Delphi Complete Works of Demosthenes, page 350
[123] Here is another point, men of Athens. The difference between railing and accusation I take to be this: accusation implies crimes punishable by law; railing, such abuse as quarrelsome people vent upon one another according to their disposition. These law courts, if I am not mistaken, were built by our ancestors, not that we should convene you here to listen to us taunting one another with the secret scandal of private life, but that we should here bring home to the guilty offences against the public weal.
[124] ταῦτα τοίνυν εἰδὼς Αἰσχίνης οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐμοῦ πομπεύειν ἀντὶ τοῦ κατηγορεῖν εἵλετο. οὐ μὴν οὐδ᾽ ἐνταῦθ᾽ ἔλαττον ἔχων δίκαιός ἐστιν ἀπελθεῖν. ἤδη δ᾽ ἐπὶ ταῦτα πορεύσομαι, τοσοῦτον αὐτὸν ἐρωτήσας. πότερόν σέ τις, Αἰσχίνη, τῆς πόλεως ἐχθρὸν ἢ ἐμὸν εἶναι φῇ; ἐμὸν δῆλον ὅτι. εἶθ᾽ οὗ μὲν ἦν παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ δίκην κατὰ τοὺς νόμους ὑπὲρ τούτων λαβεῖν, εἴπερ ἠδίκουν, ἐξέλειπες, ἐν ταῖς εὐθύναις, ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς, ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις κρίσεσιν:
[124] Aeschines knows that as well as I do; but he has a keener taste for scurrility than for accusation. However, even in that respect he deserves to get as good as he gives. I will come to that presently; meantime I will ask him just one question. Are we to call you the enemy of Athens, Aeschines, or my enemy? Mine, of course. Yet you let slip your proper opportunities of bringing me to justice on behalf of the citizens, if I had done wrong, by audit, by indictment, by any sort of legal procedure;
[125] οὗ δ᾽ ἐγὼ μὲν ἀθῷος ἅπασι, τοῖς νόμοις, τῷ χρόνῳ, τῇ προθεσμίᾳ, τῷ κεκρίσθαι περὶ πάντων πολλάκις πρότερον, τῷ μηδεπώποτ᾽ ἐξελεγχθῆναι μηδὲν ὑμᾶς ἀδικῶν, τῇ πόλει δ᾽ ἢ πλέον ἢ ἔλαττον ἀνάγκη τῶν γε δημοσίᾳ πεπραγμένων μετεῖναι τῆς δόξης, ἐνταῦθ᾽ ἀπήντηκας; ὅρα μὴ τούτων μὲν ἐχθρὸς ᾖς, ἐμοὶ δὲ προσποιῇ.
[125] but here, where I am invulnerable on every ground, by law, by lapse of time, by limitation, by many earlier judgements covering every point, by default of any previous conviction for any public offence, here, where the country must take her share in the repute or disrepute of measures that were approved by the people, here you have met me face to face. You pose as my enemy; are you sure you are not the enemy of the people?
[126] ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἡ μὲν εὐσεβὴς καὶ δικαία ψῆφος ἅπασι δέδεικται, δεῖ δέ μ᾽, ὡς ἔοικε, καίπερ οὐ φιλολοίδορον ὄντα, διὰ τὰς ὑπὸ τούτου βλασφημίας εἰρημένας ἀντὶ πολλῶν καὶ ψευδῶν αὐτὰ τἀναγκαιότατ᾽ εἰπεῖν περὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ δεῖξαι τίς ὢν κἀκ τίνων ῥᾳδίως οὕτως ἄρχει τοῦ κακῶς λέγειν, καὶ λόγους τινὰς διασύρει, αὐτὸς εἰρηκὼς ἃ τίς οὐκ ἂν ὤκνησεν τῶν μετρίων ἀνθρώπων φθέγξασθαι;
[126] A righteous and conscientious verdict is now sufficiently indicated; but I have still, as it seems — not because I have any taste for railing, but because of his calumnies — to state the bare necessary facts about Aeschines, in return for a great many lies. I must let you know who this man, who starts on vituperation so glibly — who ridicules certain words of mine though he has himself said things that every decent man would shrink from uttering — really is, and what is his parentage.
[127] — εἰ γὰρ Αἰακὸς ἢ Ῥαδάμανθυς ἢ Μίνως ἦν ὁ κατηγορῶν, ἀλλὰ μὴ σπερμολόγος, περίτριμμ᾽ ἀγορᾶς, ὄλεθρος γραμματεύς, οὐκ ἂν αὐτὸν οἶμαι ταῦτ᾽ εἰπεῖν οὐδ᾽ ἂν οὕτως ἐπαχθεῖς λόγους πορίσασθαι, ὥσπερ ἐν τραγῳδίᾳ βοῶντα ‘ὦ γῆ καὶ ἥλιε καὶ ἀρετὴ’ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, καὶ πάλιν ‘σύνεσιν καὶ παιδεία’ ἐπικαλούμενον, ‘ᾗ τὰ καλὰ καὶ τὰ αἰσχρὰ διαγιγνώσκεται.’ ταῦτα γὰρ δήπουθεν ἠκούετ᾽ αὐτοῦ λέγοντος.
[127] Why, if my calumniator had been Aeacus, or Rhadamanthus, or Minos, instead of a mere scandalmonger, a market-place loafer, a poor devil of a clerk, he could hardly have used such language, or equipped himself with such offensive expressions. Hark to his melodramatic bombast: “Oh, Earth! Oh, Sun! Oh, Virtue,” and all that vaporing; his appeals to “intelligence and education, whereby we discriminate between things of good and evil report” — for that was the sort of rubbish you heard him spouting.
[128] σοὶ δ᾽ ἀρετῆς, ὦ κάθαρμα, ἢ τοῖς σοῖς τίς μετουσία; ἢ καλῶν ἢ μὴ τοιούτων τίς διάγνωσις; πόθεν ἢ πῶς ἀξιωθέντι; ποῦ δὲ παιδείας σοὶ θέμις μνησθῆναι; ἧς τῶν μὲν ὡς ἀληθῶς τετυχηκότων οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἷς εἴποι περὶ αὑτοῦ τοιοῦτον οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἑτέρου λέγοντος ἐρυθριάσειε, τοῖς δ᾽ ἀπολειφθεῖσι μέν, ὥσπερ σύ, προσποιουμένοις δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἀναισθησίας τὸ τοὺς ἀκούοντας ἀλγεῖν ποιεῖν ὅταν λέγωσιν, οὐ τὸ δοκεῖν τοιούτοις εἶναι περίεστιν.
[128] Virtue! you runagate; what have you or your family to do with virtue? How do you distinguish between good and evil report? Where and how did you qualify as a moralist? Where did you get your right to talk about education? No really educated man would use such language about himself, but would rather blush to hear it from others; but people like you, who make stupid pretensions to the culture of which they are utterly destitute, succeed in disgusting everybody whenever they open their lips, but never in making the impression they desire.
[129] οὐκ ἀπορῶν δ᾽ ὅ τι χρὴ περὶ σοῦ καὶ τῶν σῶν εἰπεῖν, ἀπορῶ τοῦ πρώτου μνησθῶ: πότερ᾽ ὡς ὁ πατήρ σου Τρόμης ἐδούλευε παρ᾽ Ἐλπίᾳ τῷ πρὸς τῷ Θησείῳ διδάσκοντι γράμματα, χοίνικας παχείας ἔχων καὶ ξύλον; ἢ ὡς ἡ μήτηρ τοῖς μεθημερινοῖς γάμοις ἐν τῷ κλεισίῳ τῷ πρὸς τῷ καλαμίτῃ ἥρῳ χρωμένη τὸν καλὸν ἀνδριάντα καὶ τριταγωνιστὴν ἄκρον ἐξέθρεψέ σε; ἀλλὰ πάντες ἴσασι ταῦτα, κἂν ἐγὼ μὴ λέγω. ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ὁ τριηραύλης Φορμίων, ὁ Δίωνος τοῦ Φρεαρρίου δοῦλος, ἀνέστησεν αὐτὴν ἀπὸ ταύτης τῆς καλῆς ἐργασίας; ἀλλὰ νὴ τὸν Δία καὶ θεοὺς ὀκνῶ μὴ περὶ σοῦ τὰ προσήκοντα λέγων αὐτὸς οὐ προσήκοντας ἐμαυτῷ δόξω προῃρῆσθαι λόγους.
[129] I am at no loss for information about you and your family; but I am at a loss where to begin. Shall I relate how your father Tromes was a slave in the house of Elpias, who kept an elementary school near the Temple of Theseus, and how he wore shackles on his legs and a timber collar round his neck? or how your mother practised daylight nuptials in an outhouse next door to Heros the bone-setter, and so brought you up to act in tableaux vivants and to excel in minor parts on the stage? However, everybody knows that without being told by me. Shall I tell you how Phormio the boatswain, a slave of Dio of Phrearrii, uplifted her from that chaste profession? But I protest that, however well the story becomes you, I am afraid I may be thought to have chosen topics unbecoming to myself.
[130] ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐάσω, ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν δ᾽ ὧν αὐτὸς βεβίωκεν ἄρξομαι: οὐδὲ γὰρ ὧν ἔτυχεν ἦν, ἀλλ᾽ οἷς ὁ δῆμος καταρᾶται. ὀψὲ γάρ ποτε — ὀψὲ λέγω; χθὲς μὲν οὖν καὶ πρώην ἅμ᾽ Ἀθηναῖος καὶ ῥήτωρ γέγονεν, καὶ δύο συλλαβὰς προσθεὶς τὸν μὲν πατέρ᾽ ἀντὶ Τρόμητος ἐποίησεν Ἀτρόμητον, τὴν δὲ μητέρα σεμνῶς πάνυ Γλαυκοθέαν, ἣν Ἔμπουσαν ἅπαντες ἴσασι καλουμένην, ἐκ τοῦ πάντα ποιεῖν καὶ πάσχειν δηλονότι ταύτης τῆς ἐπωνυμίας τυχοῦσαν: πόθεν γὰρ ἄλλοθεν;
[130] I will pass by those early days, and begin with his conduct of his own life; for indeed it has been no ordinary life, but such as is an abomination to a free people. Only recently — recently, do I say? Why it was only the day before yesterday when he became simultaneously an Athenian and an orator, and, by the addition of two syllables, transformed his father from Tromes to Atrometus, and bestowed upon his mother the high sounding name of Glaucothea, although she was universally known as the Banshee, a nickname she owed to the pleasing diversity of her acts and experiences — it can have no other origin.
[131] ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως οὕτως ἀχάριστος εἶ καὶ πονηρὸς φύσει ὥστ᾽ ἐλεύθερος ἐκ δούλου καὶ πλούσιος ἐκ πτωχοῦ διὰ τουτουσὶ γεγονὼς οὐχ ὅπως χάριν αὐτοῖς ἔχεις, ἀλλὰ μισθώσας σαυτὸν κατὰ τουτωνὶ πολιτεύει. καὶ περὶ ὧν μὲν ἔστι τις ἀμφισβήτησις, ὡς ἄρ᾽ ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως εἴρηκεν, ἐάσω: ἃ δ᾽ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐχθρῶν φανερῶς ἀπεδείχθη πράττων, ταῦτ᾽ ἀναμνήσω.
[131] You were raised from servitude to freedom, and from beggary to opulence, by the favor of your fellow-citizens, and yet you are so thankless and ill-conditioned that, instead of showing them your gratitude, you take the pay of their enemies and conduct political intrigues to their detriment. I will not deal with speeches which, on a disputable construction, may be called patriotic, but I will recall to memory acts by which he was proved beyond doubt to have served your enemies.
[132] τίς γὰρ ὑμῶν οὐκ οἶδεν τὸν ἀποψηφισθέντ᾽ Ἀντιφῶντα, ὃς ἐπαγγειλάμενος Φιλίππῳ τὰ νεώρι᾽ ἐμπρήσειν εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἦλθεν; ὃν λαβόντος ἐμοῦ κεκρυμμένον ἐν Πειραιεῖ καὶ καταστήσαντος εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν βοῶν ὁ βάσκανος οὗτος καὶ κεκραγώς, ὡς ἐν δημοκρατίᾳ δεινὰ ποιῶ τοὺς ἠτυχηκότας τῶν πολιτῶν ὑβρίζων καὶ ἐπ᾽ οἰκίας βαδίζων ἄνευ ψηφίσματος, ἀφεθῆναι ἐποίησεν.
[132] You all remember Antiphon, the man who was struck off the register, and came back to Athens after promising Philip that he would set fire to the dockyard. When I had caught him in hiding at Peiraeus, and brought him before the Assembly, this malignant fellow raised a huge outcry about my scandalous and undemocratic conduct in assaulting citizens in distress and breaking into houses without a warrant, and so procured his acquittal.
[133] καὶ εἰ μὴ ἡ βουλὴ ἡ ἐξ Ἀρείου πάγου τὸ πρᾶγμ᾽ αἰσθομένη καὶ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἄγνοιαν ἐν οὐ δέοντι συμβεβηκυῖαν ἰδοῦσα ἐπεζήτησε τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ συλλαβοῦσ᾽ ἐπανήγαγεν ὡς ὑμᾶς, ἐξήρπαστ᾽ ἂν ὁ τοιοῦτος καὶ τὸ δίκην δοῦναι διαδὺς ἐξεπέπεμπτ᾽ ἂν ὑπὸ τοῦ σεμνολόγου τουτουί: νῦν δ᾽ ὑμεῖς στρεβλώσαντες αὐτὸν ἀπεκτείνατε, ὡς ἔδει γε καὶ τοῦτον.
[133] Had not the Council of the Areopagus, becoming aware of the facts, and seeing that you had made a most inopportune blunder, started further inquiries, arrested the man, and brought him into court a second time, the vile traitor would have slipped out of your hands and eluded justice, being smuggled out of the city by our bombastic phrase-monger. As it was, you put him on the rack and then executed him, and you ought to have done the same to Aeschines.
[134] τοιγαροῦν εἰδυῖα ταῦθ᾽ ἡ βουλὴ ἡ ἐξ Ἀρείου πάγου τότε τούτῳ πεπραγμένα, χειροτονησάντων αὐτὸν ὑμῶν σύνδικον ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τοῦ ἐν Δήλῳ ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀγνοίας ἧσπερ πολλὰ προΐεσθε τῶν κοινῶν, ὡς προσείλεσθε κἀκείνην καὶ τοῦ πράγματος κυρίαν ἐποιήσατε, τοῦτον μὲν εὐθὺς ἀπήλασεν ὡς προδότην, Ὑπερείδῃ δὲ λέγειν προσέταξε: καὶ ταῦτ᾽ ἀπὸ τοῦ βωμοῦ φέρουσα τὴν ψῆφον ἔπραξε, καὶ οὐδεμία ψῆφος ἠνέχθη τῷ μιαρῷ τούτῳ.
[134] In fact, the Council of the Areopagus knew well that Aeschines had been to blame throughout this affair, and therefore when, after choosing him by vote to speak in support of your claims to the Temple at Delos, by a misapprehension such as has often been fatal to your public interests, you invited the cooperation of that Council and gave them full authority, they promptly rejected him as a traitor, and gave the brief to Hypereides. On this occasion the ballot was taken at the altar, and not a single vote was cast for this wretch.
[135] καὶ ὅτι ταῦτ᾽ ἀληθῆ λέγω, κάλει τούτων τοὺς μάρτυρας.”Μάρτυρες
Μαρτυροῦσι Δημοσθένει ὑπὲρ ἁπάντων οἵδε, Καλλίας Σουνιεύς, Ζήνων Φλυεύς, Κλέων Φαληρεύς, Δημόνικος Μαραθώνιος, ὅτι τοῦ δήμου ποτὲ χειροτονήσαντος Αἰσχίνην σύνδικον ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τοῦ ἐν Δήλῳ εἰς τοὺς Ἀμφικτύονας συνεδρεύσαντες ἡμεῖς ἐκρίναμεν Ὑπερείδην ἄξιον εἶναι μᾶλλον ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως λέγειν, καὶ ἀπεστάλη Ὑπερείδης.”
[135] To prove the truth of my statement, please call the witnesses.”Witnesses
[We, Callias of Sunium, Zeno of Phlya, Cleon of Phalerum, Demonicus of Marathon, on behalf of all the councillors, bear witness for Demosthenes that, when the people elected Aeschines state-advocate before the Amphictyons in the matter of the temple at Delos, we in Council judged Hypereides more worthy to speak on behalf of the state, and Hypereides was accordingly commissioned.]”
[136] οὐκοῦν ὅτε τοῦτον τοῦ λέγειν ἀπήλασεν ἡ βουλὴ καὶ προσέταξ᾽ ἑτέρῳ, τότε καὶ προδότην εἶναι καὶ κακόνουν ὑμῖν ἀπέφηνεν.
ἓν μὲν τοίνυν τοῦτο τοιοῦτο πολίτευμα τοῦ νεανίου τούτου, ὅμοιόν γε, οὐ γάρ; οἷς ἐμοῦ κατηγορεῖ: ἕτερον δ᾽ ἀναμιμνῄσκεσθε. ὅτε γὰρ Πύθωνα Φίλιππος ἔπεμψε τὸν Βυζάντιον καὶ παρὰ τῶν αὑτοῦ συμμάχων πάντων συνέπεμψε πρέσβεις, ὡς ἐν αἰσχύνῃ ποιήσων τὴν πόλιν καὶ δείξων ἀδικοῦσαν, τότ᾽ ἐγὼ μὲν τῷ Πύθωνι θρασυνομένῳ καὶ πολλῷ ῥέοντι καθ᾽ ὑμῶν οὐχ ὑπεχώρησα, ἀλλ᾽ ἀναστὰς ἀντεῖπον καὶ τὰ τῆς πόλεως δίκαι᾽ οὐχὶ προὔδωκα, ἀλλ᾽ ἀδικοῦντα Φίλιππον ἐξήλεγξα φανερῶς οὕτως ὥστε τοὺς ἐκείνου συμμάχους αὐτοὺς ἀνισταμένους ὁμολογεῖν: οὗτος δὲ συνηγωνίζετο καὶ τἀναντί᾽ ἐμαρτύρει τῇ πατρίδι, καὶ ταῦτα ψευδῆ.
[136] Thus by rejecting this man from his spokesmanship, and giving the appointment to another, the Council branded him as a traitor and an enemy to the people.
So much for one of his spirited performances. Is it not just like the charges he brings against me? Now let me remind you of another. Philip had sent to us Pytho of Byzantium in company with an embassy representing all his allies, hoping to bring dishonor upon Athens and convict her of injustice. Pytho was mightily confident, denouncing you with a full spate of eloquence, but I did not shrink from the encounter. I stood up and contradicted him, refusing to surrender the just claims of the commonwealth, and proving that Philip was in the wrong so conclusively that his own allies rose and admitted I was right; but Aeschines took Philip’s side throughout, and bore witness, even false witness, against his own country.
