Letters

None of these considerations do you take into account but, grudging me the paltry words of a decree and an act of kindness,[*](See Dem. L. 3.39 by way of an ordinance of gratitude and magnanimity on your part.) you will allow me to perish, if it so happen, through your inaction, for I could appeal to no others but you. In that day you will say that I have been shamefully mistreated, I know for a certainty, when it will do neither you nor myself any good, for assuredly you do not expect that I have funds apart from my real and personal property, from which I am separated; the rest of my assets I wish to assemble if in a spirit of humanity instead of spitefulness you will but give me leave to attend to this business unmolested.[*](Demosthenes was condemned to be held in prison until his fine should be paid; he insists that he must enjoy liberty if he is to collect the funds necessary for payment.)

Neither will you ever show that I received money from Harpalus, for neither was I tried and proved guilty nor did I take money, and if you are looking for excuse to the notorious decision of the Council or to the Areopagus,[*](According to Plut. Dem. 26, the orator himself moved that the charges should be referred to the Areopagus, which promptly condemned him.) recall to mind the trial of Aristogeiton[*](Aristogeiton was acquitted, according to Demosthenes, upon the same evidence. See Dem. L. 3.37.) and hide your heads in shame[*](Eight references to this passage may be found in Walz’s Rhetores Graeci, which has an index.); because I have no milder injunction for those who have committed this offence against me.

For surely you will not claim it was just, after information was laid in the very same words by the same Council, for that man to be exonerated and me to be ruined; you are not so void of reason. For I do not deserve it; I am not that kind of a person nor worse than he, though I am unfortunate, thanks to you, I admit, for why not unfortunate when on top of my other calamities I must compare myself with Aristogeiton, and to make matters worse, a ruined man with one who has secured acquittal?

And do not assume from these words that it is anger that moves me, because I could not feel that way toward you. To those who are wronged, however, it brings a certain relief to tell their sorrows, just as it relieves those in pain to moan, because toward you I feel as much goodwill as I would pray you might have toward me. I have made this plain in everything and shall continue to do so,

for I have been resolved from the beginning that it is the duty of every man in public life, if only he be a fair-minded citizen, so to feel toward all his fellow-citizens as children ought to feel toward their parents, and, while praying that he may find them perfectly reasonable, yet to bear with them in a spirit of kindliness as they are[*](This advice for children was possibly a commonplace. It is voiced by Epicurus, Vatican Collection 62.); because defeat under such circumstances is judged among right-minded men to be an honorable and befitting victory. Farewell.

[*](This letter is not cited in ancient authorities and there is less likelihood of its being genuine) Demosthenes to the Council and the Assembly sends greeting.

I hear that Theramenes[*](There is no known connection between this obscure man and the Theramenes who played a conspicuous role during the latter years of the Peloponnesian War.) has uttered various slanderous statements concerning me and in particular that he taunts me with being ill-fated.[*](The implication is that Demosthenes was an unlucky person who brought bad luck to the State. Deinarchus in his speech Against Demosthenes 31-33 (Din. 1.31-33) asserts that he also involved his collaborators in his own ill luck. It may he noted that Cicero, For the Manilian Law 10. 28, places felicitas on a par with scientia rei militaris, virtus, and auctoritas.) Now I am not astonished that this man should be ignorant that abusive language, which demonstrates no vice on the part of the one against whom it is spoken, carries no weight with fair-minded people. For if one who in his way of life is insolent, by birth is not a citizen, and was reared from childhood in a brothel, had even a faint perception in such matters, it would be more unintelligible than complete ignorance.

As for this man, If some day I return and am restored to my rights, I shall plan to have a talk with him about the drunken abuse he directs at me and at you, and I believe that, even if he is devoid of shame, I shall render him more self-restrained. To you, however, in the interest of the common good, I wish to make known by letter what statements I have to make about these matters. Listen to my words with all attention, for I think they are not only worth hearing but also worth remembering.

As for me, I assume that your city is the most fortunate in the world and the dearest to the gods, and I know that Zeus of Dodona and Dione[*](At the shrine of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus it was Dione, and not Hera, who was considered his consort. Elsewhere Dione was identified with Aphrodite or Venus.) and the Pythian Apollo are always saying this in their oracles and confirming with the seal of their approval the opinion that good fortune has her abode in the city among you. Moreover, all that the gods reveal about coming events it is obvious that they prophesy; but the epithets based upon past events they apply to experiences of the past.

Now, what I have done as a public man among you belongs in the class of events already past, on the ground of which the gods have bestowed upon you the epithet fortunate. How, then, is it fair for those who followed advice to be denominated fortunate but the adviser to receive the opposite epithet? Unless someone should give this explanation, that for the common good fortune, of which I was the counsellor, it is the gods who vouch, and to think they lie would be sacrilege, but that the personal slander, which Theramenes has directed against me, it is an insolent, shameless and not even intelligent person who has uttered.

Now, it is not only by the words of the oracles coming from the gods that you will find the fortune you have enjoyed to be good but also by viewing it in the light of the facts themselves, if you will scan them rightly. For if as human beings you are willing to regard our affairs, you will find that our city, as a result of the policy I advised, has been very fortunate, but if you shall demand to receive those blessings which are reserved for the gods alone, you aim at the impossible.

What, then, is reserved for gods but for men is impossible? To be in absolute control of all the blessings there are, both to possess them themselves and to bestow them upon others, and never in all eternity either to suffer anything bad or to look forward to suffering it. Next, these propositions having been laid down, as is proper, scan your blessings in comparison with those of the rest of mankind.

No one, for instance, is so foolish as to assert that what has befallen either the Spartans, whom I never advised, or the Persians, whom I never even visited, is preferable to your present lot. I pass over the Cappadocians, the Syrians, and the beings who inhabit the land of India toward the ends of the earth, all of whom have had the misfortune to suffer many terrible and grievous afflictions.

O yes, by Zeus, all will agree that you are faring better than these, but worse, they declare, than the Thessalians, Argives and Arcadians, or certain others, who had the luck to be in alliance with Philip. But you have come off far better than these, not only because you have not been reduced to slavery—and yet what blessing equals that?—but also because, while all those are thought to be responsible for the evils that have befallen the Greeks through Philip and their enslavement, in consequence of which they are hated with good reason,

you are seen to have struggled in defence of the Greeks at the expense of your lives, your property, your city, your territory and all you possess, in return for which you are entitled to glory and undying gratitude from all lovers of justice. Therefore, as a result of the counsels I gave, it has been the city’s good fortune to fare best of all the states that resisted Philip and there is the added gain of standing in higher repute than those who co-operated with him.

On these grounds, therefore, the gods, while giving favorable oracles to you, are turning back the unjust slander upon the head of him who utters it, and any man would recognize the facts if he chose to examine the practices in which he spends his life. For instance, he does by preference the very things that one might invoke upon him as a curse.

He is an enemy to his own parents but a friend to Pausanias the whoremonger, and though he swaggers like a man he allows himself to be used like a woman. He lords it over his own father but submits to degenerates. He regales his fancy with things by which all are disgusted, with foul language and with stories by which his hearers are pained; yet he never ceases to talk, as if he were a simple fellow and the soul of frankness.[*](Blass, who is inclined to reject this letter, calls attention to the Gorgianic antitheses in the preceding passage.)

I would not have written this had I not wished to stir in you the recollection of the vices that attach to him. For many terrible and shameful things, which a man would shrink from telling and would guard against mentioning in writing and, as I think, would be disgusted to hear of, each one of you, reminded by these words, knows to attach to this man, so that nothing indecent has been uttered by me and this man upon sight is a reminder to all of his own vices. Farewell.

[*](Schaefer judges the evidence against the genuineness of these last two letters to be decisive. If this one be genuine, it must be assumed that Heracleodorus is a citizen of some neighboring city, such as Corinth, because Demosthenes would have no need to write to a fellow-citizen of Athens.) Demosthenes sends his good wishes to Heracleodorus.

I am at a loss to know whether I ought to believe or disbelieve the news that Menecrates brings me. For he said that information had been laid against Epitimus, that Aratus[*](The persons here named are citizens of some neighboring city and otherwise unknown.) had taken him to prison and that you were supporting the prosecution and were the most uncompromising of all toward him. I do beseech you in the name of Zeus the god of friendship and by all the gods not to get me involved in any disagreeable and embarrassing predicament.

For be well assured that, apart from my concern for the safety of Epitimus and my belief that it will be a great misfortune if anything should happen to him and you should be partly responsible for it, I am ashamed to face people who are familiar with the reports I have been making to everybody concerning yourself. I was convinced that I spoke the truth, not because I possessed confirmation from having associated with you,

but because I observed that, while gaining some renown, you were also glad to have an education, and that too in the school of Plato, the one that really has nothing to do with getting the better of people and the quackeries[*](The reference is to the sophists, professional teachers who undertook to prepare their pupils for worldly success.) that concern themselves with this, but has been demonstrated to aim at the highest excellence and perfect justice in all things. By the gods I swear that it is impious for a man who has shared in this instruction not to be free from all deception and honest in all dealings.