Mosaics of Grecian History Part 45

"Had aeschines confined his charge to the subject of the prosecution, I too would have proceeded at once to my justification of the decree. [Footnote: The decree of the senate procured by Ctesiphon in favor of Demosthenes.] But since he has wasted no fewer words in the discussion, in most of them calumniating me, I deem it both necessary and just, men of Athens, to begin by shortly adverting to these points, that none of you may be induced by extraneous arguments to shut your ears against my defence to the indictment.

"To all his scandalous abuse about my private life observe my plain and obvious answer. If you know me to be such as he alleged --for I have lived nowhere else but among you--let not my voice be heard, however transcendent my statesmans.h.i.+p. Rise up this instant and condemn me. But if, in your opinion and judgment, I am far better and of better descent than my adversary; if (to speak without offence) I am not inferior, I or mine, to any respectable citizens, then give no credit to him for his other statements; it is plain they were all equally fictions; but to me let the same good-will which you have uniformly exhibited upon many former trials be manifested now. With all your malice, aeschines, it was very simple to suppose that I should turn from the discussion of measures and policy to notice your scandal.

I will do no such thing. I am not so crazed. Your lies and calumnies about my political life I will examine forthwith. For that loose ribaldry I shall have a word hereafter, if the jury desire to hear it.

"If the crimes which aeschines saw me committing against the state were as heinous as he so tragically gave out, he ought to have enforced the penalties of the law against them at the time; if he saw me guilty of an impeachable offence, by impeaching and so bringing me to trial before you; if moving illegal decrees, by indicting me for them. For surely, if he can indict Ctesiphon on my account, he would not have forborne to indict me myself had he thought he could convict me. In short, whatever else he saw me doing to your prejudice, whether mentioned or not mentioned in his catalogue of slander, there are laws for such things, and trials, and judgments, with sharp and severe penalties, all of which he might have enforced against me; and, had he done so--had he thus pursued the proper method with me--his charges would have been consistent with his conduct. But now he has declined the straightforward and just course, avoided all proofs of guilt at the time, and after this long interval gets up to play his part withal--a heap of accusation, ribaldry, and scandal.

Then he arraigns me, but prosecutes the defendant. His hatred of me he makes the prominent part of the whole contest; yet, without having ever met me upon that ground, he openly seeks to deprive a third party of his privileges. Now, men of Athens, besides all the other arguments that may be urged in Ctesiphon's behalf, this, methinks, may very fairly be alleged--that we should try our quarrel by ourselves; not leave our private dispute and look what third party we can damage. That, surely, were the height of injustice."

Demosthenes now enters upon an elaborate review of the history of Athens from the beginning of the Phocian war, his own relations thereto, and the charges of aeschines in connection therewith, fortifying his defence with numerous citations from public doc.u.ments, and boldly arraigning the political principles and policy of his opponent, whom he accuses of being in frequent communication with the emissaries of Philip--"a spy by nature, and an enemy to his country." In the following terms he speaks of his own public services, and reminds aeschines that the people do not forget them:

"Many great and glorious enterprises has the Commonwealth, aeschines, undertaken and succeeded in through me; and she did not forget them. Here is the proof. On the election of a person to speak the funeral oration immediately after the event, you were proposed; but the people would not have you, notwithstanding your fine voice; nor Dema'des, though he had just made the peace; nor He-ge'mon, nor any other of your party--but me. And when you and Pyth'ocles came forward in a brutal and shameful manner (oh, merciful Heaven!) and urged the same accusations against me which you now do, and abused me, they elected me all the more.

The reason--you are not ignorant of it, yet I will tell you.

The Athenians knew as well the loyalty and zeal with which I conducted their affairs as the dishonesty of you and your party; for what you denied upon oath in our prosperity you confessed in the misfortunes of the republic. They considered, therefore, that men who got security for their politics by the public disasters had been their enemies long before, and were then avowedly such. They thought it right, also, that the person who was to speak in honor of the fallen, and celebrate their valor, should not have sat under the same roof or at the same table with their antagonists; that he should not revel there and sing a paean over the calamities of Greece in company with their murderers, and then come here and receive distinction; that he should not with his voice act the mourner of their fate, but that he should lament over them with his heart. And such sincerity they found in themselves and me, but not in any of you: therefore they elected me, and not you. Nor, while the people felt thus, did the fathers and brothers of the deceased, who were chosen by the people to perform their obsequies, feel differently. For having to order the funeral (according to custom) at the house of the nearest relative of the deceased, they ordered it at mine --and with reason: because, though each to his own was nearer of kin than I was, no one was so near to them all collectively.

He that had the deepest interest in their safety and success must surely feel the deepest sorrow at their unhappy and unmerited misfortune. Read the epitaph inscribed upon their monument by public authority. In this, aeschines, you will find a proof of your absurdity, your malice, your abandoned baseness. Read!

The Epitaph.

"'These are the patriot brave who, side by side, Stood to their arms and dashed the foeman's pride: Firm in their valor, prodigal of life, Hades they chose the arbiter of strife; That Greeks might ne'er to haughty victors bow, Nor thraldom's yoke, nor dire oppression know, They, fought, they bled, and on their country's breast (Such was the doom of Heaven) these warriors rest: G.o.ds never lack success, nor strive in vain, But man must suffer what the Fates ordain.'

"Do you hear, aeschines, in this very inscription, that 'the G.o.ds never lack success, nor strive in vain?' Not to the statesman does it ascribe the power of giving victory in battle, but to the G.o.ds. But one thing, O Athenians, surprised me more than all--that, when aeschines mentioned the late misfortunes of the country, he felt not as became a well-disposed and upright citizen; he shed no tear, experienced no such emotion: with a loud voice, exulting and straining his throat, he imagined apparently that he was accusing me, while he was giving proof against himself that our distresses touched him not.

"Two things, men of Athens, are characteristic of a well-disposed citizen; so may I speak of myself and give the least offence.

In authority his constant aim should be the dignity and pre-eminence of the Commonwealth; in all times and circ.u.mstances his spirit should be loyal. This depends upon nature; power and might upon other things. Such a spirit, you will find, I have ever sincerely cherished. Only see! When my person was demanded--when they brought Amphictyonic suits against me--when they menaced--when they promised--when they set these miscreants like wild beasts upon me--never in any way have I abandoned my affection for you. From the very beginning I chose an honest and straightforward course in politics, to support the honor, the power, the glory of my fatherland; these to exalt, in these to have my being. I do not walk about the market-place gay and cheerful because the stranger has prospered, holding out my right hand and congratulating those who I think will report it yonder, and on any news of our own success shudder and groan and stoop to the earth like these impious men who rail at Athens, as if in so doing they did not rail at themselves; who look abroad, and if the foreigner thrives by the distresses of Greece, are thankful for it, and say we should keep him so thriving to all time.

"Never, O ye G.o.ds, may those wishes be confirmed by you! If possible, inspire even in these men a better sense and feeling!

But if they are indeed incurable, destroy them by themselves; exterminate them on land and sea; and for the rest of us, grant that we may speedily be released from our present fears, and enjoy a lasting deliverance." [Footnote: Lord Brougham says that "the music of this closing pa.s.sage (in the original) is almost as fine as the sense is impressive and grand, and the manner dignified and calm," and he admits the difficulty of preserving this in a translation. His own translation of the pa.s.sage is as follows: "Let not, O gracious G.o.d, let not such conduct receive any measure of sanction from thee! Rather plant even in these men a better spirit and better feelings! But if they are wholly incurable, then pursue them, yea, themselves by themselves, to utter and untimely perdition, by land and by sea; and to us who are spared, vouchsafe to grant the speediest rescue from our impending alarms, and an unshaken security."]

--Trans. by CHARLES RANN KENNEDY.

aeschines lost his case, and, not having obtained a fifth part of the votes, became himself liable to a penalty, and soon left the country in disgrace.

II. THE WARS THAT FOLLOWED ALEXANDER'S DEATH.

When the intelligence of Alexander's death reached Greece the country was already on the eve of a revolution against Antip'ater.

Athens found little difficulty in uniting several of the states with herself in a confederacy against him, and met with some successes in what is known as the La'mian war. But the movement was short-lived, as Antipater completely annihilated the confederate army in the battle of Cran'non (322 B.C.). Athens was directed to abolish her democratic form of government, pay the expenses of the war, and surrender a number of her most famous men, including Demosthenes. The latter, however, escaped from Athens, and sought refuge in the Temple of Poseidon, in the island of Calaure'a. Here he took poison, and expired as he was being led from the temple by a satellite of Antipater.

The sudden death of Alexander left the government in a very unsettled condition. As he had appointed no successor, immediately following his death a council of his generals was held, and the following division of his conquests was agreed upon: Ptolemy Soter was to have Egypt and the adjacent countries; Macedonia and Greece were divided between Antipater and Crat'erus; Antig'onus was given Phrygia, Lycia, and Pamphyl'ia; Lysim'achus was granted Thrace; and Eume'nes was given Cappadocia and Paphlagonia. Soon after this division Perdic'cas, then the most powerful of the generals who retained control in the East, and had the custody of the infant Alexander, proclaimed himself regent, and at once set out on a career of conquest. Antigonus, Antipater, Craterus, and Ptolemy leagued against him, however, and in 321, after an unsuccessful campaign in Egypt, Perdiccas was murdered by his own officers.

Antipater died in 318, and shortly after his death his son Ca.s.sander made himself master of Greece and Macedon, and caused the surviving members of Alexander's family to be put to death.

Antigonus had, before this time, conquered Eumenes, and overrun Syria and Asia Minor; but his increasing power led Ptolemy, Seleu'cus, Lysimachus, and Ca.s.sander to unite against him; and they fought with him the famous battle of Ipsus, in Phrygia, that ended in the death of Antigonus and the dissolution of his empire (301 B.C.). A new part.i.tion of the country was now made into four independent kingdoms: Ptolemy was given Egypt and Libya; Seleucus received the countries embraced in the eastern conquests of Alexander, and the whole region between the coast of Syria and the river Euphrates; Lysimachus received the northern and western portions of Asia Minor, and Ca.s.sander retained the sovereignty of Greece and Macedon.

Of these kingdoms the most powerful were Syria and Egypt; the former of which continued under the dynasty of the Seleucidae, and the latter under that of the Ptolemies, until both were absorbed by the Roman empire. Of all the Ptolemies, Ptolemy Philadelphus was the most eminent. He was not only a sovereign of ability, but was also distinguished for his amiable qualities of mind, for his encouragement of the arts and commerce, and he was called the richest and most powerful monarch of his age. He was born in 309 B.C. and died in 247. The Greek poet THEOCRITUS, who lived much at his court, thus characterizes him:

What is his character? A royal spirit To point out genius and encourage merit; The poet's friend, humane and good and kind; Of manners gentle, and of generous mind.

He marks his friend, but more he marks his foe; His hand is ever ready to bestow: Request with reason, and he'll grant the thing, And what be gives, he gives it like a king.

The poet then sings the praises of the king, and describes the strength, the wealth, and the magnificence of his kingdom, in the following striking lines:

Here, too, O Ptolemy, beneath thy sway What cities glitter to the beams of day!

Lo! with thy statelier pomp no kingdom vies, While round thee thrice ten thousand cities rise.

Struck by the terror of thy flas.h.i.+ng sword, Syria bowed down, Arabia called thee Lord; Phoenicia trembled, and the Libyan plain, With the black Ethiop, owned thy wide domain: E'en Lesser Asia and her isles grew pale As o'er the billows pa.s.sed thy crowd of sail.

Earth feels thy nod, and all the subject sea; And each resounding river rolls for thee.

And while, around, thy thick battalions flash, Thy proud steeds neighing for the warlike clash-- Through all thy marts the tide of commerce flows, And wealth beyond a monarch's grandeur glows.

Such gold-haired Ptolemy! whose easy port Speaks the soft polish of the mannered court; And whose severer aspect, as he wields The spear, dire-blazing, frowns in tented fields.

And though he guards, while other kingdoms own His conquering arms, the hereditary throne, Yet in vast heaps no useless treasure stored Lies, like the riches of an emmet's h.o.a.rd; To mighty kings his bounty he extends, To states confederate and ill.u.s.trious friends.

No bard at Bacchus' festival appears, Whose lyre has power to charm the ravished ears, But he bright honors and rewards imparts, Due to his merits, equal to his arts; And poets hence, for deathless song renowned, The generous fame of Ptolemy resound.

At what more glorious can the wealthy aim Than thus to purchase fair and lasting fame?

-Trans. by FAWKES.

Ca.s.sander survived the establishment of his power in Greece only four years, and as his sons quarreled over the succession; Demetrius, son of Antigonus, seized the opportunity to interfere in their disputes, cut off the brother who had invited his aid, and made himself master of the throne of Macedon, which was held by him and his posterity, except during a brief interruption after his death, down to the time of the Roman Conquest. For a number of years succeeding the death of Demetrius, Macedon, Greece, and western Asia were hara.s.sed with the wars excited by the various aspirants to power; and in this situation of affairs a storm, unseen in the distance, but that had long been gathering, suddenly burst upon Macedon, threatening to convert, by its ravages, the whole Grecian peninsula into a scene of desolation.

III. THE CELTIC INVASION, AND THE WAR WITH PYRRHUS.

A vast horde of Celtic barbarians had for some time been collecting around the head-waters of the Adriatic. Influenced by hopes of plunder they now overran Macedon to the borders of Thessaly, defeating Ptolemy Ceraunus, then King of Macedonia, in a great battle. The walled towns alone held out until the storm had spent its fury, when the Celts gradually withdrew from a country in which there was but little left to tempt their cupidity. But in the following year (279 B.C.) another band of them, estimated at over two hundred thousand men, overran Macedonia, pa.s.sed through Thessaly, defeated the allied Grecians at Thermopylae, and then marched into Phocis, for the purpose of plundering the treasures of Delphi. But their atrocities aroused against them the whole population, and only a remnant of them gained their original seats on the Adriatic.

The throne of Macedon now found an enemy in Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, a connection of the royal family of Macedon, and of whose exploits Roman history furnishes a full account. A desultory contest was maintained for several years between Pyrrhus and Antigonus II., the son of Demetrius, and then King of Macedon.

While Pyrrhus was engaged in this war, Cleon'ymus, of the blood royal of Sparta, who had been excluded from the throne by the Spartan people, to give place to A'reus, invited Pyrrhus to his aid. Pyrrhus marched to Sparta, and, supposing that he should not meet with any resistance, ordered his tents to be pitched, and sat quietly down before the city. Night coming on, the Spartans in consternation met in council, and resolved to send their women to Crete for safety. Thereupon the women a.s.sembled and remonstrated against it; and the queen, Archidami'a, being appointed to speak for the rest, went into the council-hall with a sword in her hand, and boldly upbraiding the men, told them they did their wives great wrong if they thought them so faint-hearted as to live after Sparta was destroyed. The women then rushed to the defences of the city, and spent the night aiding the men in digging trenches; and when Pyrrhus attacked on the morrow, he was so severely repulsed that he soon abandoned the siege and retired from Laconia. The patriotic spirit and heroism of the Spartan women on this occasion are well characterized in the following lines:

Queen Archidami'a.

The chiefs were met in the council-hall; Their words were sad and few, They were ready to fight, and ready to fall, As the sons of heroes do.

And moored in the harbor of Gyth'e-um lay The last of the Spartan fleet, That should bear the Spartan women away To the sunny sh.o.r.es of Crete.

Their hearts went back to the days of old; They thought of the world-wide shock, When the Persian hosts like an ocean rolled To the foot of the Grecian rock;

And they turned their faces, eager and pale, To the rising roar in the street, As if the clank of the Spartan mail Were the tramp of the conqueror's feet.

It was Archidamia, the Spartan queen, Brave as her father's steel; She stood like the silence that comes between The flash and the thunder-peal.

She looked in the eyes of the startled crowd; Calmly she gazed around; Her voice was neither low nor loud, But it rang like her sword on the ground.

"Spartans!" she said--and her woman's face Flushed out both pride and shame-- "I ask, by the memory of your race, Are ye worthy of the name?

"Ye have bidden us seek new hearths and graves, Beyond the reach of the foe; And now, by the dash of the blue sea-waves, We swear that we will not go!

"Is the name of Pyrrhus to blanch your cheeks?

Shall he burn, and kill, and destroy?

Are ye not sons of the deathless Greeks Who fired the gates of Troy?

"What though his feet have scathless stood In the rush of the Punic foam?

Though his sword be red to its hilt with the blood That has beat at the heart of Rome?