Demosthenes

Demosthenes reigned supreme in the assembly, and wrote letters to the King’s generals in Asia stirring them up to make war upon Alexander, whom he called a boy and a Margites.[*](i.e. Silly Madman. A mock heroic poem bearing this name was attributed to Homer. Cf. Aeschines, On the Crown § 160.) When, however, Alexander had settled the affairs of his own country and came in person with his forces into Boeotia, prone lay the courage of the Athenians, and Demosthenes was extinguished, while the Thebans, betrayed by their allies, fought by themselves and lost their city.[*](In October, 335 B.C.)

Then, in the midst of the great confusion which reigned at Athens, Demosthenes was chosen and sent with others as an ambassador to Alexander, but fearing the wrath of the king he turned back at Cithaeron and abandoned the embassy.[*](Cf. Aeschines, On the Crown, § 161.) Then straightway Alexander sent to Athens a demand for the surrender to him of ten of their popular leaders, according to Idomeneus and Duris, but according to the most and most reputable writers, only eight, namely, Demosthenes, Polyeuctus, Ephialtes, Lycurgus, Moerocles, Demon, Callisthenes, and Charidemus.

It was on this occasion that Demosthenes told the Athenians the story of how the sheep surrendered their dogs to the wolves, comparing himself and his fellow-orators to dogs fighting in defence of the people, and calling Alexander the Macedonian arch-wolf. Moreover, he said further: Just as grain-merchants sell their whole stock by means of a few kernels of wheat which they carry about with them in a bowl as a sample, so in surrendering us you unwittingly surrender also yourselves, all of you.

Such, then, is the account which Aristobulus of Cassandreia has given. The Athenians were deliberating on this demand and were at a loss how to treat it, when Demades, for five talents which he had received from the men demanded, agreed to go on an embassy to the king and entreat him in their behalf; either because he relied on the friendship of Alexander, or because he expected to find him sated, like a lion glutted with slaughter. At any rate, Demades persuaded the king to let the men off, and reconciled him with the city.

So when Alexander went back to Macedonia, Demades and his associates were high in power, but Demosthenes acted a humble part. It is true that when Agis the Spartan was active in revolt Demosthenes once more made a feeble effort in his support, but then he cowered down, since the Athenians would not join in the uprising. Agis fell in battle, and the Lacedaemonians were crushed.[*](From 333 B.C. 330 B.C., Agis III., the king of Sparta, carried on war against Macedonia in conjunction with Persia. In the latter year he was defeated and slain by Antipater, Alexander’s regent in Macedonia.) It was at this time that the indictment against Ctesiphon in the matter of the crown came on for trial. It had been prepared in the archonship of Chaerondas a little before the battle of Chaeroneia,

but came on for trial ten years later[*](In 336 B.C., Ctesiphon proposed that Demosthenes receive a golden crown for certain public services, and Aeschines indicted Ctesiphon for proposing an illegal measure. The document (Demos. De Cor. § 54), from which Plutarch takes the name of Chaerondas, the archon of 338, has been shown to be spurious. The case was tried in 330 B.C.) in the archonship of Aristophon. It became the most celebrated of all public causes, not only on account of the fame of the orators, but also because of the noble conduct of the judges, who, though the prosecutors of Demosthenes were then at the height of power and acting in the interests of Macedonia, would not vote against him, but acquitted him so decisively that Aeschines did not get a fifth part of their ballots.[*](This made Aeschines liable to a fine of 1,000 drachmas, and made it impossible for him to bring any future action before an Athenian court.) Consequently, Aeschines forsook the city at once, and spent the rest of his life as a teacher of rhetoric in Rhodes and Ionia.