Aeschines (;

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ; 389314 BC) was a

statesman A statesman or stateswoman is a politician or a leader in an organization who has had a long and respected career at the national or international level, or in a given field. Statesman or statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States ...

and one of the ten

Attic orators The ten Attic orators were considered the greatest Greek orators and logographers of the classical era (5th–4th century BC). They are included in the "Canon of Ten", which probably originated in Alexandria. A.E. Douglas has argued, however, t ...

Biography

Although it is known he was born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, 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 Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad range of sk ...

with indifferent success, served with distinction in the

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, and held several clerkships, amongst them the office of clerk to the '' Boule.'' This references: * Rudolf Hirzel, ''Der Dialog''. i. 129–140 *

Theodor Gomperz Theodor Gomperz (March 29, 1832August 29, 1912), Austrian philosopher and classical scholar, was born at Brno (Brünn). Biography Gomperz studied at Brno and at Vienna under Hermann Bonitz. Graduating at the University of Vienna in 1867 he bec ...

, ''Greek Thinkers'', vol. iii. p. 342 (Eng. trans. G. G. Berry, London, 1905) Among the campaigns that Aeschines participated in were Phlius in the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

(368 BC),

Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) The Battle of Mantinea was fought on 4 July 362 BC between the Thebans, led by Epaminondas and supported by the Arcadians, Argives, Messenians, Thessalians, Euboeans and the Boeotian league against the Spartans, led by King Agesilaus II a ...

, and Phokion's campaign in Euboea (349 BC). The fall of

Olynthus Olynthus ( ''Olynthos'') is an ancient city in present-day Chalcidice, Greece. It was built mostly on two flat-topped hills 30–40m in height, in a fertile plain at the head of the Gulf of Torone, near the neck of the peninsula of Pallene, Cha ...

(348 BC) brought Aeschines into the political arena, and he was sent on an embassy to rouse the Peloponnese against

Philip II of Macedon Philip II of Macedon (; 382 BC – October 336 BC) was the king (''basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ...

. In spring of 347 BC, Aeschines addressed the assembly of Ten Thousand in

Megalopolis A megalopolis () or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on. They are integrated enough ...

, 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, where he found it necessary, in order to counteract the prejudice vigorously fomented by his opponents, to defend Philip and describe him at a meeting of the Athenian popular assembly as being entirely Greek. His dilatoriness during the second embassy (346 BC) sent to ratify the terms of peace led to him being accused by

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; ; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide insight into the politics and cu ...

and Timarchus on a charge of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

. 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 Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...

and prostituting himself to many men in the port city of

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

. The suit succeeded and Timarchus was sentenced to ''

atimia Atimia () was a form of disenfranchisement used in ancient Greek cities. Under democracy in ancient Greece, only free adult Greek males were enfranchised as full citizens. Women, foreigners, children and slaves were not full citizens; they could ...

'' and politically destroyed, according to Demosthenes. This comment was later interpreted by

Pseudo-Plutarch Pseudo-Plutarch is the conventional name given to the actual, but unknown, authors of a number of pseudepigrapha (falsely attributed works) attributed to Plutarch but now known not to have been written by him. Some of these works were included in s ...

in his ''Lives of the Ten Orators'' as meaning that Timarchos hanged himself upon leaving the assembly, a suggestion contested by some modern historians. This oration, ''

Against Timarchus "Against Timarchus" () was a speech by Aeschines accusing Timarchus of being unfit to involve himself in public life. The case was brought about in 346–345 BC, in response to Timarchus, along with Demosthenes, bringing a suit against Aeschines, a ...

,'' is considered important because of the bulk of

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

laws it cites. As a consequence of his successful attack on Timarchus, Aeschines was cleared of the charge of treason.Nick Fisher, ''Aeschines: Against Timarchos,'' "Introduction," p. 22 n. 71, ''passim''; Oxford University Press, 2001 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

Fourth Sacred War Under the reign of Philip II (359–336 BC), the ancient kingdom of Macedonia, initially at the periphery of classical Greek affairs, came to dominate Ancient Greece in the span of just 25 years, largely thanks to the character and policies of ...

. By way of revenge, Aeschines endeavoured to fix the blame for these disasters upon Demosthenes. In 336 BC, when

Ctesiphon Ctesiphon ( ; , ''Tyspwn'' or ''Tysfwn''; ; , ; Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified July 28, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/58.) was an ancient city in modern Iraq, on the eastern ba ...

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 and overwhelming victory for Demosthenes. Aeschines went into voluntary exile at

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

(to avoid the judgement of the jury, which was likely a large sum of money), where he opened a school of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

. He afterwards removed to

Samos Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate reg ...

, where he died aged 75. His three speeches, called by the ancients "the Three Graces," rank next to those of Demosthenes.

Photius Photius I of Constantinople (, ''Phōtios''; 815 – 6 February 893), also spelled ''Photius''Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Mate ...

knew of nine letters by him which he called The Nine Muses; the twelve published under his name (

Hercher Rudolf Hercher (; 11 January 182126 March 1878) was a Germans, German classical philologist, who worked as a grammar school teacher in Rudolstadt (1847–1859) and Berlin (1861–1878). He is especially known for his conjecture, textual criticism ...

, ''Epistolographi Graeci'') are not genuine.

Bibliography

Three of Aeschines speeches have survived: * ''

'' * '' On the False Embassy'' * '' Against Ctesiphon (κατὰ Κτησιφῶντος)''

Editions

* (1855–1860) (trans. and notes) * Andreas Weidner (1872) *

Friedrich Blass Friedrich Blass (22 January 1843, Osnabrück5 March 1907, Halle) was a German classical scholar. Biography After studying at Göttingen and Bonn from 1860 to 1863, Blass lectured at several gymnasia and at the University of Königsberg. In 187 ...

(

Teubner The Bibliotheca Teubneriana, or ''Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana'', also known as Teubner editions of Greek and Latin texts, comprise one of the most thorough modern collections published of ancient (and some medieva ...

, 1896) *

Thomas Leland Thomas Leland (1722–1785) was an Irish Anglican priest, a historian, translator and academic and the author of the early gothic novel '' Longsword, Earl of Salisbury: An Historical Romance'', published in 1762. ''Longsword'' is set in Gascony ...

, Weidner (1872), (1878), G. A. Simcox and W. H. Simcox (1866), Drake (1872), Richardson (1889), G. Watkin and Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (1890). * ''The Speeches of Aeschines''. Translated by Charles Darwin Adams. ''

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

'' 106.

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919. Available a
archive.org
* Teubner ed. of ''Orationes'': 1997, edited Mervin R. Dilts. *''Aeschines''. Translated by

Chris Carey Chris Carey, FBA is a British classical scholar, currently Professor Emeritus of Greek at University College London (UCL). He held the Professorship of Greek at UCL, from 2003 until his retirement in 2016.University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is the university press of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly and trade books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Caribbean, Caribbea ...

, Austin, 2000.

References

Sources

Primary sources

* Demosthenes, ''De Corona'' and ''De Falsa Legatione'' * Aeschines, ''De Falsa Legatione'' and ''In Ctesiphontem'' * ''Lives'' by

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus ...

and

Libanius Libanius (; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a critical source of history of the Greek ...

* ''Exegesis'' by Apollonius

Secondary sources

*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" i
''Encyclopedia of Homosexuality''
Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. pp. 15–16.

External links

* *
LiviusAeschines
by Jona Lendering
''Against Timarchus''
at the

Perseus Project The Perseus Digital Library, formerly known as the Perseus Project, is a free-access digital library founded by Gregory Crane in 1987 and hosted by the Department of Classical Studies of Tufts University. One of the pioneers of digital libraries, ...

''On the Embassy''
at the Perseus Project
''Against Ctesiphon''
at the Perseus Project

- attributed to Plutarch {{DEFAULTSORT:Aeschines Attic orators 4th-century BC Greek politicians 4th-century BC Athenians Ancient Greek ambassadors 389 BC births 314 BC deaths Philip II of Macedon Ancient Samians Demosthenes 4th-century BC diplomats