elucidated the whole subject of the Attic law to which it relates. Together with the speech of Demosthenes he has thought fit to publish that of Aristides the Rhetorician, a scholastic exercise upon the same subject, scarcely worth reading on its own account, but affording matter of interest to the learned from its being an imitation of the great Athenian master. The Editor assigns his reasons for publishing it in his Prolegomena, of which I subjoin an extract, translated and somewhat abbreviated: "The Oration of Aristides belongs to a class which the Greek rhetoricians call Exercises; the Latin, Declamations. There were three different kinds of them. Some men wrote on imaginary arguments and general questions; others took up real subjects and causes, which they found in ancient history, and employed themselves in composing accusations or defences, speeches for or against wars or treaties, descriptions of manners, places, and countries. But since on subjects like these every man would add, suppress, or alter facts at his pleasure, partly carried away by the ardour of authorship, partly through apprehension that the necessity for repeating old and hackneyed stories would leave no scope for the praise of originality; truth was often so metamorphosed under their hands, that she became unlike herself: and from such cause to this day there remain in history some splendid fictions. Although these two classes which I have mentioned were in the highest estimation, when eloquence, the foster-child of ancient freedom, had been silenced and banished from the forum, degraded from her dignity by the domination of kings; yet they existed and were held in honour long before those times. Afterwards there arose a new tribe of rhetoricians; who, not satisfied with training their pupils to the general imitation of the ancients, ventured to propose for a sort of contest the very arguments which from them had received celebrity. Confident fellows one must call them, and forgetful of themselves and their age, to suppose that a subject, illustrated in the light of the forum by the power of preeminent genius in the flourishing days of Greece, could be brightened up afresh under the hands of tiros in the shade of the school! Yet even here the masters themselves led the way, entering first into the contest of art: and there were distinguished Sophists, who used, as an agreeable exercise, to declaim within their own walls against Philip of Macedon, against Midias, or against Catiline. One example of this kind is the Oration of Aristides, an eminent teacher of Rhetoric in the second century.1 * * * (1) This would appear to have been a favourite subject in the schools of rhetoric. For, before Aristides, it was taken up by Lollian, who flourished in Hadrian's reign, as we learn from Philostratus in the Lives of the Sophists, i, 527. He has preserved a fragment of the declamation, the thunders of which are certainly not of a character which causes us greatly to regret their extinction. Attacking the Law of Leptines, on the ground that it prevented corn coming to Athens from the Euxine, he says"The mouth of the Euxine is closed by a statute; a few words intercept the food of the Athenians; the same effect is produced by Lysander fighting and by Leptines legislating." "The principal use of the Oration of Aristides is, that, since very few specimens of declamatory composition have come down to us, and none of them is more eminent than this, we may see, by comparing it with the speech of Demosthenes, how unsuccessful the imitation is, by what marks a style of meretricious ornament is distinguished from the natural beauties of the ancient and real eloquence. For how entirely different from that declaimer of the school does the Attic orator sound. The Leptinean speech is indeed one of the quiet kind, employed wholly in convincing, rather than exciting the hearer; and possesses not the force and grandeur of language and sentiments which we admire in the Philippics and some other speeches, which are usually regarded as models of the Demosthenic character. Here everything is calm, temperate, carefully worked out, and of an equable tenor. This indeed is the highest excellence of oratory, to know how the style should be varied according to the subject. And none better understood this art than our orator; and for this single reason one might think him justly preferable to all whom either that or any following age produced. So plain and concise is he in some of the private orations composed for small causes; so copious, dignified, and grand in his Philippics; that one would scarcely recognise the same hand in both. But between these two classes of his speeches there is a third, in which he opposes laws or popular decrees; and for which he has been specially commended by ancient critics. Of the highest rank in this class is the celebrated Oration on the Crown, though it is more akin to the loftier class. Next to this I am inclined to place the Leptinean; certainly, out of the four Orations in this same class, those against Androtion, Aristocrates, Aristogiton, Timocrates, none ought to be preferred to this.; and only that against Androtion can be put on a par with it. "The style of the Leptinea is so subtle, that it is scarcely surpassed by any writer except Lysias, who is all subtlety. And he that knows the force of this quality and the difficulty of attaining it, and is aware how highly the ancients rated it, will think, I am sure, that Cicero's testimony is a high one, when he commends the Oration on this special ground. Such an excellence indeed can only be appreciated by one who brings an ear habituated to notice various peculiarities of style: but the truth and beauty and loftiness of the sentiments must be perceptible even to readers of less learning. These are derived from the common source of everything that is most eminent in a speaker—an elevated and liberal mind that holds cheap what the vulgar regard as precious: which is best seen in those passages, where the orator contends that inviolability of faith and the honour of the commonwealth are to be preferred to all other considerations. Every part of this speech is full of such principles, and every argument turns on them: and therefore we are not surprised to read, that it was the favourite of Panatius the Stoic, who, it is well known, referred everything to honour, in conformity with the precepts of his philosophy, and held that it was to be followed in every action, even though it might be repugnant to interest. What force and weight there is in the arguments by which Demosthenes refutes the reasoning of his adversaries! You would feel indignant if the judges had not decided in his favour, especially when that weight of argument is tempered throughout with the utmost mildness in refutation. This will be matter of surprise to those who have been told that there are few instances of it in Demosthenes. The orator however, accustomed as he was to attempt nothing unseemly or unsuited to the occasion, besides that he had other reasons perhaps inclining him to moderation,' would of course be influenced by the character of his opponent, and the age and rank of those who had been selected to defend the cause. We are ignorant indeed who Leptines was; but I think we may be nearly sure he was a man of political influence and power, so that even Demosthenes might have thought himself obliged to spare his dignity, and to treat him with lenity and forbearance: so that, if anywhere he censures the individual, he does so with self-restraint, and never in bitter or insulting language. For when expressions appear a little rough to us, we must remember that they appeared very different to a Greek audience, and especially to Athenians, who were accustomed to hear their most eminent citizens assailing each other with the bitterest reproaches. Since the present Oration is free from any such deformity, it is so much the better suited to the feelings and temper of our age, and has a merit peculiarly recommending it to the modern studier of eloquence. Any one who has well considered the beauty and elegance of this speech, and has also carefully examined the art which is not apparent on the first view, will rise from its perusal with the feeling that he has derived great assistance both for criticism and for composition. There is one thing more, to which I would direct the reader's attention—I mean, the abundance and variety of topics into which Demosthenes has expanded his argument, penetrating (as it were) into the inmost recesses of the subject, yet not urging sophistically anything far-fetched or foreign to the question, but seizing and turning to his purpose every circumstance which could throw light upon it, or influence the judges in his own favour: so that one wonders what Phormio could have said on the same points, if he left all those topics for Demosthenes, when Demosthenes appears to have left nothing for any speaker that followed him." I mentioned in the Argument to the Oration, that, with respect to the issue of this contest, which Dio Chrysostom states to have been in favour of Demosthenes, a doubt had been raised by Christopher Wordsworth in his "Athens and Attica." He tells us (at page 140), (1) For example; that the time had gone by for punishing Leptines. that in the outside of the southern wall, to the west of the Theatre, he found an inscription, of which the following is a translation:1 "The Cecropid tribe gained the prize with a chorus of boys, of which Ctesippus the son of Chabrias defrayed the expense." Upon which he remarks: "This small fragment of a marble slab is a curious historical document. It informs us of a fact which cannot be learnt elsewhere. It communicates the result of one of the most important orations of Demosthenes. His Oration against Leptines was composed in behalf of Ctesippus, the dissolute son of Chabrias, who is mentioned in the above inscription: its object was to secure to Ctesippus the immunity from public burdens, which he enjoyed in consequence of the exploits of his father, and of which the law of Leptines threatened to deprive him. Of these public burdens the Choragia was one of the most onerous. This marble presents us with a proof that Ctesippus performed the office of Choragus. Demosthenes therefore failed in his attempt." In a note, which is inserted below," he argues from the language of Dio Chrysostom, that his statement is not worthy of credit: for the language of Dio seems to import that Leptines was condemned in person; whereas we know from the Oration of Demosthenes, that this was not so, but that Leptines was safe, and the law itself only was impugned. With respect to this last point, I should be inclined to think with F. A. Wolf, that the words of Dio, though perhaps somewhat loose, do not necessarily import anything further than that Leptines lost the verdict. With respect to the inscription, I can only venture to suggest, that it may be reconciled with Dio's statement, by supposing, either that Ctesippus performed the service in the interval while the law was in force, after the prosecution of Bathippus had been withdrawn, and before the verdict in favour of Demosthenes; or that Ctesippus volunteered to undertake an office which by law he was not compellable to serve. (1) The original is, Κεκροπις παιδων ενικα Κτήσιππος Χαβρίου χορηγει. (2) "Dio Chrysostom indeed asserts that Leptines was condemned; éáλw ypaрns. This we know to have been impossible from the nature of the suit. The legal term (πрobeσμía), in which Leptines was subject to prosecution, had expired. It is singular that F. A. Wolf should have approved this statement of Dio Chrysostom, when he himself observes in the next page, that the title προς Λεπτίνην, and not κατὰ AETTIVOU, prefixed to the Oration, Leptinem præsentem in judicio signat, non reum factum.” The words of Dio are-Λεπτίνης τις εἰσήνεγκε νόμον, ὡς χρῆν τὰς ἀτελείας ἀφελέσθαι τοὺς ἔχοντας παρὰ τοῦ δήμου, δίχα τῶν ἀφ ̓ Αρμοδίου καὶ ̓Αριστογείτονος, καὶ μηκέτι τολοιπὸν ἐξεῖναι διδόναι μηδενὶ τὴν δωρεὰν ταύτην. Τί οὖν; ἔσθ' ὅπως παρεδέξαντο τὸν νόμον; Οὐμενοῦν, ἀλλ ̓ ἑάλω γραφής. Oratio Rhodiaca, 31, p. 635. Edit. Reiske. APPENDIX II. THE OFFICIAL SERVICES. I AM here to speak of the duties of Choragus and Gymnasiarch, the feasting of the tribes, and the conduct of religious embassies. These were called Encyclic or Ordinary Services,' because they regularly recurred, and were thus distinguished from the Trierarchy, which was an extraordinary one, to be performed only in time of war. They were partly of an honorary and partly of a burdensome character, the performance being attended with considerable expense; and therefore they were exacted only of the wealthier classes. That they were established as early as the reign of the Pisistratids, we are informed by Aristotle in his Economics. They were afterwards regularly kept up, and regarded as an important part of the public economy of Athens: for, although the state derived no benefit from them for the necessary purposes of administration, they contributed to defray the cost of those scenic exhibitions and amusements, to which the Athenians were so devoted, and which indeed formed a part of their religion. Each tribe nominated such of its members as were qualified to undertake the burdensome duties; no one (it seems) being liable to them, whose estate was less than three talents. only persons regularly exempt were the Archons, heiresses, minors, and orphans until the second year after their coming of age. As to special exemptions conferred by way of honour, enough has been said in the Leptinean Oration. The I. The Choragus was a person who provided a chorus to sing, dance, or play at any of the public festivals. In the Athenian drama the chorus was by no means the least important part, nor the least (1) Εγκύκλιοι λειτουργίαι. On the word λειτουργία F. A. Wolf has the following note in his Prolegomena to the Leptinean Oration, s. 86: “ Ulpian ad Orat. p. 494. Λεῖτον ἐκάλουν οἱ παλαιοὶ τὸ δημόσιον, ὅθεν λειτουργεῖν Tò els To dпμóσιov épуáčeσÐαι ëλeyov. Ad hoc confer Herodotum, vii. 197. Etymol. M. Ammon. et Morid. in v. XEITOUρyòs vel λectoupyeïv, et ibi Valcken. et Pierson. Scilicet voces sunt sola forma diversæ, utpote a λαός et λεως ductæ, λάϊτος, λειτος, λεῖτος, λήιτος, λῇτος, popularis, publicus. Ε postrema formatum λητουργεῖν recte Piersonus veteribus Atticis vindicat." That the AeToupyia were not peculiar to Athens, but existed in other parts of Greece, and particularly in the Egean islands, appears from various sources. See Herodotus, v. 83. Plutarch, Vit. Aristid. 1. Isocrates, Æginet. 391. (2) Cited by F. A. Wolf, ibid. 87, note 60. He says of Hippias: "Ooo Tpinpapxeiv, ἢ φυλαρχεῖν, ἢ χορηγεῖν, ἤ τινα εἰς ἑτέραν λειτουργίαν τοιαύτην ήμελλον δαπαναν, τίμημα τάξας μέτριον. “ Ubi sine dubio" (says the learned critic) “ verbum φυλαρχεῖν imprimis ad eoríao pertinet." |