Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
"with so much confidence and such a torrent of words inveighed
against" the Athenians, that Demosthenes alone stood up to
oppose him? Or, when Lamachus, the Myrinaean, had written a
panegyric upon king Philip and Alexander, in which he uttered
many things in reproach of the Thebans and Olynthians, and at
the Olympic Games recited it publicly, how was it, that he,
rising up, and recounting historically and demonstratively what
benefits and advantages all Greece had received from the Thebans
and Chalcidians, and on the contrary, what mischiefs the
flatterers of the Macedonians had brought upon it, so turned the
minds of all that were present that the sophist, in alarm at the
outcry against him, secretly made his way out of the assembly?
But Demosthenes, it should seem, regarded other points in the
character of Pericles to be unsuited to him; but his reserve and
his sustained manner, and his forbearing to speak on the sudden,
or upon every occasion, as being the things to which principally
he owed his greatness, these he followed, and endeavored to
imitate, neither wholly neglecting the glory which present
occasion offered, nor yet willing too often to expose his
faculty to the mercy of chance. For, in fact, the orations
which were spoken by him had much more of boldness and
confidence in them than those that he wrote, if we may believe
Eratosthenes, Demetrius the Phalerian, and the Comedians.
Eratosthenes says that often in his speaking he would be
transported into a kind of ecstasy, and Demetrius, that he
uttered the famous metrical adjuration to the people,
By the earth, the springs, the rivers, and the streams,
as a man inspired, and beside himself. One of the comedians
calls him a rhopoperperethras, and another scoffs at him for
his use of antithesis: --
And what he took, took back; a phrase to please
The very fancy of Demosthenes.
Unless, indeed, this also is meant by Antiphanes for a jest upon
the speech on Halonesus, which Demosthenes advised the Athenians
not to take at Philip's hands, but to take back.
All, however, used to consider Demades, in the mere use of his
natural gifts, an orator impossible to surpass, and that in what
he spoke on the sudden, he excelled all the study and
preparation of Demosthenes. And Ariston the Chian, has recorded
a judgment which Theophrastus passed upon the orators; for being
asked what kind of orator he accounted Demosthenes, he answered,
"Worthy of the city of Athens;" and then, what he thought of
Demades, he answered, "Above it." And the same philosopher
reports, that Polyeuctus, the Sphettian, one of the Athenian
politicians about that time, was wont to say that Demosthenes
was the greatest orator, but Phocion the ablest, as he expressed
the most sense in the fewest words. And, indeed, it is related,
that Demosthenes himself, as often as Phocion stood up to plead
against him, would say to his acquaintance, "Here comes the
knife to my speech." Yet it does not appear whether he had this
feeling for his powers of speaking, or for his life and
character, and meant to say that one word or nod from a man who
was really trusted, would go further than a thousand lengthy
periods from others.
Demetrius, the Phalerian, tells us, that he was informed by
Demosthenes himself, now grown old, that the ways he made use of
to remedy his natural bodily infirmities and defects were such
as these; his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation he
overcame and rendered more distinct by speaking with pebbles in
his mouth; his voice he disciplined by declaiming and reciting
speeches or verses when he was out of breath, while running or
going up steep places; and that in his house he had a large
looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his
exercises. It is told that someone once came to request his
assistance as a pleader, and related how he had been assaulted
and beaten. "Certainly," said Demosthenes, "nothing of the kind
can have happened to you." Upon which the other, raising his
voice, exclaimed loudly, "What, Demosthenes, nothing has been
done to me?" "Ah," replied Demosthenes, "now I hear the voice
of one that has been injured and beaten." Of so great
consequence towards the gaining of belief did he esteem the tone
and action of the speaker. The action which he used himself was
wonderfully pleasing to the common people; but by well-educated
people, as, for example, by Demetrius, the Phalerian, it was
looked upon as mean, humiliating, and unmanly. And Hermippus
says of Aesion, that, being asked his opinion concerning the
ancient orators and those of his own time, he answered that it
was admirable to see with what composure and in what high style
they addressed themselves to the people; but that the orations
of Demosthenes, when they are read, certainly appear to be
superior in point of construction, and more effective. His
written speeches, beyond all question, are characterized by
austere tone and by their severity. In his extempore retorts
and rejoinders, he allowed himself the use of jest and mockery.
When Demades said, "Demosthenes teach me! So might the sow
teach Minerva!" he replied, "Was it this Minerva, that was
lately found playing the harlot in Collytus?" When a thief,
who had the nickname of the Brazen, was attempting to upbraid
him for sitting up late, and writing by candlelight, "I know
very well," said he, "that you had rather have all lights out;
and wonder not, O ye men of Athens, at the many robberies which
are committed, since we have thieves of brass and walls of
clay." But on these points, though we have much more to
mention, we will add nothing at present. We will proceed to
take an estimate of his character from his actions and his life
as a statesman.
His first entering into public business was much about the time
of the Phocian war, as himself affirms, and may be collected
from his Philippic orations. For of these, some were made after
that action was over, and the earliest of them refer to its
concluding events. It is certain that he engaged in the
accusation of Midias when he was but two and thirty years old,
having as yet no interest or reputation as a politician. And
this it was, I consider, that induced him to withdraw the
action, and accept a sum of money as a compromise. For of
himself
He was no easy or good-natured man,
but of a determined disposition, and resolute to see himself
righted; however, finding it a hard matter and above his
strength to deal with Midias, a man so well secured on all sides
with money, eloquence, and friends, he yielded to the entreaties
of those who interceded for him. But had he seen any hopes or
possibility of prevailing, I cannot believe that three thousand
drachmas could have taken off the edge of his revenge. The
object which he chose for himself in the commonwealth was noble
and just, the defense of the Grecians against Philip; and in
this he behaved himself so worthily that he soon grew famous,
and excited attention everywhere for his eloquence and courage
in speaking. He was admired through all Greece, the king of
Persia courted him, and by Philip himself he was more esteemed
than all the other orators. His very enemies were forced to
confess that they had to do with a man of mark; for such a
character even Aeschines and Hyperides give him, where they
accuse and speak against him.
So that I cannot imagine what ground Theopompus had to say, that
Demosthenes was of a fickle, unsettled disposition, and could
not long continue firm either to the same men or the same
affairs; whereas the contrary is most apparent, for the same
party and post in politics which he held from the beginning, to
these he kept constant to the end; and was so far from leaving
them while he lived, that he chose rather to forsake his life
than his purpose. He was never heard to apologize for shifting
sides like Demades, who would say, he often spoke against
himself, but never against the city; nor as Melanopus, who,
being generally against Callistratus, but being often bribed off
with money, was wont to tell the people, "The man indeed is my
enemy, but we must submit for the good of our country;" nor
again as Nicodemus, the Messenian, who having first appeared on
Cassander's side, and afterwards taken part with Demetrius, said
the two things were not in themselves contrary, it being always
most advisable to obey the conqueror. We have nothing of this
kind to say against Demosthenes, as one who would turn aside or
prevaricate, either in word or deed. There could not have been
less variation in his public acts if they had all been played,
so to say, from first to last, from the same score. Panaetius,
the philosopher, said, that most of his orations are so written,
as if they were to prove this one conclusion, that what is
honest and virtuous is for itself only to be chosen; as that of
the Crown, that against Aristocrates, that for the Immunities,
and the Philippics; in all which he persuades his
fellow-citizens to pursue not that which seems most pleasant,
easy, or profitable; but declares over and over again, that they
ought in the first place to prefer that which is just and
honorable, before their own safety and preservation. So that if
he had kept his hands clean, if his courage for the wars had
been answerable to the generosity of his principles, and the
dignity of his orations, he might deservedly have his name
placed, not in the number of such orators as Moerocles,
Polyeuctus, and Hyperides, but in the highest rank with Cimon,
Thucydides, and Pericles.
Certainly amongst those who were contemporary with him, Phocion,
though he appeared on the less commendable side in the
commonwealth, and was counted as one of the Macedonian party,
nevertheless, by his courage and his honesty, procured himself a
name not inferior to those of Ephialtes, Aristides, and Cimon.
But Demosthenes, being neither fit to be relied on for courage
in arms, as Demetrius says, nor on all sides inaccessible to
bribery (for how invincible soever he was against the gifts of
Philip and the Macedonians, yet elsewhere he lay open to
assault, and was overpowered by the gold which came down from
Susa and Ecbatana), was therefore esteemed better able to
recommend than to imitate the virtues of past times. And yet
(excepting only Phocion), even in his life and manners, he far
surpassed the other orators of his time. None of them addressed
the people so boldly; he attacked the faults, and opposed
himself to the unreasonable desires of the multitude, as may be
seen in his orations. Theopompus writes, that the Athenians
having by name selected Demosthenes, and called upon him to
accuse a certain person, he refused to do it; upon which the
assembly being all in an uproar, he rose up and said, "Your
counselor, whether you will or no, O ye men of Athens, you shall
always have me; but a sycophant or false accuser, though you
would have me, I shall never be." And his conduct in the case
of Antiphon was perfectly aristocratical; whom, after he had
been acquitted in the assembly, he took and brought before the
court of Areopagus, and, setting at naught the displeasure of
the people, convicted him there of having promised Philip to
burn the arsenal; whereupon the man was condemned by that
court, and suffered for it. He accused, also, Theoris, the
priestess, amongst other misdemeanors, of having instructed and
taught the slaves to deceive and cheat their masters, for which
the sentence of death passed upon her, and she was executed.
The oration which Apollodorus made use of, and by it carried the
cause against Timotheus, the general, in an action of debt, it
is said was written for him by Demosthenes; as also those
against Phormion and Stephanus, in which latter case he was