hellenic sentiments, which we constantly find inculcated in his orations, throughout a period of twenty years, had sunk into the minds of his hearers; and that amidst the many general allegations of corruption against him, loudly proclaimed by his enemies, there was no one wellascertained fact which they could substantiate before the Dikastery. The indictment now preferred by Eschines against -triumph Ktesiphon only procured for Demosthenes a new sthenes triumph. When the suffrages of the Dikasts were of Demo exile of Eschines. counted, Æschines did not obtain so much as onefifth. He became therefore liable to the customary fine of 1000 drachmæ. It appears that he quitted Athens immediately, without paying the fine, and retired into Asia, from whence he never returned. He is said to have opened a rhetorical school at CHAP. XCV.] FLIGHT OF HARPALUS FROM ASIA. 895 Rhodes, and to have gone into the interior of Asia during the last year of Alexander's life (at the time when that monarch was ordaining on the Grecian cities compulsory restoration of all their exiles), in order to procure assistance for returning to Athens. This project was disappointed by Alexander's death'. Causes of schines he was the means of pro the exile of curing coro nation for Demosthe We cannot suppose that Eschines was unable to pay the fine of 1000 drachmæ, or to find friends who would pay it for him. It was not therefore legal compulsion, but the extreme disappointment and humiliation of so signal a defeat, which made him leave Athens. We must remember that this was a nes. gratuitous challenge sent by himself; that the celebrity of the two rivals had brought together auditors, not merely from Athens, but from various other Grecian cities; and that the effect of the speech of Demosthenes in his own defence,-delivered with all his perfection of voice and action, and not only electrifying hearers by the sublimity of its public sentiment, but also full of admirably managed self-praise, and contemptuous bitterness towards his rival-must have been inexpressibly powerful and commanding. Probably the friends of Æschines became themselves angry with him for having brought the indictment forward. For the effect of his defeat must have been that the vote of the Senate which he indicted, was brought forward and passed in the public assembly; and that Demosthenes must have received a public coronation2. 1 See the various lives of Eschines-in Westermann, Scriptores Biographici, pp. 268, 269. 2 Demosthen. De Corona, p. 315. ἀλλὰ νυνὶ τήμερον ἐγὼ μὲν ὑπὲρ τοῦ στεφανωθῆναι δοκιμάζομαι, τὸ δὲ μήδ ̓ ὁτιοῦν ἀδικεῖν ἀνωμολόγημαι |