him into Upper Asia. He reigned a little over six years. The Abbé Belley has written a learned dissertation on the reign of this monarch, illustrated by medals. (Mem. de l'Acad. des. Inser., vol. 29.)-VII. Pepagomenus, a medical writer, who flourished during the reign of Michael VIII. (Palæologus). By the order of this monarch, he wrote a work on the Gout (Epì Пodúypaç). We have two treatises under his name; but it is extremely doubtful whether he was indeed their author. The first is on the art of training falcons; the second, on the mode of breaking and training dogs. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 7, p. 265.) The best edition of the treatise on the gout is that of Bernhard, Amst., 1753, 8vo.-VIII. Phalereus (three syllables-Paλŋpevç), a native of Phalerum in Attica, and the last of the more distinguished orators of Greece. He was the son of a person who had been slave to Timotheus and Conon. (Compare Elian, Var. Hist., 12, 43, and the remarks of Perizonius, ad loc.) But, though born in this low condition, he soon after having reigned twelve years (from B.C. 162 to B.C. 150). His death was avenged, however, by his son and successor Demetrius Nicator. (Polyb., 31, 12.-Id., 31, 19.-Id, 32, 4, seqq.-Id., 33, 14, seqq. -Justin, 34, 3.—Id., 35, 1.)—V. Son of the preceding, was surnamed Nicator, or "the Conqueror." He drove out Alexander Bala, with the aid of Ptoleiny Philometor, who had given him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, though she was already the wife of Bala. He ascended the throne B.C. 146, but soon abandoned himself to a life of indolence and debauchery, leaving the reins of government in the hands of Lasthenes, his favourite, an unprincipled and violent man. The disgust to which his conduct gave rise induced Tryphon, who had been governor of Antioch under Bala, to revolt, and place upon the throne Antiochus Dionysius, son of Bala and Cleopatra, a child only four years of age. A battle ensued, in which Demetrius was defeated, and Antiochus, now receiving the surname of Theos, was conducted by the victors to Antioch, and proclaimed king of Syria. He reign-made himself distinguished by his talents, and was aled, however, only in name. The actual monarch was Tryphon, who put him to death at the end of about two years, and caused himself to be proclaimed in his stead. Demetrius, meanwhile, held his court at Seleucia. Thinking that the crimes of Tryphon would soon make him universally detested, he turned his arms in a different direction, and marched against the Parthians, in the hope that, if he returned victorious, he would be enabled the more easily to rid himself of his Syrian antagonist. After some successes, however, he was entrapped and made prisoner by the Parthian monarch Mithradates, and his army was attacked and cut to pieces. His captivity among the Parthians was an honourable one, and Mithradates made him espouse his daughter Rhodoguna. The intelligence of this marriage so exasperated Cleopatra, that she gave her hand to Antiochus Sidetes, her brother-in-law, who thereupon ascended the throne. Sidetes having been slain in a battle with the Parthians after a reign of several years, Demetrius escaped from the hands of Mithradates and remounted the throne. His subjects, however, unable any longer to endure his pride and cruelty, requested from Ptolemy Physcon, a king of the race of the Seleucide to govern them. Ptolemy sent Alexander Zebina. Demetrius, driven out by the Syrians, came to Ptolemaïs, where Cleopatra, his first wife, then held sway, but the gates were shut against him. He then took refuge in Tyre, but was put to death by the governor of the city. Zebina recompensed the Tyrians for this act, by permitting them to live according to their own laws, and from this period commences what is called by chronologists the era of the independence of Tyre, which was still subsisting at the time of the council of Chalcedon, 574 years after this event. (Joseph., Ant. Jud., 13, 9.—Id. ib., 13, 12. Id. ib., 13, 17.-Justin, 36, 1.-Id., 39, 1.L'Art de verifier les Dates, vol. 2, p. 331.)-VI. Surnamed Eucarus (Euxaipoç), "the Seasonable" or Fortunate," was the fourth son of Antiochus Grypus. He was proclaimed king at Damascus, and, in conjunction with his brother Philip, to whom a part of Syria remained faithful, drove out Antiochus Eusebes from that country, compelling him to take refuge among the Parthians. The two brothers then divided Syria between them, Antioch being the capital of Philip, and Damascus that of Demetrius. The latter afterward marched to the aid of the Jews, who had revolted from their king Alexander Janneus. He was recalled, however, to his own dominions by the news of an invasion on the part of his own brother Philip. He took Antioch, and besieged Philip in Beroa; but the latter being succoured by the Parthians and Arabians, Demetrius was besieged in his own camp, and at length taken prisoner. He was brought to the King of Parthia, who treated him with great distinction, and sent ready a conspicuous individual in the public assemblies when Antipater became master of Athens; for he was obliged to save himself by flight from the vengeance of the Macedonian party. He was compelled to quit the city a second time, when Polysperchon took possession of it through his son. Subsequently named by Cassander as governor of Athens (B.C. 312), he so gained the affections of his countrymen, that, during the ten years in which he filled this office, they are said to have raised to him three hundred and sixty statues. Athenæus, however, on the authority of Duris, a Samian writer, reproaches him with luxurious and expensive habits, while he prescribed, at the same time, frugality to his fellow-citizens, and fixed limits for their expenditures. It is thought, however, that Duris, or else Athenæus in copying him, erred with respect to the name; since what the latter relates of Demetrius Phalereus, Ælian mentions of Demetrius Poliorcetes. (Var. Hist., 9, 19.) After the death of his protector, Demetrius was driven from Athens by Antigonus and Demetrius Poliorcetes (B.C. 306). The people of that city, always fickle, always ungrateful, always the sport of the demagogues who ruled them, overthrew the numerous statues they had erected to him, although he had been their benefactor and idol, and even condemned him to death. Demetrius, upon this, retired to the court of Alexandrea, where he lived upward of twenty years. It is generally supposed that he was the individual who gave Ptolemy the advice to found the Museum and famous library. This prince consulted him also as to the choice of a successor. Demetrius was in favour of the monarch's eldest son, but the king eventually decided for the son whom he had by his second wife Berenice. When Ptolemy II., therefore, came to the throne, he revenged himself on the unlucky counsellor by exiling him to a distant province in Upper Egypt, where Demetrius put an end to his own life by the bite of an asp (B.C. 284.-Compare the dissertation of Bonamy, on the life of Demetrius Phalereus, Mem. de l'Acad. des. Inscr. et Belles Lettres, vol. 7, p. 157, seqq.). Cicero describes Demetrius as a polished, sweet, and graceful speaker, but deficient in energy and power. (De Orat., 2, 23.-Brut., 9.) Quintilian assigns to him much of talent and fluency. (Inst. Or., 10, 1, 80.) Both writers, however, agree that he was the first who deviated in a marked degree from the character that previously belonged to Attic eloquence. We cannot form any opinion of our own respecting the merits of this writer, because his historical, political, and philosophical writings are all lost. In the number of these was a treatise "On the Ionians,” and another " On the Laws of Athens," two pieces, the acquisition of which would prove of great value to us. Plutarch cites his treatise "On Socrates," which means of subsistence. His brother Damosis, however, received him kindly, and liberally supplied all his wants. It was a law in Abdera, that whoever should waste his patrimony, should be deprived of the rites of sepulture. Democritus, desiring to avoid this dis. grace, gave public lectures to the people, chiefly from his larger Diacosmus, the most valuable of his writings; in return, he received from his hearers many valuable presents, and other testimonies of respect, which relieved him from all apprehension of suffering public censure as a spendthrift. Democritus, by his learning and wisdom, and especially by his acquaintance with natural phenomena, acquired great fame, and excited much admiration among the ignorant Abderites. By giving previous notices of unexpected changes in the weather, and by other artifices, he had the address to make them believe that he possessed a power of predicting future events, and they not only looked upon appears to have contained also "a Life of Aristides." We have said that the works of Demetrius are lost: there exists, it is true, under his name "A Treatise on Elocution" (πɛpì 'Epμnvɛíaç), a work full of ingenious observations; but critics agree in making it of later origin. It appears that the copyists have confounded Demetrius Phalereus with Demetrius of Alexandrea, who flourished under Marcus Aurelius, and was, perhaps, the author of the work in question. Besides the treatise on Elocution, there exists a small work On the Apophthegms of the Seven Sages, which Stobæus has inserted in his third discourse, as being the production of Demetrius Phalereus.-The best editions of the treatise on Elocution are, that of Gale, Oxon., 1676, 8vo, re-edited by Fischer, Lips., 1773, 8vo, and that of J. G. Schneider, Alten., 1779, 8vo. This last is printed with but little care; yet it is critical, and supplied with an excellent commentary. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 3, p. 241, seqq.)-IX. A Cynic philos-him as something more than mortal, but even proposed opher, who flourished at Corinth in the first century. During the reign of Caligula, he taught philosophy at Rome, where he obtained the highest reputation for wisdom and virtue. He was banished from Rome in the time of Nero, for his free censure of public manners. After the death of this emperor he returned to Rome; but the boldness of his language soon offended Vespasian, and again subjected him to the punish-fectly master of his intellectual faculties, he deprived ment of exile. Apollonius, with whom he had contracted a friendship, prevailed on Titus to recall him; but under Domitian he shared the common fate of philosophers, and withdrew to Puteoli. Seneca, who was intimately acquainted with him, speaks in the highest terms of his masculine eloquence, sound judgment, intrepid fortitude, and inflexible integrity. (Seneca, de Vit. Beat., 25.) DEMOCEDES, a celebrated physician of Crotona, son of Calliphon, and intimate with Polycrates. He was carried as a prisoner from Samos to Darius, king of Persia, where he acquired great riches and much reputation by two cures which he performed, one on the king, and the other on Atossa. Always desirous of returning to his native country, he pretended to enter into the views and interests of the Persians, and procured himself to be sent with some nobles to explore the coast of Greece, and to ascertain in what parts it might be attacked with the greatest probability of success. Stopping at Tarentum, the Persians were seized as spies, and Democedes escaped to Crotona, whither the Persians followed him, and demanded, but in vain, that he should be restored. He settled there, and married the daughter of Milo. (Ælian, V. H., 8, 18. -Herodot., 3, 124, &c.) DEMOCRITUS, a celebrated philosopher, born at Abdera, about 490 or 494 B.C., but according to some, 460 or 470 B.C. His father was a man of noble family and of great wealth, and contributed largely towards the entertainment of the army of Xerxes, on his return to Asia. As a reward for this service, the Persian monarch made him and the other Abderites rich presents, and left among them several Chaldæan Magi. Democritus, according to Diogenes Laertius, was instructed by these Eastern sages in astronomy and the ology. After the death of his father, he determined to travel in search of wisdom; and devoted to this purpose the portion which fell to him, amounting to one hundred talents. He is said to have visited Egypt and Ethiopia, the Persian Magi, and, according to some, even the Gymnosophists of India. Whether, in the course of his travels, he visited Athens or attended upon Anaxagoras, is uncertain. There can be little doubt, however, that, during some part of his life, he was instructed in the Pythagorean school, and particularly that he was a disciple of Leucippus. After a long course of years thus spent in travelling, Democritus returned to Abdera, richly stored with the treasures of philosophy, but destitute even of the necessary to invest him with the direction of their public affairs. From inclination and habit, however, he preferred a contemplative to an active life, and therefore declined these public honours, and passed the remainder of his days in solitude. It is said that from this time he spent his days and nights in caverns and sepulchres; and some even relate, that, in order to be more per himself, by means of a burning-glass, of the organs of sight. The story, however, is utterly incredible, since the writers who mention it affirm that Democritus employed his leisure in writing books, and in dissecting the bodies of animals, neither of which could well have been effected without eyes. Nor is greater credit due to the tale that Democritus spent his leisure hours in chemical researches after the philosopher's stone, the dream of a later age; or to the story of his conversation with Hippocrates, grounded upon letters which are said to have passed between the father of medicine and the people of Abdera, on the supposed madness of Democritus, but which are so evidently spurious that it would require the credulity of the Abderites themselves to suppose them genuine. The only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from these and other marvellous tales, is, that Democritus was, what he is commonly represented to have been, a man of lofty genius and penetrating judgment, who, by a long course of study and observation, became an eminent master of speculative and physical science; the natural consequence of which was, that, like Roger Bacon in a later period, he astonished and imposed upon his ignorant and credulous countrymen. Petronius relates, that he was perfectly acquainted with the virtues of herbs, plants, and stones, and that he spent his life in making experiments upon natural bodies.Democritus has been commonly known under the appellation of "The Laughing Philosopher;" and it is gravely related by Seneca (De Ira, 2, 10.-De Trang, 15), that he never appeared in public without expressing his contempt of the follies of mankind by laughter. But this account is wholly inconsistent with what has been related concerning his fondness for a life of gloomy solitude and profound contemplation; and with the strength and elevation of mind which his philosophical researches must have required, and which are ascribed to him by the general voice of antiquity. Thus much, however, may be easily admitted on the credit of Elian (V. H., 4, 20) and Lucian (Vit. Auct., vol. 3, p. 112, ed. Bip.), that a man so superior to the generality of his contemporaries, and whose lot it was to live among a race of men who were stupid to a proverb, might frequently treat their follies with ridicule and contempt. Accordingly, we find that, among his fellow-citizens, he obtained the appellation of yɛkaoivos, or the "Derider." Democritus appears to have been in his morals chaste and temperate; and his sobriety was repaid by a healthy old age. He lived and en DEM joyed the use of his faculties to the term of a hundred seriously impeded by the want of sufficient means, to years (some say several years longer), and at last died say nothing of the over-anxious fears of maternal tenthrough mere decay.-Democritus expanded the atom- derness, and the delicate state of his own health. ic theory of his master Leucippus, to support the truth When Demosthenes was about sixteen years of age, of which he maintained the impossibility of division ad his curiosity was attracted by a trial in which Callistratus pleaded, and won a cause of considerable iminfinitum; and from the difficutly of assigning a comThe eloquence which procured, and the mencement of time, he argued the eternity of existing portance. nature, of void space, and of motion. He supposed acclamations which followed, his success, so inflamed the atoms, originally similar, to be endowed with cer- the ambition of the young Athenian, that he detertain properties, such as impenetrability, and a density mined to devote himself thenceforward to the assiduous study of oratory. He chose Isæus as his master proportionate to their volume. He referred every active and passive affection to motion, caused by impact, rather than Isocrates (either because this plan was less limited by the principle he assumed, that like can only expensive, or because the style of the latter was not act on like. He drew a distinction between primary sufficiently nervous and energetic): from Plato, also, motion and secondary; impulse and reaction; from a he imbibed much of the richness and the grandeur combination of which he produced rotatory motion. which characterized the writings of that mighty master. Herein consists the law of necessity, by which all At the age of seventeen he appeared before the public things in nature are ruled. From the endless multi-tribunals, and pronounced against his faithless guarplicity of atoms have resulted the worlds which we dians, and against a debtor to his father's estate, five behold, with all the properties of immensity, resem-orations, which were crowned with complete success. blance, and dissimilitude which belong to them. The These discourses, in all probability, had received the soul consists (such is his doctrine) of globular atoms of fire, which impart movement to the body. Maintaining his atomic theory throughout, Democritus introduced the hypothesis of images (eidwλa), a species of emanation from external objects, which make an impression on our senses, and from the influence of which he deduced sensation (alonσiç) and thought (vónois). He distinguished between a rude, imperfect, and thereIn the same fore false perception, and a true one. manner, consistently with his theory, he accounted for the popular notions of the Deity; partly through our incapacity to understand fully the phenomena of which we are witnesses, and partly from the impressions communicated by certain beings (eidwλa) of enormous stature, and resembling the human figure, which inhabit the air. To these he ascribed dreams, and the causes of divination. He carried his theory into practical philosophy also, laying down that happiness consisted in an equability of temperament (ev0vuía), whence he deduced his moral principles and prudential maxims. It was from Democritus that Epicurus borrowed the principal features of his metaphysics. Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol. 1, p. 423, seqq. -Ritter, Hist. Phil., vol. 1, p. 544, seqq.-Tenne-ance before his assembled countrymen! He was not mann's Manual, p. 79.) DEMODOCUS, I. a musician at the court of Alcinoüs, who sang in the presence of Ulysses. (Hom, Od., 8, 44.-Plut., de Mus.)-II. A Trojan chief, who came with Æneas into Italy, where he was killed. (Virg., En., 10, 413.) DEMOLEON, I. a centaur, killed by Theseus at the nuptials of Pirithoüs. (Ovid, Met., 12, 356.)—II. A son of Antenor, killed by Achilles. (Hom., Il., 20, 395.) DEMONAX, a Cynic philosopher, of excellent character, contemporary with Lucian, who relates his history. He was a native of Cyprus, of wealthy parents, and is described by Lucian as having been the best philosopher he ever knew. Demonax resided at Athens, attained to the age of nearly 90 years, and was honoured at his death with a public funeral. (Lucian, Vit. Demonact., vol. 5, p. 231, seqq., ed. Bip.) nis. DEMOPHOON OF DEMOPHON, Vid. Phyllis. DEMOSTHENES, I. a celebrated Athenian orator, a native of the borough of Pæania, in the tribe PandioHis father, Demosthenes, was a citizen of rank and opulence, and the proprietor of a manufactory of arms; not a common blacksmith, as the language of Juvenal (10, 130) would lead us to believe. The son was born in the fourth year of the 98th Olympiad, B.C. 385, and lost his father at the early age of seven years, when he was left to the care of his mother, Cleobule. The guardians to whom his father had intrusted the administration of a large property proving faithless to their charge, and wasting a large portion of his patrimony, the orator's early studies were finishing hand from Isæus, under whom Demosthenes fatigable labour in the acquisition of his art. His immense concourse of spectators. Demosthenes trienemies, at a subsequent period of his career, at- umphed, and his antagonist, not having received the tempted to ridicule this extraordinary industry, by fifth part of the votes, was, in conformity with the exremarking that all his arguments "smelt of the lamp," isting law, compelled to retire into exile. A short and they eagerly embraced the opportunity of denying time after this splendid victory, Demosthenes was him the possession of natural talents. A malicious condemned for having suffered himself to be bribed opinion like this would easily find credit; and, in fact, by Harpalus, a Macedonian governor, who, dreading a similar mistake is very frequently made; for, since the anger of Alexander, had come to Athens to hide it is acknowledged on all hands, that all successful men there the fruit of his extortion and rapine, and had barwho are naturally dull must be industrious, the con- gained with the popular leaders of the day for the proverse of the proposition grows into repute, and it is in-tection of the republic. Demosthenes, having escaped ferred that all men who are industrious must necessarily from imprisonment, fled to Ægina, whence he could be dull. The accusation against Demosthenes seems behold the shores of his beloved country, and earnestto have rested chiefly on his known reluctance to speak ly and constantly protested his innocence. After the without preparation. The fact is, that, though he could death of Alexander he was restored, and his entry into exert the talent of extemporaneous speaking, he avoided Athens was marked by every demonstration of joy. rather than sought such occasions, partly from defer- A new league was formed among the Grecian cities ence to his audience, and partly from apprehending against the Macedonians, and Demosthenes was the the possibility of a failure. Plutarch, who mentions soul of it. But the confederacy was broken up by this reluctance of the orator, speaks at the same time Antipater, and the death of the orator was decreed. of the great merit of his extemporaneous effusions.-- He retired thereupon from Athens to the island of CaDemosthenes reappeared in public, after the rigorous lauria, off the coast of Argolis, and, being still pursued discipline of private study, at the age of 25 years, by the satellites of Antipater, terminated his life there and pronounced two orations against Leptines, the by poison, in the temple of Neptune, at the age of author of a law which imposed on every citizen of above sixty years.-Before the time of Demosthenes Athens, except the descendants of Harmodius and there existed three distinct styles of eloquence: that Aristogiton, the exercise of certain burdensome func- of Lysias, mild and persuasive, quietly engaged the attions. The second of these discourses, entitled "Of tention, and won the assent of an audience; that of Immunities," is regarded as one of his happiest efforts. Thucydides, bold and animated, awakened the feelings After this he became much engaged with the business and powerfully forced conviction on the mind; while of the bar, and these professional labours, added to the that of Isocrates was, as it were, a combination of the scanty portion of his patrimony which he had recovered two former. Demosthenes can scarcely be said to from his guardians, appear to have formed his only have proposed any individual as a model, although he means of support. But, whatever may have been the bestowed so much untiring labour on the historian of distinction and the advantages which Demosthenes the Peloponnesian war. He rather culled all that was acquired by his practice at the bar, his principal glory valuable from the various styles of his great predecesis derived from his political discourses. At the pe- sors, working them up, and blending them into one riod when he engaged in public affairs, the state was a harmonious whole: not, however, that there is such mere wreck. Public spirit was at the lowest ebb; the a uniformity or mannerism in his works as prevents laws had lost their authority, the austerity of early man-him from applying himself with versatility to a variety ners had yielded to the inroads of luxury, activity to indo- of subjects; on the contrary, he seems to have had lence, probity to venality, and the people were far advanced upon the route which conducts a nation to irremediable servitude. Of the virtues of their forefathers there remained to the Athenians naught save an attachment, carried almost to enthusiasm, for their native soil, for that country the possession of which had been contested even by the gods. On the slightest occasion this feeling of patriotism was sure to display itself; thanks to this sentiment, the people of Athens were still capable of making the most strenuous efforts for the preservation of their freedom. No one knew better than Demosthenes the art of exciting and keeping alive this enthusiasm. His penetration enabled him easily to divine the ambitious plans of Philip of Macedon, from the very outset of that monarch's operations, and he resolved to counteract them. His whole public carcer, indeed, had but one object in view, and that was, war with Philip. For the space of fourteen years did this monarch find the Athenian orator continually in his path, and every attempt proved unavailing to corrupt so formidable an adversary. These fourteen years, which immediately preceded the fall of Grecian freedom, constitute the brightest period in the history of Demosthenes. And yet his courage was political rather than military. At Charonca he fled from the field of battle, though in the Athenian assembly no private apprehensions could check his eloquence or influence his conduct. But, though overpowered in the contest with the enemy of Athenian independence, he received after his defeat the most glorious recompense, which, in accordance with Grecian customs, a grateful country could bestow upon a virtuous son. Athens decreed him a crown of gold. The reward was opposed by Eschines. The combat of eloquence which arose between the two orators, attracted to Athens an the power of carrying each individual style to perfection, and of adapting himself with equal excellence to each successive topic. In the general structure of many of his sentences, he resembles Thucydides; but he is more simple and perspicuous, and better calculated to be quickly comprehended by an audience. On the other hand, his clearness in narration, his elegance and purity of diction, and (to borrow a metaphor from a sister art) his correct keeping, remind the reader of Lysias. But the argumentative parts of the speeches of Lysias are often deficient in vigour; whereas earnestness, power, zeal, rapidity, and passion, all exemplified in plain, unornamented language, and a strain of close, business-like reasoning, are the distinctive characteristics of Demosthenes. The general tone of his oratory, indeed, was admirably adapted to an Athenian audience, constituted as it was of those whose habits of life were mechanical, and of those whom ambition or taste had led to the cultivation of literature. The former were captivated by sheer sense, urged with masculine force and inextinguishable spirit, and by the forcible application of plain truths; and yet there was enough of grace and variety to please more learned and fastidious auditors. "His style," as Hume well observes, "is rapid harmony, exactly adjusted to the sense: it is vehement reasoning, without any appearance of art: it is disdain, anger, boldness, freedom, involved in a continued stream of argument; and, of all human productions, the orations of Demosthenes present to us the models which approach the nearest to perfection." Another very remarkable excellence of Demosthenes is the collocation of his words. The arrangement of sentences in such a manner that their cadences should be harmonious, and, to a certain degree, rhythmical, was a study much in use among the great masters of Gre cian composition. Plato passed the latter years of his remarks, "consists in his abruptness, that of the life in correcting his dialogues; and that very simplici- other in his diffuseness. Our countryman (Demosty remarkable in the structure of the periods of Demosthenes), from the force, the fire, the mighty vehemence thenes is itself the result of art.-The question has often with which he bears down all before him, may be been raised as to the secret of the success of Demos- compared to a tempest or thunderbolt; while Cicero, thenes. How is it that he attained to his astonishing like a wide-spreading conflagration, devours and rolls pre-eminence? How is it that, in a faculty which is onward in every direction, ever maintaining its decommon to the whole species, that of communicating structive energy, and nourished and supported from our thoughts and feelings in language, the palm is con- time to time by the fuel of various kinds with which ceded to him alone by the unanimous and willing con- it is continually supplied in its progress." (Longsent of all nations and ages! And this universal ap-nus, 12.) Cicero's eloquence is like a consular triprobation will appear the more extraordinary to a reader umph; he is himself the most conspicuous figure in who for the first time peruses his unrivalled orations. the procession, which is swollen with the grandeur They do not exhibit any of that ostentatious decla- and riches of conquered provinces. Demosthenes is ination, on which loosely hangs the fame of so many the terrible sweep of a vast body of cavalry. Cicepretenders to eloquence. There appears no deep re- ro's oratory was local, fitted only to the audience; flection to indicate a more than ordinary penetration, in Athens it would not have been tolerated. Demosor any philosophical remarks to prove the extent of thenes was for the whole earth, and at all times. his acquaintance with the great moral writers of his In Rome he would have been as resistless as in Athcountry. He affects no learning, and he displays none. ens; and his eloquence would be as convincing now He aims at no elegance; he seeks no glaring orna- as it was in the popular assemblies of old. Of the ments; he rarely touches the heart with a soft or orations of Demosthenes we have sixty-one remaining, melting appeal, and when he does, it is only with an and sixty-five Introductions, or рооiμa dunyopiká. effect in which a third-rate artist would have surpassed In confining ourselves to the classification adopted by him. He had no wit, no humour, no vivacity, in our the ancient rhetoricians, we may arrange all these disacceptance of these terms, qualities which contribute courses under one of three heads. 1. Deliberative so much to the formation of a modern orator. He discourses (λόγοι συμβουλευτικοι), treating of political wanted all these undeniable attributes of eloquence, topics, and delivered either before the senate or the and yet who rivals him?—The secret of his power is assembly of the people. 2. Judicial speeches (λóyot simple: it lies essentially in this, that his political dikúvikoi), having for their object accusation or deprinciples were interwoven with his very spirit; they fence. 3. Studied or set speeches (2óyoi èridɛiktiwere not assumed to serve an interested purpose, to Kot), intended to censure or praise.-Seventeen of the be laid aside when he descended from the Bema, and orations of Demosthenes belong to the first of these resumed when he sought to accomplish an object. classes, forty-two to the second, and two to the third. No; they were deeply seated in his heart, and emanated (Compare Becker, Demosthenes als Staatsmann und from its profoundest depth. The more his country Redner, Halle, 1815, 2 vols. 8vo.)-Of the sevenwas environed by dangers, the more steady was his teen discourses which compose the first class, five treat resolution. Nothing ever impaired the truth and in- of various subjects connected with the republic, and tegrity of his feelings, or weakened his generous con- twelve of the quarrels between the state and King viction. It was his undeviating firmness, his disdain Philip. Our limits, of course, allow an examination of all compromise, that made him the first of states- of only a few of these, that are most important in their men and orators; in this lay the substance of his pow- character. Of the twelve harangues that turn upon er, the primary foundation of his superiority; the rest the quarrels of the republic with King Philip, the first was merely secondary. The mystery of his mighty was pronounced in the first year of the 107th Olyminfluence, then, lay in his honesty; and it is this that piad, B.C. 352; the second, third, and fourth, in the gave warmth and tone to his feelings, an energy to his fourth year of the same Olympiad, B.C. 349; the language, and an impression to his manner, before fifth in the second year of the 108th Olympiad, B.C. which every imputation of insincerity must have im- 347; the sixth in the third of the same Olympiad, mediately vanished.-We may hence perceive the B.C. 346; the seventh in the first year of the 109th meaning of Demosthenes himself, when, to one who Olympiad, B.C. 344; the eighth in the second year asked him what was the first requisite in an orator, he of the same Olympiad, B.C. 343; the ninth in the merely replied, "Delivery" (úróкpiois); and when third year of the same Olympiad, B.C. 342; the asked what were the second and third requisites, tenth and eleventh in the fourth year of the same gave the same answer as at first. (Plut., Vit. X. Olympiad, B.C. 341; and the twelfth in the first Orat., p. 845) His idea was this: a lifeless manner year of the 110th Olympiad, B.C. 340-The order on the part of a public speaker, shows that his own here given is taken from Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; feelings are not enlisted in the cause which he is ad- but no manuscript and no editions observe it. The vocating, and it is idle for him, therefore, to seek to manuscripts give the 1st, 2d, 10th, and 11th Philipmake converts of others, when he has failed in making pics of Dionysius by name, and regard his fifth as one of himself. On the other hand, when the tone of forming the conclusion of the first. They give the voice, the gesture, the look, the whole manner of the title of 2d, 3d, and 1st Olynthiacs to his 2d, 3d, and orator, display the powerful feelings that agitate him, his 4th. The remaining four (6th, 8th, 9th, 12th) have emotion is communicated to his hearers, and success the following titles: "Of Peace," "Of Halonesus," is inevitable. It was not, therefore, mere "action""Of the Chersonese," and "On the letter of Philip." that Demosthenes required in an orator, an error into which some have fallen from a mistranslation of the Latin rhetorical term "actio," as employed by Cicero (Brut., 37) in mentioning this incident; but it was an attention to the whole manner of delivery, the look, the tone, the every movement, as so many unerring indications of internal emotion, and of the honesty and sincerity of the speaker. (Compare Quintilian, Inst. Or., 11, 3, init )—A comparison has often been drawn between Demosthenes and Cicero; but by no writer has it been done more successfully than by the celebrated Longinus. "The sublimity of the one," he We will now speak of them in chronological order. |