THE DEBATE

OF

ESCHINES AND DEMOSTHENES

ON THE CROWN

TRANSLATED BY

THOMAS LELAND, D.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE SAME

THROUGH the whole progress of that important contest, which Athens maintained against the Macedonians, DEMOSTHENES and ÆSCHINES had ever been distinguished by their weight and influence in the assemblies of their state. They had adopted different systems of ministerial conduct, and stood at the head of two opposite parties, each so powerful as to prevail by turns, and to defeat the schemes of their antagonist. The leaders had, on several occasions, avowed their mutual opposition and animosity. Demosthenes, in particular, had brought an impeachment against his rival, and obliged him to enter into a formal defence of his conduct, during an embassy at the court of Macedon. His resentment was confirmed by this desperate attack; and his success, in bearing up against it, encouraged him to watch some favourable opportunity for retorting on his accuser.

The defeat at Charonea afforded this opportunity. The people in general were, indeed, too equitable to withdraw their confidence from Demosthenes, although his measures had been unsuccessful. But faction, which judges, or affects to judge, merely by events, was violent and clamorous. The minister was reviled, his conduct severely scrutinised, his errors aggravated, his policy condemned, and he himself threatened with inquiries, trials, and impeachments. The zeal of his partizans, on the other hand, was roused by this opposition; and they deemed it expedient to procure some public solemn declaration in favour of Demosthenes, as the most effectual means to silence his accusers.

It was usual with the Athenians, and, indeed, with all the Greeks, when they would express their sense of extraordinary merit, to crown the person so distinguished with a chaplet of olive interwoven with gold. The ceremony was performed in some populous assembly, convened either for business or entertainment; and proclamation was made, in due form, of the honour thus conferred, and the services for which it was bestowed.

To procure such an honour for Demosthenes, at this particular juncture, was thought the most effectual means to confound the clamour of his enemies. He had lately been entrusted with the repair of the fortifications of Athens, in which he expended a considerable sum of his own, over and above the public appointment, and thus enlarged the work beyond the letter of his instructions. It was therefore agreed, that CTESIPHON, one of his zealous friends, should take this occasion of moving the senate to prepare a Decree (to be ratified by the popular assembly) reciting this particular service of Demosthenes, representing him as a citizen of distinguished merit, and ordaining that a Golden Crown (as it was called) should be conferred upon him. To give this transaction the greater solemnity, it was moved that the ceremony should be performed in the theatre of Bacchus, during the festival held in honour of that God, when not only the Athenians, but other Greeks, from all parts of the nation, were assembled to see the tragedies exhibited in that festival.

The senate agreed to the resolution. But, before it could be referred to the popular assembly for their confirmation, Eschines, who had examined the whole transaction with all the severity that hatred and jealousy could inspire, pronounced it irregular and illegal, both in form and matter; and without delay assumed the common privilege of an Athenian citizen, to commence a suit against Ctesiphon as the first mover of a decree repugnant to the laws, a crime of a very heinous nature in the Athenian polity.

The articles on which he founds his accusation are reduced to these three.

ARTICLES

I. WHEREAS every citizen, who has borne any magistracy, is obliged, by law, to lay a full account of his administration before the proper officers, and that it is expressly enacted, that no man shall be capable of receiving any public honours, till this his account hath been duly examined and approved; Ctesiphon hath yet moved that Demosthenes should receive a crown previously to the examination of his conduct in the