AESCHINES (389-314 B.C.)

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 271 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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AESCHINES (389-314 B.C.) , Greek statesman and orator, was born at Athens. The statements as to his parentage and early

life

LIFE

are conflicting; but it seems probable that his parents, though poor, were respectable. 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. The fall of Olynthus (348) brought Aeschines into the political arena, and he was sent on an

embassy

EMBASSY

to rouse the

Peloponnesus

PELOPONNESUS (" Island of Pelops ")

against Philip. In 347 he was a member of the peace

embassy

EMBASSY

to Philip of Macedon, who seems to have won him over entirely to his side. His dilatoriness during the second embassy (346) sent to ratify the terms of peace led to his accusation by

Demosthenes

DEMOSTHENES

and Timarchus on a charge of high treason, but he was acquitted as the result of a powerful speech, in which" he showed that his accuser Timarchus had, by his immoral conduct, forfeited the right to speak before the

people

PEOPLE

. In 343 the attack was renewed by

Demosthenes

DEMOSTHENES

in his speech On the False Embassy; Aeschines replied in a speech with the same title and was again, acquitted. In 339, as one of the Athenian deputies (pylagorae) in the Amphictyonic

Council

COUNCIL (Lat. concilium, from cum, together, and the root cal, to call)

, 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, when Ctesiphon proposed that his friend Demosthenes should be rewarded with a golden crown for his distinguished services to the state, he was accused by Aeschines of having violated the law in bringing forward the motion. The matter remained in abeyance till 330, 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

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

at Rhodes, where he opened a school of

rhetoric

RHETORIC (Gr. psroperctj TEXvq, the art of the orator)

. He afterwards removed to Samos, where he died in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His three speeches, called by the ancients " the Three Graces," rank next to those of Demosthenes.

Photius

PHOTIUS
PHOTIUS (c. 82o-891)

knew of nine letters by him which he called the Nine Muses;. the twelve published under his name (Hercher, Epistolographi Graeci) are not genuine.

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