connects the thirty-third year of his life with historical events in such a manner as to confirm the date of Dionysius. Another historical fact of an Athenian expedition against Corcyra, mentioned in the speech against Aphobus (§ 119) as having taken place soon after his father's death, cannot well be reconciled with the earliest date, and on the whole the balance of evidence seems in favour of the year (B. c. 382) adopted by Mr. Clinton. It certainly agrees best with the received chronology of other events'. 3 2 The Orator bore the same name as his father, of the township of Paeania, who appears to have been a man of wealth and high character. He is described by one historian as kadòs kåyalós, and admitted by Aeschines to have been avỳp ¿deú¤epos, statements which prove him to have been in every respect a gentleman. He was also a large manufacturer of swords (uaxaiporotós) and a master cabinet-maker (Kλivoñoιós) *, employing several workmen. His wife was Cleobule, a daughter of Gylon, an Athenian who had established himself and obtained great influence at Knot, a town in the Island of Taman, near to Phanagoria and almost opposite to Kertch, the ancient Panticapaeum in the Crimea. The surrounding district, on both sides the strait, forming the kingdom of Bosporus, was largely colonized by Asiatic Greeks, but nevertheless Aeschines (c. Ctes. § 172) may be right in asserting that Gylon's wife was a wealthy Scythian. If so, this admixture of foreign blood, instead of being a disparagement, perhaps helped (as in other cases of mixed descent) to make Demosthenes what he was, and produced a nobler specimen of humanity than would have sprung from the purest Athenian blood. Thus born and descended, he lost his father (B.c. 375) when only seven years of age, a misfortune which contributed to his future greatness, teaching him by stern lessons the necessity of selfreliance, and showing him the latent powers of his mind. The father, whose property was estimated at fourteen talents, left as 1 Bp. Thirlwall and A. Schäfer, i. 241, adopt B.c. 384. Mr. Grote (Hist. of Greece, xi. 369) and Dr. Donaldson (Liter. of Ancient Greece, i. 152) prefer B.C. 382. 2 Theopompus in Plutarch's Life, c. 4. 3 c. Ctes. § 171. Comp. de Cor. § 12. Libanius in vita, c. 2, p. 2. Dem. c. Aphob. 1, p. 817. 5 Libanius in vit. c. 2. Plin. N. H. vi. 6. Strabo, p. 495. Grote xii. 648. See note p. 3. guardians of the young son and a younger daughter, his two nephews Aphobus and Demophon, and a friend Therippides. They proved fraudulent trustees, wasting or embezzling the funds entrusted to them, neglecting their wards and damaging their property'. For this there was no remedy till at the expiration of ten years Demosthenes ceased (åvỳp dokiμaobeís) to be a minor, and their trusteeship ended. They then wished, as Demosthenes (c. Aph. i. § 7) asserted, to close their accounts by handing over "the house, fourteen slaves, and thirty minae of silver." Perhaps they imagined they were dealing with a boy, but Demosthenes at eighteen proved himself a man and thus early won his spurs in the field of oratory. He demanded an account, but without success, and then being robbed of every thing he brought an action against each of his guardians (B.C. 364), laying the damages at ten talents in each case'. In that against Aphobus he was successful, damages being given him to the full amount'. Those against the other guardians were probably compromised, but nevertheless he did not recover his inheritance. A collusive mortgage was set up against his claims on the property of Aphobus by a third party named Onetor, and Demosthenes was involved in further litigation. The precise result is not recorded, though his biographers relate that he did not eventually recover more than a small portion after a struggle of five years. This was carried on with so much bitterness on one side and sharpness on the other that his opponents gave him the name of 'Apyâs or the "Viper," an epithet which suggests that his charges were at any rate pointed with ability, and had the sting of truth. Five of his 'private orations' known as the λóyou miтpoжɩкoí, and delivered before he was twenty-one, relate to the questions at issue, and are so excellent as forensic speeches that some grammarians supposed them to have been composed by his teacher Isaeus. They 1c. Aph. i. 15. Plutarch, c. 4. 2 Adv. Onet. i. § 15. Aesch. F. L. § 105. 3 Adv. Aph. iii. § 12. speech. Schäfer i. 266. There are however doubts as to the genuineness of this c. Meid. § 103. Plut. c. 6. Vitae X. Orat. 844. Schäfer, p. 270. 5 Quintilian (xii. 6) calls them 'Actiones Pupillares,' and quotes several cases of youthful ability in speaking. Cicero was only twenty-six when he pleaded for Sextus Roscius, and Erskine's celebrated speech for Captain Baillie was the 'first he ever made, and pronounced by him immediately after he was called to the bar.' Lord Brougham on English Orators, Works vii. 236. exhibit none of the faults of a young speaker-no meretricious ornament or extravagant declamation-no extraneous topics or irrelevant arguments. But they display all the merits of a practised advocate, clearness of exposition, simplicity of narrative, a logical arrangement and comprehensive survey of facts, forcible arguments for the understanding, and a touching appeal to the feelings of his judges. That he was assisted in the struggle by the learned Isaeus there can be no doubt, and the speeches in question were probably revised by that able lawyer. Indeed, the results of his training are shown not only in a general similarity of style, but in the transfer and adaptation of phrases and whole sentences from the master to the scholar'. For Isaeus was distinguished as an advising counsel, and a writer of speeches (Aoyoypápos) in cases of disputed wills and successions, and Demosthenes was for several years his pupil. According to Plutarch he was so even during his minority, and another account represents him as having engaged Isaeus to live with him in his own house, partly no doubt as a sort of private tutor in Oratory, and partly for the purpose of helping him in his case. The payment for four years is said to have been 10,000 drachmae, but his instructor, if the story is true, gave up his School of Rhetoric to devote himself to Demosthenes alone 2. It does not appear that Isaeus ever appeared as an advocate before an Athenian Court. Again, some ancient writers originated the belief that Demosthenes was also indebted to Isocrates as a teacher of Rhetoric, and that he attended the school in which Plato taught Philosophy". Cicero (Brutus, c. 31) adopts this opinion and says, "lectitavisse Platonem studiose, audivisse etiam Demosthenes dicitur, idque apparet ex genere et granditate verborum: dicit etiam in quadam epistola hoc ipse de sese." In another passage (Orator. c. 4) he observes, "ex Demosthenis epistolis intelligi licet quam frequens fuerit Platonis auditor." These letters however are not considered genuine, and the evidence on the other side is too strong to be counterbalanced by such testimony. 1 Compare the passage on the value of evidence obtained from slaves by torture in Isaeus (Orat. viii. p. 70) with one almost identical in Demos. c. Onet. § 40. Sir W. Jones translated several of the speeches of Isaeus. 2 Plutarch, c. 5. Liban. 3, p. 5. 3 Vit. X. Orat. 844. Plut. c. 5. Vit. X. Orat. 839 f. 844 b. Aul. Gell. N. A. iii. 13. Schäfer i. 281. - Another story that he was taught rhetoric by Aristotle, Dionysius (vi. 723) discredits by the fact that Demosthenes wrote his best speeches (τοὺς ἐπιφανεστάτους ἀγῶνας) before Aristotle published his ῥητορικαὶ τέχναι. We should rather believe that the Orator of real life suggested rules and furnished examples to the writer on rhetoric. How far he was influenced by such contemporaries is another question. Isaeus himself is said to have been a scholar of Isocrates', and therefore the precepts of the latter,—the best and most valuable at any rate, might have been impressed upon the pupils of the former. Apparent imitations too of sentiment and expression may be detected in Demosthenes, as in the opening of his speech against Timocrates compared with that on the peace, published only two years before by Isocrates. But on the other hand, nothing can be more unlike his full, flowing, elaborate periods, than the terse, energetic, common-sense eloquence of Demosthenes. In the comparison of the ancients, the style of one is represented by the condition of the soldier ready for, and inured to service, “in aciem dimicationemque paratus;" that of the other, by the full development and perfect symmetry of the athlete trained for the display of the arena, or the parade of the procession, "pompae quam pugnae aptius, gymnasiis et palaestrae dicatum, spretum et pulsum foro." Nor were the two less opposed as statesmen. The hope and object of the veteran rhetorician was to see Philip of Macedon recognized as the head of Greece, and leading the troops of confederated Hellenism against the king of Persia. The youthful orator, with more foresight, beheld in the same Philip, an enemy of the liberties of his country, whose aggrandizement it was suicidal to promote, and whose friendship it was treasonable for the citizens of a free state to cultivate. Again, as regards Aristotle', it is true that he settled at Athens at the age of eighteen, not long before Demosthenes came of age, and that Plato died there (B.C. 347) when the Orator was in the midst of his career. It would be absurd then to suppose that such men did not 1 Harpocration s. v. 2 Vit. X. Orat. 845 d. Schäfer i. 255. Quintilian (x. 1) describes Isocrates as "nitidus et comptus et palaestrae quam pugnae magis accommodatus." Cicero (Orat. 13) considers his style as of the 'epideicticum genus,' i. e. of the 'show kind.' 3 Dionys. Halic. p. 728. VOL. I. а act on, nor were ever hearers of, one another, though there is no probability that they were connected as a teacher with his scholars. But instruction, example, and social intercourse, even with mindst of the highest order, did not make Demosthenes what he was. "Great men rise by their own character and genius, not by casual advantages and instruction, as mediocrity finds a comfort in believing '." They make their fortune, rather than are made by it. So it was with Demosthenes. The well-known story of Plutarch (c. 5) shows how the ambition to become an orator was first raised in his young mind, and proves that the child was really the father of the man. A celebrated cause was about to be tried at Athens, and great was the expectation both on account of the importance of the issue and the ability of the accused, Callistratus the orator'. The young boy heard his tutors talking of their arrangements to be present, and entreated his maidaywyós to take himself. The good man was intimate with the officers of the court, and so amongst them they found the anxious boy a sly corner where he could sit and hear unobserved. Callistratus was successful, rapturously applauded in court, and honoured with an ovation to his home. The generous youth was filled with admiration at the sight; but what he admired most was the power of that gift of speech which captivated all who heard it. His mind was made up. He determined at once to abandon all other studies and pursuits, and to make himself an orator. But if the love of fame first "raised his clear spirit to spurn delights and live laborious days," the prospect of poverty and the sense of wrong soon spurred him on, as we have already seen, to active exertions in his own cause. The charm of success, the acquisition of experience, and the consciousness of power encouraged him to persevere. He gained his cause against his guardians in a court of justice, and he then ventured to address the popular assembly. But Plutarch (c. 6) tells us, and it is confirmed by other authorities, that his early attempts before the people were decided failures. His periods were confused, his arguments intricate, his voice feeble, his pronunciation indistinct, his lungs too weak to go on without interruptions, which 2 See note p. 4. Aul. Gell. N. A. iii. 13. His mother was alive at the time. c. Aph. ii. § 25. 4 Especially of the letter Rho. Cicero (de Orat. i. 61) says, "cumque ita balbus |