Phocion

And when Harpalus, who had run away from Alexander out of Asia with great sums of money, landed in Attica,[*](See the Demosthenes, chapter xxv.) and those who were wont to make merchandise of their influence as orators came running to him at breakneck speed, to these men he dropped and scattered small morsels of his wealth by way of bait; but he sent to Phocion and offered him seven hundred talents, and everything else that he had, and put himself with all his possessions at the sole disposition of Phocion.

But Phocion answered sharply that Harpalus would rue it if he did not cease trying to corrupt the city, and for the time being the traitor was abashed and desisted from his efforts. After a little, however, when the Athenians were deliberating upon his case, he found that those who had taken money from him were changing sides and denouncing him, that they might not be discovered; while Phocion, who would take nothing, was now giving some consideration to the safety of Harpalus as well as to the public interests.

Again, therefore, he was led to pay court to Phocion, but after all his efforts to bribe him found that he was impregnable on all sides like a fortress. Of Charicles, however, Phocion’s son-in-law, Harpalus made an intimate associate and friend, trusting him in everything and using him in everything, and thus covered him with infamy.

For instance, on the death of Pythonicé the courtesan, who was the passionately loved mistress of Harpalus and had borne him a daughter, Harpalus resolved to build her a very expensive monument, and committed the care of the work to Charicles.

This service was an ignoble one in itself, but it acquired additional disgrace from the completed tomb. For this is still to be seen in Hermus, on the road from Athens to Eleusis, and it has nothing worthy of the large sum of thirty talents which Charicles is said to have charged Harpalus for the work.[*](See Pausanias, i. 37, 5, with Frazer’s notes. Pausanias speaks of it as the best worth seeing of all ancient Greek tombs. )And yet after the death of Harpalus himself,[*](Antipater demanded his surrender by the Athenians, and Harpalus fled to Crete, where he was assassinated.) his daughter was taken up by Charicles and Phocion and educated with every care.