2. Of Paeania in Attica, a son of Demosthenes's sister. He inherited the true patriotic
sentiments of his great uncle, though it cannot perhaps be denied, that in his mode of acting
and speaking he transgressed the boundaries of a proper freedom and carried it to the verge of
impudence. Timaeus in his history calumniated his personal character, but Demochares has found
an able defender in Polybius. (12.13.) After the death of Demosthenes, he was one of the chief
supporters of the anti-Macedonian party at Athens, and distinguished himself as a man of the
greatest energy both in words and deeds. (Vit. X Orat. p. 851), and which
was carried on the proposal of his son Laches. There are considerable difficulties in
restoring the chronological order of the leading events of his life, and we shall confine
ourselves here to giving an outline of them, as they have been made out by Droysen in the
works cited below. After the restoration of the Athenian democracy in de Ira, 3.23), and afterwards to
Antipater, the son of Cassander. (Polyb. l.c.) In the same year he
concluded a treaty with the Boeotians, in consequence of which he was expelled soon after by
the antidemocratic party, probably through the influence of Lachares. In the archonship of
Diodes, Vit. X Orat. pp. 847,
850.)
Demochares developed his talents and principles in all probability under the direction of
Demosthenes, and he came forward as a public orator as early as Vit. X Orat. p. 847.) Some time after the
restoration of the democracy he supported Sophocles, who proposed a decree that no philosopher
should establish a school without the sanction of the senate and people, and that any one
acting contrary to this law should be punished with death. (Praep. Evang. 15.2. Comp. SOPHOCLES.) Demochares
left behind him not only several orations (a fragment of one of them is preserved in Rutilius
Lupus [p. 7, &c.], but also an extensive historical work, in which he related the history
of his own time, but which, as Cicero says, was written in an oratorical rather than an
historical style. (de Orat.
2.23.) The twenty-first book of it is quoted by Athenaeus (vi. p. 252, &c. Comp. Macrob. 10.) With the
exception of a few fragments, his orations as well as his history are lost. (Droysen, Gesch. der Nachfolger Alexand. p. 497, &c., and more especially his
essay in the