1

indict or arrest or give into custody for the future, the result is similar: none of the persons under any such penal sentence ventures to act in defiance of it. Aristogiton, as it seems, is the only man whose will is to be superior to the court and to the law. Neither you nor your ancestors ever repented of observing all these ordinances, for it is the preservation of democracy, to overcome its enemies either by counsel or by arms, but to submit to the laws either by choice or by constraint. And that such course of action is becoming, is acknowledged on the part of the defendant himself. For after the misfortune of the Greeks at Chæronea, when the city was in the extreme of peril, fearing for her very foundations, and when Hyperides moved that the disfranchised should be restored to their rights, so that all might join zealously and harmoniously in the struggle for freedom, if any danger of such magnitude should menace the state, Aristogiton indicted this decree as illegal, and appeared as prosecutor in court. Is it not shocking, that this man should not allow any citizen to obtain his franchise to accomplish his country's deliverance, and yet should demand the same privilege from you to pursue his own lawless course? Surely that vote was far more legal and more just than the one which you now ask these jurors to pass for you. The one was equitable and applied to all the citizens; the other was inequitable, designed for your special advantage, and yours alone. The one had for its object to prevent a peace by whose terms a single man became master of the whole government; the other to give to you alone a license to defeat the resolutions of these men, to transgress with impunity the laws transmitted from ancient times by your ancestors, and to do whatever you please. I should be glad to ask him whether his indictment of the decree was just and lawful, or, on the contrary, unjust and illegal: for, if it was improper and injurious to the people, for that very reason he deserves to die; if it was advantageous and beneficial to the many, why do you now require these men to pass a vote contrary to what you yourself proposed? The truth is, neither were his former proceedings just, nor are his present lawful or expe1 As to phynois, see Vol. iii. Appendix VIII. p. 358.

2 See Vol. ii. Appendix II. p. 319.

dient for you. I see that you, men of the jury, hold this opinion in regard to yourselves: for you have before now given judgment upon many informations against private men. Would it not be shameful that you should strictly put the laws in force in your own case, and yet be so resigned in the case of these busybodies, who make themselves a public nuisance and endeavour to lord it over all?

Surely none of you can take this view, that it ought to be as I say, but that, on account of Aristogiton's good character and usefulness to the state, you ought to connive at his occasionally breaking the law. For, that he is a man of bad and corrupt character, Lycurgus, as it seems to me, has already abundantly proved; and that he is of no use to the state, you may see easily enough from his political conduct. What man has he ever brought into court and convicted upon these charges which he prefers? What revenue has he procured for you? What decree has he drawn, the acceptance of which you have not afterwards deliberately repented of? For here he is so wrong-headed and such a barbarian in his nature, that, when he sees you slightly irritated against any persons and more excited than you ought to be, he catches at your wishes in the moment of your anger, and opposes your interests. A statesman acting for your good ought not to follow the passions which spring out of sudden anger, but to be guided by reasonable calculations, by circumstances and opportunities: the former are apt suddenly to change, the latter to endure and subsist somewhat longer. The defendant, disregarding these considerations, exposes the secret weaknesses of the government, so that you are compelled to make the same things valid at one time and invalid at another.

But perhaps, because his principle is to rail against all men, to bawl people down, and object to everything that is said, it is proper on these accounts to preserve him. Nay, men of the jury; I declare to heaven, these things which are constantly occurring on our platform are a disgrace, and through the desperation of these persons the better class of you have come to be ashamed of meddling in politics. However, if such proceedings are to any one's taste, you will be at no loss for people of that sort; the platform is still full of them. For it is not difficult to find fault with advice which has been given; the difficult thing is to advise and persuade you to

pass good resolutions. Besides, if he had not deceived you before by means of such arguments, when he was tried on the former information-though even then you could not justly make any concession contrary to the existing laws; for you must not allow some persons to break the laws and expect the rest to obey them-yet, I grant, you might then with more reason have trusted him and shown him favour and foregone some of your strict rights. But when, after having let him off in hopes of amendment, you shortly afterwards punished the same person again as a mischievous orator and politician, what decent excuse is left for you, if you are imposed upon now? For why trust to words where you have the experience of facts? In cases where you have not proof positive in your possession, it may be necessary to judge by words. I am surprised at people who are so constituted, that, while they entrust their private interests only to men of long-tried honesty, they will confide the interests of the commonwealth to men whose baseness has been proved beyond dispute. one would put a dog of inferior breed and quality to guard his flock; and yet some say that, to watch your public men, you should employ the first persons who present themselves, who, while they pretend to inform against delinquents, require the utmost watching themselves.

No

If then you are wise, reflect upon these things; have done with the persons who are always talking of their attachment to you; but exert every possible vigilance on your own part, and allow none to defeat the laws, especially none of those who boast of their ability to speak and move for the good of the many. It would be a terrible thing that, while your ancestors feared not to die in defence of the laws, you should not even punish those who transgress them; and that, when you have voted to erect in the market-place a brazen statue of Solon who framed the laws, you should show such an utter disregard of the laws themselves, on account of which he has received such distinguished honour. What an absurdity it would be, that in legislating you should manifest displeasure against the vicious, yet, when you have caught any of them in the act of crime, you should let them off with impunity; and that, while the lawgiver, a mere individual, incurs on your behalf the hatred of all rogues, you yourselves, even when you are assembled together to look after your interests,

instead of showing your abhorrence of rogues, are overcome by the roguery of one man; and, while you have made it punishable with death for any one to produce a non-existing law, you allow persons to escape without punishment who give to our existing laws the character of nonexisting.

You will perfectly comprehend how great an advantage it is to obey the established laws, and how great an evil to despise and disobey them, if you will place before your eyes and examine separately the advantages arising from the law and the results of their infraction. For you will find that the latter performs acts of madness and intemperance and encroachment, the former does the work of intelligence and wisdom and justice. Here is the proof. Those states we shall see are the best governed, in which there have been the best legislators. As bodily ailments are checked by the discoveries of medical men, so the ferocity of the mind is removed by wisdom. In short, we shall find nothing noble or useful which is not associated with law: indeed the whole universe, the heavenly bodies and the seasons, as they are called, if we may trust to what we see, appear to be governed by law and order. Therefore, ye men of Athens, come with mutual encouragement to the assistance of the laws, and pass sentence upon those who have wilfully offended against what is holy. If you act thus, you will perform your duty, and give the most satisfactory decision.

THE ORATION AGAINST APHOBUS-I.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE speeches against Aphobus, the first ever spoken by Demosthenes, were delivered in a cause of his own, which came on for trial B. C. 364, when he was in his twentieth year. The circumstances out of which it arose are gathered mainly from the speeches themselves; but it will assist the reader to give a brief account of them. Demosthenes, the father of the orator, was a man of considerable property, the greater part of which was embarked in trade and mercantile speculations. The total amount of capital which he died possessed of, (the details of which are given below,) was estimated at nearly fourteen talents. He left a widow and two children; a son at the age of seven, and a daughter at the age of five. By his last will he bequeathed the guardianship of his children and his property upon certain trusts to his two nephews, Aphobus and Demophon, and an old friend, Therippides. The directions were, that Aphobus should marry the widow and receive with her a portion of eighty minas Demophon was to receive two talents, on condition that he married the daughter when she reached the age of puberty and Therippides was to enjoy the interest of seventy minas until the son came of age. The residue of the estate was ordered to be invested, so as to accumulate for the benefit of the young Demosthenes. It appears that the guardians grossly neglected their duty, not only failing to perform the conditions upon which they took their own legacies, but squandering, wasting, or appropriating to their own use the bulk of the property. They made no attempt to invest it as the will directed; and the consequence was that, by the time Demosthenes had attained his majority, i. e. when he had completed his seventeenth year, the estate, instead of being vastly increased (as it might have been by good management), was reduced to about a tenth of its original value. He charges them with having committed during the interval divers acts of fraud and meanness, and among others, with having cheated his preceptors of their dues. Upon the attainment of his majority, Demosthenes called upon the three guardians to render him an account of the manner in which they had disposed of the estate. Their conduct had become pretty notorious, and the account, which, after various excuses and delays