[Born at Athens, B.C. 381. Died in the isle of Calauria, opposite
Argolis, B.C. 322. Aged 59.]
A chief, if not the chief of--
“Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce Democracie,
Shook th’ Arsenal, and fulmin’d over Greece,
To Macedon and Artaxerxes’ throne.”[29]
This eloquence in Demosthenes--to the modern mind, the one unrivalled
exemplar of the ancient Greek oratory---was like a trained athlete,
living nerve and bone. When Athens lay daunted under the successes of
Philip of Macedon, Demosthenes, by the sole power of speech, roused the
people to energetic warfare. His style was fit for sustaining argument
on the destinies of great nations. It was simple, severe, lofty,
vehement, and of irresistible power. He acquired this consummate
mastery, having, by an invincible perseverance, vanquished seemingly
invincible natural obstacles. At one period of his life Demosthenes was
accused of receiving a bribe from Harpalus, a Macedonian General, who
fled to Athens, to escape the vengeance of Alexander. He quitted Athens.
Upon the death of Alexander he returned to the city; but the Athenian
arms proving unsuccessful against Antipater, the ruler of Macedonia, the
life of the orator was demanded by the conqueror. Demosthenes fled
again--this time to the isle of Calauria--where he took poison to save
himself from the swords of the soldiery. Looking upon the deep,
contemplative, sad brow, figured in stone, we might well fancy that we
see, gleaming there, a too real consciousness of the requital awaiting
even the greatest Athenian, for services which no reward could measure.
[From the marble in the Louvre. Several busts in various collections
had been called Terence, Pythagoras, Plato, and other names, when
there were dug up in Herculaneum two bronze heads, on one of which was
the name of Demosthenes; it was at once perceived that the busts above
referred to had been wrongly named; for they one and all represented
the great orator. A very beautiful carved medallion in amethyst exists
also at Rome, which is an undoubted likeness of him. For an account of
the statues of Demosthenes see Nos. 308 and 321 in the Handbook to the
Roman Court and Nave.]
[29] _Paradise Regained._