Phocion

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VIII. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1919.

For instance, there was a law of Athens at this time forbidding a choregus to have a foreigner in his chorus, under penalty of a thousand drachmas; but Demades presented a chorus of a hundred members all of whom were foreigners, and at the same time brought into the theatre his fine of a thousand drachmas for each one of them. Again, when he was bringing home a wife for his son Demeas, he said to him: When I married thy mother, my son, not even a neighbour noticed it; but to thy nuptials kings and potentates are contributing.

When the Athenians importuned Phocion to go and persuade Antipater to remove the garrison, whether it was because he despaired of persuading him, or because he saw that the people were more sensible and conducted public affairs with more decorum when they were thus under the influence of fear, he continually rejected that mission; he did, however, persuade Antipater not to exact the moneys due from the city, but to delay, and postpone their payment. The people, accordingly, transferred their importunities to Demades.