(Στρατοκλῆς).
1. An Athenian orator, the son of Euthydemus. He was a contemporary of Demosthenes, and a friend of the orator Lycurgus. It was on his motion that a decree was passed investing Lycurgus with the office of manager of the public revenue (Plut. Vit. x. Orat. p. 852. a.). Stratocles was a virulent opponent of Demosthenes, whom he charged with having accepted bribes from Harpalus (Deinarch. in Demosth. pp. 175, a. 177, a. Compare DEMOSTHENES, vol. i. p. 986). He was himself a man of very disreputable character, though a persuasive speaker (Demosth. ad v. Pantaen. p. 944. c. ; Plut. Demetr. 100.11. p. 893e.). Plutarch compares him to Cleon, whom he seems even to have surpassed in impudence. On the occasion of the defeat of Amorgus (B. C. 322) Stratocles, having himself received intelligence some time before the news became generally known, crowned himself with a chaplet, and went through the Cerameicus, proclaiming that the Athenians had been victorious, and bidding the people celebrate a festival of thanksgiving. When the real state of the case became known, and the people indignantly charged him with having deceived them, he asked, with consummate effrontery, what harm he had done, for it was owing to him that they had had three days' enjoyment. Stratocles especially distinguished himself by his extravagant flattery of Demetrius, in whose honour he brought forward in the assembly the most preposterous decrees (Plut. Demetr. 11, 12). When on one occasion, he proposed a vote that whatever Demetrius ordered was pious towards the gods and just towards men, a satirical remark of Demochares in reply to some who said that Stratocles must be mad to propose such decrees, led to a quarrel between Demochares and the partizans of Stratocles, and ultimately to the banishment of the former (Plut. Demetr. 100.24, Compare DEMOCHARES, vol. i. p. 973). It was to accommodate the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries to the convenience or caprice of Demetrius, who demanded to be initiated, that Stratocles proposed the outrageouslyabsurd decree, that the people should call the month Munychion Anthesterion, and celebrate the smaller mysteries, and then forthwith change the name again to Boedromion and celebrate the greater mysteries (Plut. Demetr. 26). This was in B. C. 302. A fragment of a speech of Stratocles is quoted by Photius (Cod. ccl. 4. p.447, a. ed. Bekker.) from Agatharchides (Ruhnken. Hist. Crit. Orat. Graec. Opusc. p. 362, &c.).
We find a Stratocles mentioned as one of the Athenian generals at the battle of Chaeroneia, in B. C. 338. (Polyaen. Strateg. 4.2; comp. Aesch. ad v. Ctes. 100.45. p. 74.) Droysen (Gesch. der Nachfolger Alexanders, p. 498) considers the gene ral and the orator to be identical.
Cicero (Brutus, 11) mentions a Stratocles in a connection which seems to point him out as a rhetorician who was the author of some historical work. Ruhnken, however (l.c. p. 364) identifies him with the Athenian orator.