The Public Orations of Demosthenes Volume II Part 12

-- 18. _if anything should happen_: e.g. the outbreak of open war, or (more probably) a defeat.

-- 23. _seventy-three years_: i.e. 476-404 B. c.

_thirty years save one_: i.e. 404-376 B.C. (in the latter year Chabrias defeated the Spartans off Naxos).

_battle of Leucira_: in 371 B.C.

-- 24. _disturb the established order_: i.e. by establis.h.i.+ng oligarchical governments in place of democracy.

-- 26. _in the Thracian region_: strictly, in Chalcidice and the neighbourhood. See Introd. to Olynthiacs.

_robbed their very cities of their governments_. This is preferable to the (grammatically) equally possible rendering, 'robbed them of their const.i.tutions and their cities,' as it suits the facts better. Philip seems to have subst.i.tuted tetrarchies for separate city-states. (See Speech on Chersonese, --26, and Second Philippic, -- 22 n.)

-- 27. _Ambracia_. See Introd. to Speech on Chersonese. _Elis_: Introd. to Speech on Emba.s.sy. _Megara_: Speech on Emba.s.sy, ---- 294, 295.

-- 32. _Pythian games_. See Introd. to Speech on Peace. In 342 Philip sent a deputy to preside in his name.

---- 33, 34. See Introd. to Speech on Chersonese. Echinus was a Theban colony in Thessaly, on the north coast of the Malian Gulf.

-- 42. _Arthmius_, &c. (cf. Speech on Emba.s.sy, --271). Zeleia was in the Troad, near Cyzicus. Arthmius was apparently proxenus of Athens at Zeleia, and as such had probably certain rights at Athens, of which the decree deprived him; so that Demosthenes' remarks at the beginning of --44 are slightly misleading.

-- 46. At the end of this section two versions are imperfectly blended, and it does not appear what were the contents of the doc.u.ment. Some suppose that the insertion 'He reads from the doc.u.ment' is an early conjectural interpolation.

-- 49. _because be leads_, &c. Philip did, in fact, bring the Macedonian heavy infantry to great perfection for the purposes of a pitched battle, though the decisive action was generally that of the cavalry. But the other troops which Demosthenes names would enable him to execute rapid movements with success. The use of light-armed troops had already been developed by the Athenian general, Iphicrates.

-- 50. _with such advantages_: lit. 'under these conditions' (_not_ 'to crown all', nor 'at the head of these troops').

-- 52. Contrast Speech on Naval Boards, Section 9.

---- 57 ff. See Introd. to Speech on Emba.s.sy.

-- 59. Euphraeus had been a disciple of Plato, and an adviser of Perdiccas, Philip's elder brother. It was he who recommended Perdiccas to entrust the government of part of Macedonia to Philip, whom he afterwards so strongly opposed.

-- 72. _emba.s.sies_. See Introd. to Speech on Chersonese.

ON THE CROWN

-- 1. _to take counsel_, &c. Aeschines had asked the jury to refuse Demosthenes a hearing, or at least to require him to follow the same order of treatment as himself.

-- 3. _unpleasant_. Many render [Greek: duocheres] 'inauspicious', 'ill- omened'; but as we do not know exactly what was in Demosthenes' mind, it is better not to give the word a meaning which it does not bear elsewhere.

It may, however, mean 'vexatious'.

-- 11. _knave as you are_, &c. The a.s.sonance of the original might perhaps be partly reproduced by rendering 'evil-minded as you are, it was yet a very simple-minded idea that your mind conceived', &c.

-- 12. _it does not enable the State_: lit. 'it is not possible for the State.' The point is that the prosecution of Ctesiphon, while expressing the malice of Aeschines towards Demosthenes, does not enable the State to punish Demosthenes himself for his alleged offences, since any penalty inflicted would fall on Ctesiphon.

-- 13. _to debar another_, &c. This probably refers to the attempt to deprive Demosthenes of a hearing, not (as some have thought) to the attempt to get so heavy a fine inflicted upon Ctesiphon that he would be unable to pay it, and would therefore lose his rights as a citizen.

-- 17. _ascribed to me_, &c. Aeschines was anxious, in view of the existing state of feeling at Athens, to disown his part in connexion with the Peace of Philocrates; while Demosthenes undoubtedly a.s.sisted Philocrates in the earlier of the negotiations and discussions which led to the Peace.

_appropriate_. 'The recapitulation of the history is not a mere argumentative necessity, but has a moral fitness also; in fact, the whole defence of Demosthenes resolves itself into a proof that he only acted in the spirit of Athenian history' (Simc.o.x).

-- 18. _When the Phocian war bad broken out_: i.e. in 356-5. Demosthenes made his first speech in the a.s.sembly in 354.

_those who detested the Spartans_: i.e. the Messenians and Arcadians.

_those who had previously governed_, &c.: e.g. the oligarchies which had governed with the help of Sparta in Phlius and Mantinea, and were overthrown after the battle of Leuctra.

-- 19. _would be forced_, &c. This is a misrepresentation, since Philip and the Thebans had been in alliance for some time, and Thebes had no such grounds for apprehending evil from Philip, as would make her apply to Athens.

-- 21. _Aristodemus_, &c. See Introd. to Speech on the Peace. As a matter of fact, Demosthenes acted with Philocrates at least down to the return of the First Emba.s.sy, and himself proposed to crown Aristodemus for his services (Aeschines, On the Emba.s.sy, ---- 15-17).

-- 23. _the h.e.l.lenes bad all_, &c. It is not easy to reconcile this pa.s.sage with -- 16 of the Speech on the Emba.s.sy, from which it appears that representatives of other states were present in Athens; but these so- called envoys may have been private visitors, and in any case there was no real hope of uniting Greece against Philip.

-- 24. _Eurybatus_ is said to have been sent as an envoy by Croesus to Cyrus, and to have turned traitor. The name came to be proverbial.

-- 27. _those strongholds_. See Introd. to Speech on the Peace.

-- 28. _But they would have watched_, &c. The pa.s.sage has been taken in several ways: (1) 'They would have had to watch,' &c., and this would have been discreditable to Athens; (2) 'They would have watched,' &c., i.e.

they would not have been excluded, as you desired, in any case; (3) 'But, you say, they would have paid two obols apiece,' and the city would have gained this. The sentence which follows favours (3), but perhaps (2) is best. The petty interests of the city would include (from the point of view a.s.sumed by Aeschines) the abstention from showing civility to the enemy's envoys. The two-obol (threepenny) seats were the cheapest.

-- 30. _three whole months_. In fact the amba.s.sadors were only absent from Athens about ten weeks altogether.

_equally well_. The reading ([Greek: h.o.m.oios]) is probably wrong; but if it is right, this must be the meaning.

-- 32. _as you did before_, in 352. See Introd. to First Philippic.

-- 36. _decree of Callisthenes_. This ordered the bringing in of effects from the country. See Speech on Emba.s.sy, ---- 86, 125.

-- 41. _property in Boeotia_. See Speech on Emba.s.sy, -- 145.

-- 43. _their hopes_: sc. of the humiliation of Thebes.

_and gladly_: i.e. they were glad to be free from a danger which (though remotely) threatened themselves, as the next sentence explains. I can see no good reason for taking the participle [Greek: polemoumenoi] as concessive ('_although_ they also,' &c.).

-- 48. For Lasthenes see Introd. to Olynthiacs. Timolaus probably contrived the surrender of Thebes after the battle of Chaeroneia. Eudicus is unknown. Simus invoked Philip's aid against the tyrants at Pherae in 352 (see Introd, to First Philippic). Aristratus was tyrant of Sicyon, and made alliance with Philip in 338. For Perillus, see Speech on Emba.s.sy, Section 295.

-- 50. _stale dregs_: strictly the remains, and especially the wine left in the cups, from the previous night's feast; here the long-admitted responsibility of Aeschines for the Peace of 346.

-- 63. _Dolopes_: a small tribe living to the south-west of Thessaly.

-- 65. _free const.i.tutions_. This refers especially to the Thessalians, who had been placed under tetrarchies (see Philippic III. -- 26).

-- 70. _Aristophon_. See Speech on Chersonese, -- 30 n. Diopeithes is perhaps Diopeithes of Sphettus (mentioned by Hypereides, Speech against Euxenippus, -- 39), not the general sent by Athens to the Chersonese.

-- 71. For the events mentioned in this section, see Introd. to Speech on the Emba.s.sy.

-- 72. _Mysian booty_. A proverbial expression derived from the helpless condition of Mysia (according to legend) in the absence of its king, Telephus.