Chapter 15

§ 281. _another priestess_. According to the scholiast, the reference is to Ninus, a priestess of Sabazios, who was prosecuted by Menecles for making love-potions for young men. The connexion of this offence with the meetings of the initiated is left to be understood.

§ 282. _the burden undertaken_. Such burdens as the duties of choregus, trierarch, &c., might be voluntarily undertaken, as they were by Demosthenes (see n. on Philippic I. § 36).

§ 287. _Cyrebion_, or 'Light-as-Chaff', was the nickname of Epicrates, Aeschines' brother-in-law (not the Epicrates of § 277). _as a reveller_, no doubt in some Dionysiac revel, in which it was not considered decent to take part without a mask. (The original purpose of masks, however, was not to conceal one's identity from motives of shame, though Demosthenes suggests it as a motive here.)

_were water flowing upstream_. A half-proverbial expression implying that the world was being turned upside-down, when such a person could prosecute for such offences.

§ 290. _Hegesilaus_ was one of the generals sent to Euboea to help Plutarchus; cf. Speech on the Peace, § 5 n. He was accused of abetting Plutarchus in the deception which he practised upon Athens. For Thrasybulus, cf. § 277.

_the primary question_: i.e. of the guilt or innocence of the defendant. If he was pronounced guilty, the question of sentence (or damages) had to be argued and decided separately.

§ 295. _claim to be_: cf. n. on § 259.

_churning the butter_ ([Greek: etyrheue]): i.e. concocting the plot. (For the metaphor cf. Aristophanes, _Knights_ 479.)

§ 299. _Zeus and Dione_. These names show that the oracles referred to were probably given at Dodona.

§ 303. _oath of the young soldiers_. When the young Athenian came of age, he received a shield and spear in the temple of Aglaurus, and swore to defend his country and to uphold its constitution (cf. Lycurgus, _Against Leocrates_, § 76).

§ 314. _keeping step with Pythocles_, who was a tall man, while Aeschines was short.

§ 326. _Drymus and Panactum_ were on the border between Boeotia and Attica. Nothing else is known of the expedition.

§ 332. _Chares_. See nn. on Philippic I. §§ 24, 46; Olynthiac II. § 28, and Introductions.

§ 333. _of one of whom_, &c.: i.e. of Philip (see § 111 ff., and Introd. to Speech on the Peace).

§ 342. _Euthycrates_. See Introd. to Olynthiacs.

ON THE CHERSONESE

§ 9. The argument is, 'if Philip is not committing hostilities so long as he keeps away from Attica, Diopeithes is not doing so, so long as he keeps away from Macedonia, and only operates in Thrace.'

_drive the vessels_, &c. See Speech on the Peace, § 25 n.

§ 14. _passing the time_: i.e. until a convenient season for an attack arrives.

_those who are on the spot_: i.e. in Thrace, and who had doubtless sent messages to Athens. Others think that the words mean 'those who are here from Thrace'.

_Etesian winds_. See First Philippic, § 31 n.

_infatuation_: i.e. hostility to Athens.

§ 16. _punish the settlers_: i.e. those who were sent with Diopeithes and demanded admission to Cardia.

§ 18. _Chalcis_, in Euboea (see Introd.).

§ 21. _keep our hands ... revenues_: a reference to the distributions of Festival-Money (see Third Olynthiac, with Introduction and notes).

_contributions of the allies_. This interpretation seems on the whole better warranted than 'contributions promised to Diopeithes'.

§ 24. _I consent to any penalty_: lit. *'I assess my own penalty at anything'--a metaphor from the practice of the law-courts, which allowed a convicted prisoner to propose an alternative penalty to that suggested by the prosecutor.

_Erythraeans_: Erythrae was on the coast of Asia Minor, opposite Chios.

§ 25. _benevolences_: the same word as was used of the forced contributions levied by English kings.

§ 27. _surrendering_: i.e. to his soldiers, to be plundered (if the phrase is meant to convey anything but a vague accusation).

§ 28. _wax-tablet_: i.e. a summons.

_so many ships_. The critics of Diopeithes must have proposed the sending of a definite force to control him.

§ 29. _a dispatch-boat_: lit. 'the _Paralus_'. This ship, and the _Salaminia_, were the two vessels regularly employed on public errands.

_spitefulness_: i.e. towards Diopeithes.

§ 30. _Chares_: see references in n. on Speech on Embassy, § 332.

_Aristophon_. The reference may be to his conduct as general in the early days of the war with Philip about Amphipolis. His activity as a statesman began as far back as 403, and he was one of the most influential politicians in Athens from about 361 to 354.

§ 31. _losing something_: _sc_. a scapegoat whom you could punish.

§ 40. _Euthycrates_, &c. See Introd. to Olynthiacs.

§ 44. _wretched hamlets_ ([Greek: kak_on]): lit. 'evils' or 'miseries'; but the word is possibly corrupt. (The original reading may possibly have been [Greek: kalyb_on].) According to the scholiast, Drongilum and Cabyle are near Amphipolis and the Strymon; but others assign different localities to them. Masteira is quite unknown.

§ 45. _pit of destruction_ ([Greek: barhathrh_o]). This was literally the pit into which the bodies of condemned criminals were thrown at Athens.

_silos_: underground store-houses for grain, such as were found in Ceos not many years ago, and may still be in use.

§ 46. _irremediable_ ([Greek: an_ekeston]). The reading of two good manuscripts [Greek: aneikaston] (otherwise only known as a late Greek word) may be correct. If so, it may mean 'unparalleled', or 'inexplicable'.

§ 57. The meaning is, that by denouncing those who propose active measures now, they are preparing the way in order to prosecute them so soon as you find the war burdensome; whereas they should themselves be prosecuted for letting things go as far as they have gone.

§ 59. _Oreus_. See Introd.

_Pheraeans_, in 344. See Introd. to Second Philippic; and cf. Third Philippic, § 12.

_compromise_. Slavery seems to be ironically regarded as a compromise between activity and quiescence.

§ 63. _robbed of at an earlier period_. The sense must either be this, or else 'all that you have lost in open war '. In either case emendation is required.

§ 70. _trierarch and choregus_. Demosthenes was choregus in 348, and trierarch in 363, 359, and 357.

§ 74. _Timotheus_: in 358, when Athens liberated Euboea from the Thebans. Cf. First Philippic, § 17, First Olynthiac, § 8. The effect of Timotheus' speech was such that the expedition started within three days. (Speech against Androtion, § 14.)

§ 75. _best counsel that he can_. The text is probably corrupt; but this was probably the sense of the original.

THE THIRD PHILIPPIC

§ 2. _actively at work_: the reference is to Diopeithes (see Speech on Chersonese, § 57).

§§ 4, 5. Passages are repeated from the Speech on the Chersonese, § 4, and First Philippic, § 2.

§ 8. _not to defraud us_: i.e. by making statements which he is not prepared to act upon.

§ 11. _as though visiting his allies_. This is not true, though envoys from the Phocians, as from most other Greek states of importance, were in Philip's camp. With the whole passage, cf. Speech on Embassy, §§ 20 ff.

§ 12. _Pherae_. See Speech on Chersonese, § 59 n. For Oreus see Introd. to Speech on Chersonese, and § 33 and 59 ff. of this Speech.

§ 15. _Serrhium, &c_. See Introd. to Speech on Peace.

_he had sworn to a Peace_. This is untrue; see Speech on Embassy, § 156, where it is part of the charge against Aeschines' party, that they had enabled Philip to take these places _before_ he had sworn to the Peace.

§16. _religion_: with special reference here to the sanctity of the oath.

_into the Chersonese_: i.e. to help Cardia. The claim of Athens to Cardia was not good, and it appears from the Speech of Hegesippus against Halonnesus, § 2, that the Athenians had recognized the independence of the town.

§ 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 establishing 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 constitutions and their cities,' as it suits the facts better. Philip seems to have substituted 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 Embassy. _Megara_: Speech on Embassy, §§ 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 Embassy, §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 document. Some suppose that the insertion 'He reads from the document' 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 Embassy.

§ 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. _embassies_. 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 assonance 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 assisted 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' (Simcox).

§ 18. _When the Phocian war bad broken out_: i.e. in 356-5. Demosthenes made his first speech in the Assembly 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 Embassy, and himself proposed to crown Aristodemus for his services (Aeschines, On the Embassy, §§ 15-17).

§ 23. _the Hellenes bad all_, &c. It is not easy to reconcile this passage with § 16 of the Speech on the Embassy, 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 passage 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 assumed 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 ambassadors were only absent from Athens about ten weeks altogether.

_equally well_. The reading ([Greek: homoios]) 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 Embassy, §§ 86, 125.

§ 41. _property in Boeotia_. See Speech on Embassy, § 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 Embassy, 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 constitutions_. 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 Embassy.

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

§ 79. _to the Peloponnese_, in 344 (see Introd. to Second Philippic): _to Euboea_ in 343-2 (see Introd. to Speech on Embassy); _to Oreus_, &c., in 341 (see Introd. to this Speech).

§ 82. _as their patron_, i.e. as consul (or official patron) of Oreus in Athens. See n. on Speech for Rhodians, § 15. civil rights. See vol. i, p. 52.

§ 83. _this was already the second proclamation_: i.e. the proclamation in accordance with the decree of Aristonicus. It is indeed just possible that the reference is to the proposal of Ctesiphon, 'for this is now the second proclamation,' &c. If so, we should have to assume that the proclamation under the decree of Demomeles in 338 was prevented by the disaster of Chaeroneia. But the first sentence of § 120 is against this (see Goodwin's edition _ad loc_.).

§ 94. _inconsiderate conduct_: i.e. in joining the revolt of the Athenian allies in 356.

§ 96. _when the Spartans_, &c. The section refers to the events of 395.

_Deceleian War_: i.e. the last part of the Peloponnesian War (413-404 B.C.), when Deceleia (in Attica) was occupied by the Spartans.

§ 99. _Thebans... Euboea_: in 358 or 357. See Speech for Megalopolitans, § 14 n.

§ 100. _Oropus_. See Speech for Megalopolitans, Section 11 n.

_I was one_. Demosthenes was, in fact, co-trierarch with Philinus (Speech against Meidias, § 161).

§ 102. See Speech on Naval Boards (with Introd. and notes), and n. on Olynthiac II, § 29.

_obtaining exemption_. The undertaking of the trierarchy conferred exemption from other burdens for the year, and (conversely) no one responsible for another public burden need be trierarch. The leaders of the Taxation Boards referred to in § 103 are probably not (as generally supposed) the richest men in the _Naval_ Boards [Footnote: They may indeed have been so, but it was in virtue of their function as leading members of the Hundred Boards (for collecting the war tax) that they were grouped together as the Three Hundred.] (responsible for trierarchy), but those in the Hundred Boards responsible for the war tax. In each of these Boards there was a leader, a 'second', and a 'third', and these, all together, are almost certainly identical with the 'Three Hundred' responsible for advancing the sum due. When these were already advancing the war tax, they became exempt from trierarchy, and their poorer colleagues in the Naval Boards (to which of course they also belonged) had to bear the burden without them. But under Demosthenes' law the trierarchic payment was required from all alike, in strict proportion to their valuation as entered for the purposes of the war tax; and the Three Hundred (the leaders, seconds, and thirds) were no longer exempted. (This explains their anxiety to get the law shelved.) Even in years when they were not exempt, before Demosthenes' law was passed, they only paid a very small share in proportion to their wealth, since all the members of each Naval Board paid the same sum. It appears, however, that (though the Three Hundred as such cannot be shown to have had any office in connexion with the trierarchy) the richer men in the Naval Boards arranged the contracts for the work of equipment, and that when they had contracted that the work should be done (e.g.) for a talent, they sometimes recovered the whole talent from their poorer colleagues. (Speech against Meidias, § 155.)

§ 103. _lie under sworn notice_, &c. ([Greek: en hupomosia]). One who intended to indict the proposer of a law for illegality had probably to give sworn notice of his intention, and the suggestion made to Demosthenes was that when such notice had been given, he should let the law drop.

§ 105. _the decree_, &c.: i.e. either a decree suspending the law until the indictment should be heard, or one ordering the trial on the indictment to be held.

§ 107. _no trierarch_, &c. A trierarch who thought the burden too heavy for him could appeal against it by laying a branch on the altar in the Pnyx, or by taking sanctuary in the Temple of Artemis at Munychia. A dilatory or recalcitrant trierarch could be arrested by order of the ten commissioners ([Greek: apostuleis]) who constituted a sort of Admiralty Board.

§ 111. _the laws_, &c. The laws alleged to have been violated were copied out, and accompanied the indictment. With regard to the laws in the present case, see Goodwin's edition, pp. 313-6.

§ 114. _Nausides_ was sent to oppose Philip at Thermopylae in 352 (see Introd. to First Philippic). Diotimus had a command at sea in 338, and his surrender was demanded by Alexander in 335, as was also that of Charidernus (see n. on Olynthiac III, § 5), who had now been a regular Athenian general for many years, and had been sent to assist Byzantium in 340 (see Speech against Aristocrates, _passim_).

§ 121. _hellebore_: supposed in antiquity to cure madness.

§ 122. _reveller on a cart_, e.g. on the second day of the Anthesteria, when masked revellers rode in wagons and assailed the bystanders with abusive language. Such ceremonial abuse was perhaps originally supposed to have power to avert evil, and occurs in primitive ritual all over the world.

§ 125. _the statutable limit_. There was a limit of time (differing according to the alleged offence) after which no action could be brought. Demosthenes could not now be prosecuted for any of the offences with which Aeschines charged him.

§ 127. _Aeacus_, &c.: the judges of the dead in Hades, according to popular legend.

_scandal-monger_. The Greek word ([Greek: spermologos]) is used primarily of a small bird that pecks up seeds, and hence of a person who picks up petty gossip. (In Acts xvii. 18 it is the word which is applied to St. Paul, and translated 'this babbler'.)

_an old band in the market-place_: i.e. a rogue. A clerk would perhaps often be found in the offices about the market-place; or the reference may be to the market-place as a centre of gossip.

_O Earth_, &c. Demosthenes quotes from the peroration of Aeschines' speech.

§ 129. The stories which Demosthenes retails in these sections deal with a time which must have been forty or fifty years before the date of this speech, and probably contain little truth, beyond the facts that Aeschines' father was a schoolmaster (not a slave), and was assisted by Aeschines himself; and that his mother was priestess of a 'thiasos' or voluntary association of worshippers of Dionysus-Sabazios, among whose ceremonies was doubtless one symbolizing a marriage or mystical union between the god and his worshippers. (Whether the form of 'sacred marriage' which was originally intended to promote the fertility of the ground by 'sympathetic magic' entered into the ritual of Sabazios is doubtful.) Such a rite, though probably in fact quite innocent, gave rise to suspicions, of which Demosthenes takes full advantage; and the fact that well-known courtesans (such as Phryne and perhaps Ninus) sometimes organized such 'mysteries' would lend colour to the suspicions.

_Hero of the Lancet_ ([Greek: to kalamit_e aer_oi]). The interpretation is very uncertain (see Goodwin, pp. 339 ff.); and, according as [Greek: kalamos] is taken in the sense of 'lancet', 'splints', or 'bow', editors render the phrase 'hero of the lancet', 'hero of the splints', 'archer-hero' (identified by some with Toxaris, the Scythian physician, whose arrival in Athens in Solon's time is described in Lucian's [Greek: Skuth_es ae Proxenos]). That the Hero was a physician is shown by the Speech on the Embassy, § 249.