tribe, Aristonicus of Phrearrii moved: Whereas Demosthenes son of Demosthenes of Pæania hath rendered many important services to the people of Athens, and to divers of her allies heretofore, and hath also on the present occasion aided them by his decrees, and liberated certain of the cities in Euboea, and perseveres in his attachment to the people of Athens, and doth by word and deed whatever good he can for the Athenians themselves and the rest of the Greeks: It is resolved by the Council and People of Athens, to honour Demosthenes son of Demosthenes of Pæania with public praise1 and a golden crown, and to proclaim the crown in the theatre at the Dionysian festival at the new tragedies, and the proclamation of the crown shall be given in charge to the presiding tribe and the prize-master. On the motion of Aristonicus of Phrearrii."

Is there one of you that knows of any disgrace falling on the state by reason of this decree, or any scorn or ridiculeconsequences which this man now predicts, if I am crowned? It is when acts are recent and notorious that, if good, they obtain reward, if the contrary, punishment; and it appears. that I then obtained reward, not blame or punishment. So, S up to the period of those transactions, I am acknowledged. on all occasions to have promoted the interests of the state -because my speeches and motions prevailed in your councils-because my measures were executed, and procured crowns for the commonwealth and for me and all of youbecause you have offered sacrifices and thanksgivings to the gods for their success.

When Philip therefore was driven out of Euboea, with arms by you, with counsels and decrees-though some persons there should burst!3-by me, he sought some new

1 The epithet "public" seems necessary in our language to express the distinction conferred upon Demosthenes; though indeed we say "to praise God," in the sense of "to glorify:" and Shakspeare has, I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.

Leland has: "pay public honours." Brougham: "signalize." Spillan: "bestow honours." Auger: "accorder publiquement des louanges." Jacobs: Lob zu ertheilen. Pabst: beloben.

2 The person who adjudged the prizes in the various contests during the festival.

3 Demosthenes is fond of this expression. Compare Virgil, Eclog. vii. 26.

Invidiâ rumpantur ut ilia Codro.

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position of attack upon Athens. Seeing that we use more foreign corn than any people, and wishing to command the passage of the corn-trade, he advanced to Thrace; the Byzantines being his allies, he first required them to join in the war against you, and when they refused, saying (truly enough) that they had not made alliance on such terms, he threw up intrenchments before the city, planted batteries, and laid $ siege to it. What course hereupon it became you to take, I will not ask again; it is manifest to all. But who was it that succoured the Byzantines, and rescued them? who prevented the alienation of the Hellespont at that crisis? You, men of Athens. When I say you, mean the commonwealth. But who advised, framed, executed the measures of state, devoted himself wholly and unreservedly to the public business?—I !—What benefits thence accrued to all, you need no further to be told; you have learned by experience. For the war which then sprang up, besides that it brought honour and renown, kept you in a cheaper and more plentiful supply of all the necessaries of life than does the present peace, which these worthies maintain to their country's prejudice in the hope of something to come. Perish such hope! Never may they share the blessings for which you men of honest wishes pray to the gods, nor communicate their own principles to you!

Read them now the crowns of the Byzantines, and those of the Perinthians, which they conferred upon the country as a reward.

THE BYZANTINE DECREE.

2

"In the Presbytership of Bosporichus, Damagetus moved in the assembly, having obtained permission of the Council :

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1 Leland: "he raised another engine against this state." Spillan follows him. Francis has "battery." So has Auger. Jacobs: versuchte er einen Angriff andrer Art gegen die Stadt. Pabst: andere Schutzwehr zum Kampf. Brougham: "some new mode of beleaguering our state." A critic in the Times suggests: "another mode of annoyance." That, no doubt, is the general meaning; but in the translation we should not lose sight of the strict signification of miteixioμóv. The occupation of Byzantium would be, in reference to the corn-trade, what the occupation of Euboea might have been for the purpose of a more direct attack upon Athens. See my observations in the Preface to the First Volume, p. 5.

2 Hieromnemon (the word the original) appears to have been the name of the chief magistrate at Byzantium, whose term of office fur

Whereas the people of Athens have ever in former times been friendly to the Byzantines and their allies, and to their kinsmen the Perinthians, and have rendered them many signal services, and also on the present occasion, when Philip of Macedon attempted by invasion and siege to exterminate the Byzantines and Perinthians, and burned and ravaged their country, they succoured us with a hundred and twenty ships and provisions and weapons and soldiers, and rescued us from grievous perils, and preserved our hereditary constitution, our laws, and our sepulchres: it is resolved by the people of Byzantium and Perinthus to grant unto the Athenians the right of intermarriage, citizenship, purchase of land and houses, the first seat at the games, first admission to the Council and People after the sacrifices, and exemption from all public services to such as wish to reside in the city and that three statues of sixteen cubits be erected in the harbour,' representing the People of Athens crowned by the People of Byzantium and Perinthus: and deputations sent to the general assemblies of Greece, the Isthmian, Nemean, Olympian, and Pythian, to proclaim the crowns wherewith the people of Athens hath been honoured by us, that all the Greeks may know the virtue of the Athenians, and the gratitude of the Byzantines and Perinthians.”

:

Now read the crowns given by the people of Chersonesus.

THE DECREE OF THE CHERSONESITES.

"The Chersonesites, inhabitants of Sestus, Eleus, Madytus, and Alopeconnesus, crown the Council and People of Athens with a golden crown of the value of sixty talents,3 and build nished the date of the year, as the archon did at Athens. The name (which was held by the magistrates of some other Dorian states) imports the performance of some priestly or religious duties. As it sounds harsh in English, I have ventured to translate it at the risk of cavil. With respect to the Amphictyonic deputies so called see Appendix I. 1 Such, perhaps, is the meaning of èv т❖ Boσπоpixo. Others would read Βοσπύρῳ.

2 Statues of countries and people are often mentioned. Thus, Pausanias saw in the Piræus a statue of the Athenian Demus by Leochares, and another by Lyson. (Lib. i. c. 1 and 3.) Polybius mentions a statue of the Rhodian People crowned by the Syracusan, which Hiero and Gelo erected in the great square of Rhodes. (Lib. v. 88.) And there was a celebrated one of the Athenian by Parrhasius.

3 According to Gronovius, Böckh, and Jacobs, we are not to suppose that a crown was given of the actual weight or value of sixty talents,

an altar to Gratitude and the Athenian People, because that People hath helped the Chersonesites to obtain the greatest of blessings, by rescuing them from the power of Philip, and restoring their country, their laws, their liberty, their sanctuaries: and in all future time they will not fail to be grateful, and do what service they can. Decreed in general

Council."

Thus the saving of Chersonesus and Byzantium, the preventing Philip's conquest of the Hellespont, and the honours therefore bestowed on this country, were the effects of my policy and administration; and more than this—they proved to all mankind the generosity of Athens and the baseness of Philip. He, the ally and friend of the Byzantines, was before all eyes besieging them-what could be more shameful or outC4 rageous?-You, who might justly on many grounds have reproached them for wrongs done you in former times, instead of bearing malice and abandoning the oppressed, appeared as their deliverers; conduct which procured you glory, goodwill, honour from all men. That have crowned many of your statesmen, every one knows; but through what other person (I mean what minister or orator), besides myself, the commonwealth has been crowned, no one can say.

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you

To prove now the malignity of those calumnies, which he urged against the Euboeans and Byzantines, reminding you of any unkindness which they had done you-prove it I shall, not only by their falsehood, which I apprehend you know already, but (were they ever so true) by showing the advantages of my policy-I wish to recount one or two of the noble acts of your own state, and to do it briefly; for individuals, as well as communities, should ever strive to model their future conduct by the noblest of their past.

Well then, men of Athens-when the Lacedæmonians had the empire of land and sea, and held the country round Attica by governors and garrisons, Euboea, Tanagra, all Boeotia, Megara, Ægina, Cleonæ, the other islands; when our state possessed neither ships nor walls; you marched out

but that six drachms of gold are (by a form of speech usual in some cases) called a talent. A similar crown of a hundred talents, given by the Carthaginians to Demareta, the wife of Gelo, is mentioned by Diodorus. (Lib. xi. 26.)

to Haliartus,' and again not many days after to Corinth; albeit the Athenians of that time had many causes of resentment against both Corinthians and Thebans for their acts in the Decelean war:2 but they showed no resentment, none. And yet neither of these steps took they, Eschines, for benefactors, nor were they blind to the danger; but they would not for such reasons abandon people who sought their protection; for the sake of renown and glory they willingly exposed, themselves to peril; just and noble was their resolve! For to all mankind the end of life is death, though one keep oneself shut up in a closet;3 but it becomes brave men to strive always for honour, with good hope before them,* and to endure courageously whatever the Deity ordains.

Thus did your ancestors, thus the elder among yourselves. For, though the Lacedæmonians were neither friends nor benefactors, but had done many grievous injuries to our state, yet when the Thebans, victorious at Leuctra, sought their destruction, you prevented it, not fearing the power and reputation then possessed by the Thebans, nor reckoning up the merits of those whom you were about to fight for. And so you demonstrated to all the Greeks, that, however any people may offend you, you reserve your anger against them for other occasions; but should their existence or liberty be imperilled, you will not resent your wrongs or bring them into account.

1 This was B.C. 395, at the breaking out of the war, in which Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos, combined against Lacedæmon. (See vol. I. p. 64.) The battle of Corinth, in which the Lacedæmonians defeated the allies, took place in the year following the siege of Haliartus,

2 The latter part of the Peloponnesian war, so called from the occupation of Decelea, a fortress in Attica, fifteen miles from Athens, B.C. 413. By means of this post the enemy got the command of the territory round Athens, and reduced the Athenians to great distress by cutting off supplies of corn and provisions.

3 Spillan, Jacobs and Pabst render oiklokų, “a cage,” Käfich; an interpretation found in Harpocration. Compare the lines of Propertius: Ille licet ferro cautus se condat et ære,

Mors tamen inclusum protrahit inde caput.

4 I have here taken πроßаλλоμévous in the simple sense of "proposing to themselves," or "having before their eyes." So Spillan has it. And Jacobs: mit froher Hoffnung vor Augen. But Reiske understood it in the more ordinary sense of "putting before them as a defence." And so Leland renders it: "armed in fair hopes of success." And Pabst: sich dazu mit dem Schilde der guten Hoffnung waffnen.

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