B.C. 324. accusation against Demosthe nes, in the affair of In no other way, under the existing circumstances of Athens, could Demosthenes have obtained so emphatic a compliment. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that such a mortification was insupportable to Eschines. He became disgusted with his native city. We read that afterwards, in his rhetorical school at Rhodes, he one day declaimed, as a lesson to his pupils, the successful oration of his rival, De Coronâ. Of course it excited a burst of admiration. What, if you had heard the beast himself speak it!"-exclaimed Eschines. From this memorable triumph of the illustrious Subsequent orator and defendant, we have to pass to another trial-a direct accusation brought against him, from which he did not escape so successfully. We are Harpalus. compelled here to jump over five years and a half (August 330 B.c. to January 324 B.C.), during which we have no information about Grecian history; the interval between Alexander's march into Baktria and his return to Persis and Susiana. Displeased with the conduct of the satraps during his absence, Alexander put to death or punished several, and directed the rest to disband without delay the mercenary soldiers whom they had taken into pay. This peremptory order filled both Asia and Europe with roving detachments of unprovided soldiers, some of whom sought subsistence in the Grecian islands and on the Lacedæmonian southern coast, at Cape Tænarus in Laconia. σοὶ δὲ συκοφάντῃ μὲν εἶναι δοκεῖν ὑπάρχει, κινδυνεύεις δὲ εἴτε δεῖ σε ἔτι τοῦτο ποιεῖν, εἴτ ̓ ἤδη πεπαῦσθαι μὴ μεταλαβόντα τὸ πέμπτον μέρος τῶν ψήφων, &c. Yet Eschines had become opulent, according to Demosthenes, p. 329. CHAP. XCV.]' CONDUCT OF HARPALUS IN ASIA. 397 Harpalus to his pre relations Athens. It was about this period (the beginning of 324 Flight of B.C.) that Harpalus the satrap of Babylonia and AthensSyria, becoming alarmed at the prospect of being vious con punished by Alexander for his ostentatious prodi- duct and galities, fled from Asia into Greece, with a consi- with derable treasure and a body of 5000 soldiers'. While satrap, he had invited into Asia, in succession, two Athenian women as mistresses, Pythionikê and Glykera, to each of whom he was much attached, and whom he entertained with lavish expense and pomp. On the death of the first, he testified his sorrow by two costly funereal monuments to her memory; one at Babylon, the other in Attica, between Athens and Eleusis. With Glykera he is said to have resided at Tarsus in Kilikia, -to have ordered that men should prostrate themselves before her, and address her as queen-and to have erected her statue along with his own at Rhossus, a seaport on the confines of Kilikia and Syria. To please these mistresses, or perhaps to ensure a retreat for himself in case of need, he had sent to Athens profuse gifts of wheat for distribution among the people, for which he had received votes of thanks with the grant of Athenian citizenship. Moreover he had consigned to Charikles, son-in-law of Phokion, the task of erecting 1 Diodor. xvii. 108. He states the treasure brought out of Asia by Harpalus as 5000 talents. See the fragments of the letter or pamphlet of Theopompus addressed to Alexander, while Harpalus was still at Tarsus, and before his flight to Athens -Theopomp. Fragm. 277, 278, ed. Didot, ap. Athenæum, xiii. p. 586-595. Theopompus speaks in the present tenseκαὶ ὁρᾷ (Harpalus) ὑπὸ τοῦ λάου προσκυνουμένην (Glykera), &c. Kleitarchus stated these facts, as well as Theopompus (Athenæ. ibid.). 3 Athenæus, xiii. p. 596-the extract from the satirical drama called False reports conveyed to Alexander, that the Athenians had iden the monument in Attika to the honour of Pythionike; with a large remittance of money for the purpose'. The profit or embezzlement arising out of this expenditure secured to him the goodwill of Charikles—a man very different from his fatherin-law, the honest and austere Phokion. Other Athenians were probably conciliated by various presents, so that when Harpalus found it convenient to quit Asia, about the beginning of 324 B.C., he had already acquired some hold both on the public of Athens and on some of her leading men. He sailed with his treasure and his armament straight to Cape Sunium in Attica, from whence he sent to ask shelter and protection in that city2. The first reports transmitted to Asia appear to have proclaimed that the Athenians had welcomed Harpalus as a friend and ally, thrown off the Macedonian yoke, and prepared for a war to re-establish tified them. Hellenic freedom. Such is the colour of the case, as presented in the satyric drama called Agên, exhibited before Alexander in the Dionysiac festival at Susa, in February or March 324 B.C. news, connecting itself in Alexander's mind with the recent defeat of Zopyrion in Thrace and other selves with Harpalus. Such Agên, represented before Alexander at Susa, in the Dionysiac festival or early months of 324 B.C. 1 Plutarch, Phokion, 22; Pausanias, i. 37, 4; Dikæarchi Fragment. 72. ed. Didot. Plutarch's narrative is misleading, inasmuch as it seems to imply that Harpalus gave this money to Charikles after his arrival at Athens. We know from Theopompus (Fr. 277) that the monument had been finished some time before Harpalus quitted Asia. Plutarch treats it as a mean structure, unworthy of the sum expended on it; but both Dikæarchus and Pausanias describe it as stately and magnificent. 2 Curtius, x. 2, 1. CHAP. XCV.] HARPALUS AT ATHENS. 399 disorders of the disbanded mercenaries, incensed him so much, that he at first ordered a fleet to be equipped, determining to cross over and attack Athens in person'. But he was presently calmed by more correct intelligence, certifying that the Athenians had positively refused to espouse the cause of Harpalus 2. The fact of such final rejection by the Athenians B.C. 324, is quite indisputable. But it seems, as far as we 1 Curtius, x. 2, 1. "Igitur triginta navibus Sunium transmittunt" (Harpalus and his company), " unde portum urbis petere decreverunt, His cognitis, rex Harpalo Atheniensibusque juxta infestus, classem parari jubet, Athenas protinus petiturus." Compare Justin, xiii. 5, 7— who mentions this hostile intention in Alexander's mind, but gives a different account of the cause of it. The extract from the drama Agén (given in Athenæus, xiii. p. 596) represents the reports which excited this anger of Alexander. It was said that Athens had repudiated her slavery, with the abundance which she had before enjoyed under it,—to enter upon a struggle for freedom, with the certainty of present privations and future ruin : Α. ὅτε μὲν ἔφασκον (the Athenians) δοῦλον ἐκτῆσθαι βίον, καὶ τὸν μάραθον ἔσθουσι, πυροὺς δ ̓ οὐ μάλα. σίτου παραπέμψαι, καὶ πολίτην γεγονέναι. αὐτοῖσιν ὀλέθρου κοὐκ ἑταίρας ἀῤῥαβών. I conceive this drama Agên to have been represented on the banks of the Choaspes (not the Hydaspes-see my note in the Chapter immediately preceding, p. 323), that is, at Susa, in the Dionysia of 324 B.C. It is interesting as a record of the feelings of the time. 2 Nevertheless the impression, that Alexander was intending to besiege Athens, must have prevailed in the army for several months longer, during the autumn of 324 B.C., when he was at Ekbatana. Ephippus the historian, in recounting the flatteries addressed to Alexander at Ekbatana, mentions the rhodomontade of a soldier named Gorgus-Γόργος ὁ ὁπλοφύλαξ ̓Αλέξανδρον ̓́Αμμωνος υἷον στεφανοῖ χρυσοῖς τρισχιλίοις, καὶ ὅταν ̓Αθήνας πολιορκῇ, μυρίαις πανοπλίαις καὶ ταῖς ἴσαις καταπέλταις καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἄλλοις βέλεσιν εἰς τὸν πόλεμον ikavois (Ephippus ap. Athenæum, xii. p. 538. Fragment. 3. ed. Didot.). Circumstances attending of Harpalus at Sunium -debate in the Athenian assembly promises held out by Harpalus the Athe nians seem at first favourably disposed towards him. can make out from imperfect evidence, that this step was not taken without debate, nor without the arrival symptoms of a contrary disposition, sufficient to explain the rumours first sent to Alexander. The first arrival of Harpalus with his armament at Sunium, indeed, excited alarm, as if he were coming to take possession of Peiræus; and the admiral Philokles was instructed to adopt precautions for defence of the harbour'. But Harpalus, sending away his armament to Krete or to Tænarus, solicited and obtained permission to come to Athens, with a single ship and his own personal attendants. What was of still greater moment, he brought with him a large sum of money, amounting, we are told, to upwards of 700 talents, or more than £160,000. We must recollect that he was already favourably known to the people by large presents of corn, which had procured for him a vote of citizenship. He now threw himself upon their gratitude as a suppliant seeking protection against the wrath of Alexander; and while entreating from the Athenians an interference so hazardous to themselves, he did not omit to encourage them by exaggerating the means at his own disposal. He expatiated on the universal hatred and discontent felt against Alexander, and held out assurance of being joined by powerful allies, foreign as well as Greek, if once a city like Athens would 1 Deinarchus adv. Philokl. s. 1. φάσκων κωλύσειν Αρπαλον εἰς τὸν Πειραῖα καταπλεῦσαι, στρατηγὸς ὑφ ̓ ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τὰ νεώρια καὶ τὴν Μουνυxíav kexeipotovημévos, &c. Deinarchus adv. Aristogeiton. s. 4. os rap' Αρπάλου λαβεῖν χρήματα ἐτόλμησεν, ὃν ἤσθεθ ̓ ἥκειν καταληψόμενον τὴν πόλιν ὑμῶν, &c. |