CHAP. XCVI.] LAW RESTRICTING THE PHILOSOPHERS. 511 lation proposed in honour of Demetrius Poliorketes by his partisans, though perhaps disapproved by many, would hardly find a single pronounced opponent. made by chares, nes, to sequious One man, however, there was, who ventured to Opposition oppose several of the votes-the nephew of Demo- Demosthenes-Demochares; who deserves to be comme- nephew of morated as the last known spokesman of free Athe- Demosthenian citizenship. We know only that such were these obhis general politics, and that his opposition to the public obsequious rhetor Stratokles ended in banishment, four years afterwards'. He appears to have discharged the functions of general during this period -to have been active in strengthening the fortifications and military equipment of the city-and to have been employed in occasional missions2. flatteries. Phalereus in his absence. Honourable commemo the de orator The altered politics of Athens were manifested Demetrius by impeachment against Demetrius Phalereus and condemned other leading partisans of the late Kassandrian se government. He and many others had already gone into voluntary exile; when their trials came ration of on, they were not forthcoming, and all were con- ceased demned to death. But all those who remained, and Lykurgus. presented themselves for trial, were acquitted3; so little was there of reactionary violence on this occasion. Stratokles also proposed a decree, commemorating the orator Lykurgus (who had been dead about seventeen years) by a statue, an honorary inscription, and a grant of maintenance in the Prytaneum to his eldest surviving descendant". Among 1 Plutarch, Demetr. 24. Polybius, xii. 13; Decretum apud Plutarch. Vit. X. Oratt. p. 851. ⚫ Philochori Fragm. 144, ed. Didot, ap. Dionys. Hal. p. 636, Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 842-852. Lykurgus at his death (about 324 B.C.) left three sons, who are said, shortly after his death, to have Restrictive law passed philoso phers they all leave Athens. The law is repealed next year, and the philosophers return to Athens. those who accompanied the Phalerean Demetrius into exile was the rhetor or logographer Deinarchus. The friendship of this obnoxious Phalerean, and against the of Kassander also, towards the philosopher Theophrastus, seems to have been one main cause which occasioned the enactment of a restrictive law against the liberty of philosophising. It was decreed, on the proposition of a citizen named Sophokles, that no philosopher should be allowed to open a school or teach, except under special sanction obtained from a vote of the Senate and people. Such was the disgust and apprehension occasioned by the new restriction, that all the philosophers with one accord left Athens. This spirited protest, against authoritative restriction on the liberty of philosophy and teaching, found responsive sympathy among the Athenians. The celebrity of the schools and professors was in fact the only characteristic mark been prosecuted by Menesæchmus, and put in prison (“handed over to the Eleven"). But Thrasykles, supported by Demokles, stood forward on their behalf; and Demosthenes, then in banishment at Træzen, wrote emphatic remonstrances to the Athenians against such unworthy treatment of the sons of a distinguished patriot. Accordingly the Athenians soon repented and released them. This is what we find stated in Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 842. The third of the so-called Demosthenic Epistles purports to be the letter written on this subject by Demosthenes. The harsh treatment of the sons of Lykurgus (whatever it may have amounted to, and whatever may have been its ground) certainly did not last long; for in the next page of the very same Plutarchian life (p. 843), an account is given of the family of Lykurgus, which was ancient and sacerdotal; and it is there stated that his sons after his death fully sustained the dignified position of the family. On what ground they were accused, we cannot make out. According to the Demosthenic epistle (which epistles I have before stated that I do not believe to be authentic), it was upon some allegation, which, if valid at all, ought to have been urged against Lykurgus himself during his life (p. 1477, 1478); but Lykurgus had been always honourably acquitted, and always held thoroughly estimable, up to the day of his death (p. 1475). CHAP. XCVI.] DEMETRIUS IN ASIA. 513 of dignity still remaining to them-when their power had become extinct, and when even their independence and free constitution had degenerated into a mere name. It was moreover the great temptation for young men, coming from all parts of Greece, to visit Athens. Accordingly, a year had hardly passed, when Philon, impeaching Sophokles the author of the law, under the Graphê Paranomôn, prevailed on the Dikastery to find him guilty, and condemn him to a fine of five talents. The restrictive law being thus repealed, the philosophers returned'. It is remarkable that Demochares stood forward as one of its advocates; defending Sophokles against the accuser Philon. From scanty notices remaining of the speech of Demochares, we gather that, while censuring the opinions no less than the characters of Plato and Aristotle, he denounced yet more bitterly their pupils, as being for the most part ambitious, violent, and treacherous men. He cited by name several among them, who had subverted the freedom of their respective cities, and committed gross outrages against their fellow-citizens2. Athenian envoys were despatched to Antigonus 1 Diogen. Laert. v. 38. It is probably to this return of the philosophers that the pvɣádwv káłodos mentioned by Philochorus, as foreshadowed by the omen in the Acropolis, alludes (Philochorus, Frag. 145, ed. Didot, ap. Dionys. Hal. p. 637). * See the few fragments of Demochares collected in Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum, ed. Didot, vol. ii. p. 445, with the notes of Carl Müller. See likewise Athenæus, xiii. 610, with the fragment from the comic writer Alexis. It is there stated that Lysimachus also, king of Thrace, had banished the philosophers from his dominions. Demochares might find (besides the persons named in Athenæ. v. 215, xi. 508) other authentic examples of pupils of Plato and Isokrates who had been atrocious and sanguinary tyrants in their native cities-sce the case of Klearchus of Herakleia, Memnon ap. Photium, Cod. 224. cap. 1. Chion and Leonides, the two young citizens who slew Klear2 L VOL. XII. B.C. 307. Demetrius His long Rhodes. successful resistance of the citizens. in Asia, to testify the gratitude of the people, and Exploits of communicate the recent complimentary votes. AnPoliorketes. tigonus not only received them graciously, but sent siege of to Athens, according to the promise made by his Gallant and son, a large present of 150,000 medimni of wheat, with timber sufficient for 100 ships. He at the same time directed Demetrius to convene at Athens a synod of deputies from the allied Grecian cities, where resolutions might be taken for the common interests of Greece'. It was his interest at this moment to raise up a temporary self-sustaining authority in Greece, for the purpose of upholding the alliance with himself, during the absence of Demetrius; whom he was compelled to summon into Asia with his army-requiring his services for the war against Ptolemy in Syria and Cyprus. The following three years were spent by Demetrius-1. In victorious operations near Cyprus, defeating Ptolemy and making himself master of that island; after which Antigonus and Demetrius assumed the title of kings, and the example was followed by Ptolemy, in Egypt-by Lysimachus, in Thrace and by Seleukus in Babylonia, Mesopotamia, and Syria-thus abolishing even the titular remembrance of Alexander's family. 2. In an unsuccessful invasion of Egypt by land and sea, repulsed with great loss. 3. In the siege of Rhodes. The brave and intelligent citizens of this island re chus, and who perished in endeavouring to liberate their country— were also pupils of Plato (Justin, xvi. 5). In fact, aspiring youths, of all varieties of purpose, were likely to seek this mode of improvement. Alexander the Great, too, the very impersonation of subduing force, had been the pupil of Aristotle. 1 Diodor. xx. 46. Diodor. xx. 53; Plutarch, Demetr. 18. CHAP. XCVI.] DEMETRIUS REPULSED FROM RHODES. 515 sisted for more than a year the most strenuous attacks and the most formidable siege-equipments of Demetrius Poliorketes. All their efforts however would have been vain had they not been assisted by large reinforcements and supplies from Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Kassander. Such are the conditions under which alone even the most resolute and intelligent Greeks can now retain their circumscribed sphere of autonomy. The siege was at length terminated by a compromise; the Rhodians submitted to enrol themselves as allies of Demetrius, yet under proviso not to act against Ptolemy'. Towards the latter they carried their grateful devotion so far, as to erect a temple to him, called the Ptolemæum, and to worship him (under the sanction of the oracle of Ammon) as a God. Amidst the rocks and shoals through which Grecian cities were now condemned to steer, menaced on every side by kings more powerful than themselves, and afterwards by the giant-republic of Rome-the Rhodians conducted their political affairs with greater prudence and dignity than any other Grecian city. 303. His pro war, and Shortly after the departure of Demetrius from B.c.307Greece to Cyprus, Kassander and Polysperchon renewed the war in Peloponnesus and its neigh- longed bourhoods. We make out no particulars respect- ultimate ing this war. The Etolians were in hostility with Athens, and committed annoying depredations. The against 1 Diodor. xx. 99. Probably this proviso extended also to Lysimachus and Kassander (both of whom had assisted Rhodes) as well as to Ptolemy-though Diodorus does not expressly say so. 3 Diodor. xx. 100, 2 Diodor. xx. 100. 4 That the Ætolians were just now most vexatious enemies to Athens, success in Greece, Kassander. |