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Aeschines
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| Classical Literature Companion: Aeschinēs |
Aeschinēs, Athenian orator and great rival of Demosthenes
In 343 Demosthenes attacked again in a speech On the False Embassy, as if Aeschines had been solely responsible for the discredited Peace, and had supported it because he was bribed. Aeschines replied in a speech of the same title (which also survives) and was narrowly acquitted. He continued to be influential in the Assembly and provoked a Sacred War at the very time when unity was essential to avoid furnishing Philip with an opportunity to intervene in Greek affairs. Philip's subsequent invasion ended with the defeat of Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea in 338. Aeschines was a member of the embassy sent to negotiate with Philip after the battle. In 336 Demosthenes' friend Ctesiphon proposed that Demosthenes should be crowned in the theatre at the Dionysia for his services to the city. Aeschines indicted Ctesiphon for the alleged illegality of the proposal but did not proceed with the indictment until 330 when Athens was in almost complete isolation, with no prospect of liberation from Macedon. In his speech Against Ctesiphon he attacked the whole career of Demosthenes as injurious to Athens. Demosthenes replied in his speech On the Crown with such devastating effect that Aeschines failed to obtain the necessary fifth of the jury's votes to save him from a fine. He retired from Athens to Rhodes, where he died in about 322. At Rhodes he gave declamations, and once delivered his speech Against Ctesiphon. When the islanders expressed amazement that it did not win he replied, ‘You would not wonder if you had heard Demosthenes.’
Aeschines was not a professional rhetorician. A story tells that when the Rhodians asked him to teach rhetoric he replied that he was ignorant of it himself. He seems not to have written speeches for others, and it is probable that he received no rhetorical training, but he was thoroughly familiar with all the conventions. He was famous for his dignified presence and splendid voice. His speeches, of which only the three named above were known to ancient critics, are characterized by a fondness for the legalities of the case, an astute use of diversionary tactics, and vivid descriptions. In ancient as well as modern times he has suffered from comparison with Demosthenes. The general aim of his activities was to find a compromise between Athens and Macedon which would leave Athens independent and at peace, and inevitably he had to trust Macedon to some extent. This policy was not a noble one, nor was it possible to give it rhetorical expression. In consequence he avoided the deeper issues of policy, and in contrast with Demosthenes, who was for ever generalizing and broadening the issues, he seems lacking in a wider vision.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Aeschines |
Aeschines (ĕ'skĭnēz), c.390-314? B.C., Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes. Aeschines rose from humble circumstances and became powerful in politics because of his oratorical gifts. At first he opposed Philip II of Macedon, then later changed sides, arguing that resistance to Macedonian power was useless. Both he and Demosthenes were members of the embassy to Philip in 348 B.C., and afterward Demosthenes bitterly and baselessly accused Aeschines of accepting Macedonian bribes. He was to have been joined in his action by Timarchus, but Aeschines prevented this by his oration Against Timarchus (345 B.C.). Aeschines defended himself well in his oration On the False Legation (342 B.C.)-a title also used by Demosthenes in his accusatory oration. The trouble between the orators grew and culminated in a dispute over a gold crown that the orator Ctesiphon proposed should be given Demosthenes in 330 B.C. Aeschines brought suit with Against Ctesiphon. Demosthenes replied with his sturdy defense On the Crown. Aeschines lost and was fined, and retired to Asia Minor where, according to Plutarch, he lived as a professional Sophist.
| Wikipedia: Aeschines |
For other persons named Aeschines, see Aeschines (disambiguation).
| Aeschines | |
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 Marble bust of Aeschines |
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| Born | 389 BC Athens |
| Died | 314 BC Samos |
Aeschines (in Greek Αἰσχίνης, 389–314 BC) was a Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators.
Contents |
Life
Although it is known he was born in Athens, the records regarding his parentage and early life are conflicting; but it seems probable that his parents, though poor, were respectable. Aeschines' father was Atrometus, an elementary school teacher of letters. His mother Glaukothea assisted in the religious rites of initiation for the poor. After assisting his father in his school, he tried his hand at acting with indifferent success, served with distinction in the army, and held several clerkships, amongst them the office of clerk to the Boule. Among the campaigns that Aeschines participated in were Phlius in the Peloponnese (368 BC), Battle of Mantinea (362 BC), and Phokion's campaign in Euboea (349 BC). The fall of Olynthus (348 BC) brought Aeschines into the political arena, and he was sent on an embassy to rouse the Peloponnese against Philip II of Macedon.
In spring of 347 BC, Aeschines addressed the assembly of Ten Thousand in Megalopolis, Arcadia urging them to unite and defend their independence against Philip. In the summer 347 BC, he was a member of the peace embassy to Philip, who seems to have won him over entirely to his side. His dilatoriness during the second embassy (346 BC) sent to ratify the terms of peace led to him being accused by Demosthenes and Timarchus on a charge of high treason. Aeschines counterattacked by claiming that Timarchus had forfeited the right to speak before the people as a consequence of youthful debauches which had left him with the reputation of being a whore and prostituting himself to many men in the port city of Piraeus. The suit succeeded and Timarchus was sentenced to atimia and politically destroyed, according to Demosthenes. This comment was later interpreted by Pseudo-Plutarch in his Lives of the Ten Orators as meaning that Timarchos hanged himself upon leaving the assembly, a suggestion contested by some modern historians[1]
This oration, Against Timarchus, is considered important because of the bulk of Athenian laws it cites. As a consequence of his successful attack on Timarchus, Aeschines was cleared of the charge of treason.[2]
In 343 BC the attack on Aeschines was renewed by Demosthenes in his speech On the False Embassy. Aeschines replied in a speech with the same title and was again acquitted. In 339 BC, as one of the Athenian deputies (pylagorae) in the Amphictyonic Council, he made a speech which brought about the Sacred War.
By way of revenge, Aeschines endeavoured to fix the blame for these disasters upon Demosthenes. In 336 BC, when Ctesiphon proposed that his friend Demosthenes should be rewarded with a golden crown for his distinguished services to the state, Aeschines accused him of having violated the law in bringing forward the motion. The matter remained in abeyance till 330 BC, when the two rivals delivered their speeches Against Ctesiphon and On the Crown. The result was a complete victory for Demosthenes.
Aeschines went into voluntary exile at Rhodes, where he opened a school of rhetoric. He afterwards removed to Samos, where he died aged seventy-five. His three speeches, called by the ancients "the Three Graces," rank next to those of Demosthenes. Photius knew of nine letters by him which he called the Nine Muses; the twelve published under his name (Hercher, Epistolographi Graeci) are not genuine.
Ancient Authorities
Demosthenes, De Corona and De Falsa Legatione; Aeschines, De Falsa Legations and In Ctesiphentem; Lives by Plutarch, Philostratus and Libanius; the Exegesis of Apollonius.
Editions
- Gustav Eduard Benseler (1855-1860) (trans. and notes)
- Andreas Weidner (1872)
- Friedrich Blass (Teubner, 1896)
- Thomas Leland (1722-1785), Weidner (1872), (1878), G. A. Simcox and W. H. Simcox (1866), Drake (1872), Richardson (1889), G. Watkin and Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (1890).
- Teubner ed. of Orationes: 1997, edited Mervin R. Dilts. ISBN 3-8154-1009-6
See also
- Stechow, Aeschinis Oratoris vita (1841)
- Marchand, Charakteristik des Redners Aschines (1876)
- Castets, Eschine, l'Orateur (1875)
For the political problems see histories of Greece, esp. A. Holm, vol. iii (Eng. trans., 1896); A. Schafer, Demosth. und seine Zeit (Leipzig, 1856-1858).
On Timarchos see Aechines Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. pp. 15&16.
Notes
External links
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Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aeschines |
- Livius, Aeschines by Jona Lendering
- Against Ctesiphon (HTML)trans. by Thomas Leland (1722-1785)
- On The Embassy (HTML) trans. by Charles Darwin Adams (1856-1938) probably from The Speeches of Aeschines, with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams published 1919.
- Against Timarchus (Timarchos)(PDF) trans. by Charles Darwin Adams (1856-1938) from The Speeches of Aeschines, with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams published 1919.
Sources
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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Mentioned in
- Peace of Philocratēs
- On the Crown
- Aspasia (Ancient Greek stateswoman)
- Demosthenes (Ancient Greek rhetorician)
- De optimo genere ōrātōrum
- canons
- Aeschines (disambiguation)
- Second Sophistic
- oratory (order)
- ancient Greek literature (literature, ancient Greece)
- Aeschines of Neapolis
- Aeschines of Miletus
- 4th Century B.C. (chronology)
- Aeschines Socraticus
