But what is the good of guessing about all this,
when we have historical examples? To put it
briefly, in war, of all the rhetoricians and_philosophers that ever were, some have not dared to go
outside the walls at all, and if any one of them ever
took the field under compulsion, he deserted his
post, I maintain, and beat a retreat.
What assertions, all surprising and none moderate !
But say your say, nevertheless.
Among the followers of rhetoric, Isocrates not only
never went to war but never even went to court,
through cowardice, I assume, as that is why he could
not even keep his voice.
Every schoolboy knew—such was the interest in rhetoric— that Isocrates did not practise in the courts because his voice was too weak. The author pretends to think that its weakness must have been due to fright, and that therefore he was a terrible coward.
And did not Demades
and Aeschines and Philocrates, through fright,
directly upon the declaration of war against Philip,
betray their city and themselves to Philip and
continually direct public affairs at Athens in the
interest of that man, who was waging war upon the
Athenians at that time, if ever a man was; and
he was their friend. Moreover, Hyperides and
Demosthenes and Lycurgus, who put up a more
courageous front and were always making an uproar
and abusing Philip in the assemblies—what on earth
did they do that was valiant in the war with him?
Hyperides and Lycurgus did not even take the
field—why, they did not even dare to show their
heads just outside the gates, but safe within the
walls, they sat at home as if the city were already
besieged, framing trivial motions and petty resolutions! And as for the topmost of them, the
man who was continually talking in the assembly
about “Philip, the scoundrel from Macedon, where
one could never even buy a decent slave!”
Demosthenes, Third Philippic 31.
he did
venture to join the advance into Boeotia, but before
the armies joined battle and began to fight at close
quarters he threw away his shield and fled!
The story that Demosthenes played the coward at Chaeronea was spread by his political enemies Aeschines (3, 244; 253) and Pytheas (Plut. Demosth. 20); see also Gellius 17, 21.
Has
nobody ever told you that before? It is very well
known, not only to the Athenians, but to the people
of Thrace and Scythia, where that vagabond came
from.
Cleobule, the mother of Demosthenes, was said to be Scythian on her mother’s side (Aesch. 3, 171).