The Public Orations of Demosthenes Volume II Part 8

-- 31. _procession at the Boedromia_. The Boedromia was a festival held in September in honour of Apollo and Artemis Agrotera, Probably a procession was not a regular part of the festival at this time. The importance which the populace attached to such processions is ill.u.s.trated by the Speech against Timocrates, -- 161.

-- 34. _is it then paid service, &c_.: almost, 'do you then suggest that we should _earn_ our money?'

-- 35. _adding or subtracting_: sc. from the sums dispensed by the State to the citizens.

_somebody's mercenaries_. The reference is probably to the successes of Charidemus when first sent (see Introd. to Olynthiacs).

ON THE PEACE

-- 5. _disturbances in Euboea_. Plutarchus of Eretria applied for Athenian aid against Callias of Chalcis, who was attacking him with the aid of Macedonian troops. Demosthenes was strongly opposed to granting the request, but it was supported by Eubulus and Meidias, and a force was sent under Phocion, probably early in 348 (though the chronology has been much debated, and some place the expedition in 350 or 349). Owing to the premature action or the treachery of Plutarchus at Tamynae (where the Athenian army was attacked), Phocion had some difficulty in winning a victory. Plutarchus afterwards seized a number of Athenian soldiers, and Athens had actually to ransom them. Phocion's successor, Molossus, was unsuccessful. When peace was made in the summer of 348, the Euboeans became for the most part independent of Athens, and were regarded with ill-feeling by Athens for some years. There is no proof that the proposers of the expedition were bribed, as Demosthenes alleges.

-- 6. _Neoptolemus_. See Speech on Emba.s.sy, ---- 12, 315.

-- 8. _public service_: i.e. as trierarch or ch.o.r.egus or gymnasiarch, &c.

See n. on Phil. I. -- 36.

-- 10. _there were some_ : i.e. Aeschines and his colleagues. (See Introd.)

_Thespiae and Plataeae_. See Speech for Megalopolitans, Section 4 n.

-- 14. _self-styled Amphictyons_. The Amphictyonic Council represented the ancient Amphictyonic League of h.e.l.lenic tribes (now differing widely in importance, but equally represented on the Council), and was supreme in all matters affecting the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. (See n. on Speech on Crown, -- 148.) The Council summoned by Philip was open to criticism (1) because only certain members of it were present, of whom the Thebans and Thessalians were the chief, (2) because Philip had been given the vote of the dispossessed Phocians.

-- 15. _however stupid, &c_. It had been conventional for over a century to apply this adjective to the Boeotians, and therefore to the Thebans. For a more favourable view, see W. Rhys Roberts, _Ancient Boeotians_, chap. i.

-- 16. _Oropus_. See Speech for Megalopolitans, -- ii n.

-- 18. _Argives, &c_. See Speech for Megalopolitans throughout (with Introd.).

_those whom they have exiled_: especially the refugees from Orchomenus and Coroneia. See vol. i, p. 124.

_Phocian fugitives_. The Amphictyonic Council had recently declared that these had been guilty of sacrilege, and might be seized wherever they might be.

-- 20. _all that they themselves had toiled for_: i.e. the conquest of the Phocians in the Sacred War.

-- 22. _some persons_: i.e. Aeschines and others who tried to excuse Philip's treatment of the Phocians to the Athenian people.

-- 23. _admission ... Delphi_. The Phocians had formerly contrived their exclusion from the Amphictyonic meeting and from the temple and oracle of Delphi. The Council now restored them, and excluded the Phocians.

-- 24. _refuse to submit_: reading [Greek: (_oud) otioun upomeinai_.] The insertion of [Greek: _oude_] (after Cobet) seems necessary, [Greek: _otioun upomeinai_] alone would mean 'face any risk', but this would be contradicted by the next clause. To translate, 'who think that we should face any risk, but do not see that the risk would be one of war,' is to narrow the meaning of [Greek: _otioun_] unduly.

-- 25. _Treaty of Peace_: i.e. the Peace of Philocrates.

_Cardians_. The Athenians claimed Cardia (the key of the Chersonese on the Thracian side) as an ally, though in fact it was expressly excluded from the towns ceded to Athens by Cersobleptes in 357, and had made alliance with Philip in 352.

_prince of Caria_. See Speech for Rhodians (with Introd.).

_drive our vessels to sh.o.r.e_: a regular form of ancient piracy (see Speech on Chersonese, -- 28). The Byzantines drove the Athenian corn-ships into their own harbour. The victims were relieved of their money or their corn.

_shadow at Delphi_: i.e. the empty privilege (as Demosthenes here chooses to represent it) of membership of the Amphictyonic League and Council, now claimed by Philip.

THE SECOND PHILIPPIC

-- 1. _sympathetic_: i.e. towards other Greek states, desirous of securing independence.

-- 2. _Alexander_, &c. Alexander of Macedon was sent by Mardonius, the Persian commander, to offer Athens alliance with Persia on favourable terms. Demosthenes has confused the order of events, and speaks as if this message was brought before the battle of Salamis. The Athenians left the city twice, before the battle of Salamis and before that of Plataeae; it was after Salamis that Alexander was sent (Herod. viii. 140, &c.).

-- 14. _fortify Elateia_. This would be a menace to Thebes (cf. Speech on the Crown, ---- 174, 175). Elateia commands the road from Thermopylae to Thebes.

-- 19. _well-balanced_ ([Greek: _s_ophronousi_]), or 'free from pa.s.sion', i.e. not liable to be carried away by ambition or cupidity as the Thebans were. This is different from mere 'good sense' ([Greek: _syphronein, noun echea_]). For Theban 'stupidity', see Speech on Peace, -- 15 (and n.).

-- 22. _Council of Ten_ ([Greek: _dekadarchian_]). It is clear that some sort of oligarchical government, nominated by Philip, is referred to; but the relation of this to the tetrarchies mentioned in the Speech on the Chersonese, -- 26, as established by Philip, is uncertain. These corresponded to the four tribes or divisions of Thessaly (Thessaliotis, Phthiotis, Pelasgiotis, Histiaeotis); and this is confirmed by a statement in Theopompus' forty-fourth book, to which Harpocration (s.v. [Greek: _dekadarchia_]) refers. Harpocration states that Philip did not establish a decadarchy in Thessaly; and if he is right, then either (a) Demosthenes purposely used an inaccurate word, in order to suggest to the Messenians the idea of a government like that of the Councils of Ten established some sixty years before by Sparta in the towns subject to her; or (b) the text is wrong, and [Greek: _dekadarchian_] is a misreading of [Greek: DARCHIAN], in which [Greek: D] was the numeral (= 4), and the whole stood for [Greek: _tetrarchian_]. As to (a), it is difficult to suppose that the Messenians would not know what had happened in Thessaly so well that the innuendo would fall flat. There is no evidence that 'decadarchy' could be used simply as a synonym for 'oligarchy'. As to (b), the supposed corruption is possible; but then we are left with [Greek: _tetrarchian_]

where we should expect [Greek: _tetrarchias_]: for there is no parallel to [Greek: _tetrarchia_] (sing.) in the sense of 'a system of tetrarchies'.

It is, however, quite possible that Demosthenes was thinking especially of the Thessalians of Pherae, and of the particular tetrarchy established over them: and this seems on the whole the best solution. If, on the other hand, Harpocration is wrong, the reference here may be to a Council of Ten, either established previously to the tetrarchies, and superseded by them, or else coexistent with and superior to them; in either case, since the singular is used, this decadarchy must have been a single government over the whole of Thessaly (or perhaps of the district about Pherae only), not a number of Councils, one in each city or division of Thessaly.

(Theopompus' forty-fourth book probably dealt with 342 B.C., two years after the present speech, though before the Speech on the Chersonese; but we are not told that he a.s.signed the establishment of the tetrarchies to that year.)

-- 25. _find yourselves slaves_: lit. 'find your master.'

-- 28. _by yourselves_: i.e. in the absence of the amba.s.sadors from Philip and other States.

_who conveyed the promises_: i.e. Ctesiphon, Aristodemus, and Neoptolemus (see Speech on Emba.s.sy, ---- 12, 94, 315, &c.): but Demosthenes has probably Aeschines also in view.

-- 30. _water-drinker_. See Speech on Emba.s.sy, -- 46.

-- 32. _secure myself as good a hearing_. Most editions accept this rendering of [Greek: _emaut_o logon poi_es-o_]. But though [Greek: _logon didonai_] = 'grant a hearing,' and [Greek: _logon tychein_] = 'get a hearing,' [Greek: _logon eaut_o poiein_] is strange for 'secure oneself a hearing', and the pa.s.sage regularly quoted from the Speech against Aristocrates, -- 81, is not parallel, since [Greek: _tout_o_] in that pa.s.sage is not a reflexive p.r.o.noun, and [Greek: _logon pepoi_eke_] almost = [Greek: _logon ded_oki_]. Possibly the text is corrupt, and we should either read [Greek: _psogon_] (with H. Richards) or [Greek: _emautou_]

('make you take as much account of me as of my opponents').

_further claim_: since an attack on the part of Demosthenes would incite them to make out a plausible case for Philip once more, and so earn his grat.i.tude.

ON THE EMBa.s.sY

[The literal translation of the t.i.tle is 'On the misconduct as amba.s.sador'.]

-- 1. _drawing your lots_. The jurors who were to serve in each trial were selected by lot out of the total number of jurors for the year.

-- 2. _one of those_: i.e. Timarchus (see Introd.).

_supremacy_. The sovereignty of the people was exercised to a great extent through the law-courts, the jury being always large enough to be fairly representative of popular opinion, though probably there was generally a rather disproportionate preponderance of poorer men among the jurors, the payment being insufficient to attract others. (See Introduction, vol. i, pp. 18, 19, 23.)

-- 11. _the Ten Thousand_: the General a.s.sembly of the Arcadians at Megalopolis.

-- 13. _he came to me_, &c. Aeschines denies this, saying that it would have been absurd, when he knew that Demosthenes and Philocrates had acted together throughout (see Introd.).

-- 16. _in the very presence_, &c.: contrast Speech on the Crown,

-- 23 (and see n. there). Aeschines states that he was in fact replying to inflammatory speeches made by orators who pointed to the Propylaea, and appealed to the memory of ancestral exploits; and that he simply urged that it was possible for the Athenians to copy the wisdom of their forefathers without giving way to an unseasonable pa.s.sion for strife.