Demosthenes

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.