Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
XV. It is stated that the speech by which Apollodorus obtained sentence
against the general Timotheus, and had him condemned to pay a large
fine, was written for him by Demosthenes: and he also wrote the
speeches against Phormio and Stephanus, which, as may be supposed,
brought great disgrace upon him. For Phormio actually used a speech
written by Demosthenes to combat Apollodorus, which was just as if out
of one armourer's shop he had sold them each daggers to kill one another
with. Of his public speeches, those against Androtion, Timokrates and
Aristokrates were written for other persons, as he had not at the time
of their composition began to speak in public, being only twenty-seven
or twenty-eight years of age. The oration against Aristogeiton, he
himself pronounced, as he did also that against Leptines, out of regard
for Ktesippus the son of Chabrias, according to his own account of the
matter, though some say that he was paying his addresses to the young
man's mother at the time. He did not, however, marry her, but married a
Samian woman, as we learn from the treatise of Demetrius of Magnesia on
Synonyms. It is not clear whether the oration against Æschines for the
dishonest embassage was ever spoken; although we are told by Idomeneus
that Æschines was only acquitted by thirty votes. This, however, cannot
be true, judging from the speeches of Demosthenes and Æschines "on the
Crown:" for neither of them distinctly alludes to that affair as having
ever come into court. This point, therefore, I shall leave for others to
determine.
XVI. Before the war broke out no one could doubt which side Demosthenes
would take, as he never allowed any act of the King of Macedonia to pass
unnoticed, but seized every opportunity of rousing and exciting his
countrymen to oppose him. In consequence of this his name became well
known at the court of Philip, and when he was sent with nine others to
Macedonia on an embassy, Philip listened to the speeches of them all,
but replied to his speech with the greatest care. He did not, however,
pay so much attention to Demosthenes in the entertainment which he
provided for the ambassadors, but took especial pains to win the favour
of Æschines and Philokrates. Hence, when these men praised Philip as
being more eloquent, more handsome, and to crown all, able to drink more
than any one else, Demosthenes sneeringly replied that the first of
these qualities was excellent in a sophist, the second in a woman, and
the third in a sponge, but that they were none of them such as became a
king.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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