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Athens after the Social War1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Raphael Sealey
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Extract

The period of Demosthenes has a special interest for the student of Greek politics; more evidence exists, in the form of speeches, for the actual working of Athenian affairs in this period than in any other. It should therefore provide the starting-point in any attempt to find out the presuppositions of Athenian politics, to find what sort of behaviour is habitually expected of politicians and what motives are taken for granted as the normal motives of public men. Here the political scene at the entry of Demosthenes into politics will be examined in the hope of contributing towards answering these questions. For the ascertainable facts, preserved mainly in Speeches xx, xxii and xxiv of Demosthenes; are comparatively plentiful, and so they may be used in order to criticise current assumptions about the nature of political parties and conflicts in ancient Athens.

A preliminary question concerns the dates of these three speeches. Dionysius of Halicarnassus assigns Speeches xx and xxii to 355/4 and Speech xxiv to 353/2. It is hoped to defend elsewhere the general credibility of the Dionysian dates for the Demosthenic speeches. That for Speech xxii has been seriously questioned by Mr. D. M. Lewis.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 75 , November 1955 , pp. 74 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1955

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References

2 ad Ammaeum i, 4.

3 In an article in BSA, XLIX, 1954, 43 ff. I thank Mr. Lewis very much for showing me his argument before publication.

4 IG II2, 2, 1611. ll. 107–26.

5 Cf. Hdt. vi, 21, 2.

6 Dr.Schweigert, E. (Hesp. VIII, 1939, pp. 12–17)Google Scholar has shown that the Social War began in 358/7. (I am not satisfied by his treatment of IG II2, 124, and hope to discuss it on another occasion.) Diodorus (xvi, 7, 3; 22, 2) says that the war lasted three years, that is, it ended in the third Attic year after it began.

7 Diod. xvi, 21, 1.

8 Deinarchus i, 14; Nepos, , Tim. 3, 5Google Scholar; Isoc. xv, 129.

9 Dion. Hal., Lysias, 12, p. 480; but cf. id.Deinarchus, 13, p. 668.

10 Plut. Mor. 187a = reg. et imp. apoph., Iphic., 4; cf. Beloch, , Gr. Gesch. III 2, 2, p. 260.Google Scholar

11 Plut. Mor. 801f = praec. ger. rei publ. 5, 5: the prosecutors were which may indeed mean Aristophon alone, but there may have been more than one prosecutor.

12 Dem. xx, 148; the date of the grant was suggested by Schäfer, , Demosthenes I 2, pp. 140–1.Google Scholar

13 Carystius ap. Athen. xiii, 577b.

14 Though he is said to have reached the age of ninety-nine (schol. Aesch. i, 64), he retired from public life before 349 ([Plut.] Mor. 844d = vit. decem orat., Dem. 8).

15 Diod. xv, 95, 1–3; Hyp. iv, 1 (K.).

16 Dem. li, 8–9.

17 Cf. schol. Aesch. i, 64.

18 Dem. xviii, 162; cf. xix, 291; xxi, 218 and schol. ad. loc.

19 Diog. Laert. ii, 59; Schäfer, op. cit. I2, p. 192, n. 3; but see below.

20 Aesch. iii, 25; cf. Schäfer, ob. cit. I2, pp. 197–204.

21 CAH VI, p. 221.

22 Diog. Laert. ii, 59; Schäfer, op. cit. I2, p. 192, n. 3.

23 Isoc. xv, 101–28.

24 [Dem.] lix, 3–8; cf. Libanius Argument to Dem. i; Dem. i, 19; iii, 10–13.

25 Pickard-Cambridge in CAH VI, p. 223.

26 = ‘in the state of peace’, not ‘under the peace-terms’; the distinction between and was drawn by ProfessorWüst, F. (Philipp II, 1938, pp. 69–71)Google Scholar in discussing [Dem.] vii, 18 and Didym. viii, g. It might be objected that, from the Athenian point of view, the state of peace had been interrupted since 362 by the Social War, so that ‘the state of peace’ should refer to a condition existing only since 356/5. But the war with Philip, in progress when Demosthenes spoke, did not prevent him from referring to the state of peace as existent; so the Social War need not have prevented him from referring to it as existent since 362.

27 Diog. Laert. ii, 54.

28 See note 26.

29 ap. Diog. Laert. ii, 59.

30 Xen. Anab. vii, 7, 57.

31 Diog. Laert. ii, 59.

32 The reason for banishment: Diog. Laert. ii, 51. Xenophon sent his sons to Athens, when Athens sent help to the Spartans: ib. ii, 53. This was in 370: Xen. Hell. vi, 5, 19 (or 369: ib. vii, 1, 15). The recall will have been later.

33 He captured Samos, Sestus, Crithote, and Potidaea (Isoc. xv, 111–13).

34 E.g. xv, 121–2.

35 Isoc. xv, 123.

36 Dem. viii, 24–5.

37 In 339 a decree—not a law—was required to transfer revenues to the military fund (Philoch. FGH III B 328 F 56A).

38 Dem. xxi, 205–7.

39 Ib. 110; 200.

40 Dem. i, ii, iii.

41 v, 51 the statement displays wisdom after the event, but there are no positive grounds for doubting its truth.

42 Arist. Rhet. iii, 10, 1411a 6–11. The remark about an expedition to Euboea is commonly referred to the expedition of 357. This is a conjecture made by Sauppe, (Orat. Att. II, p. 220Google Scholar). The expedition of 349 is equally probable; perhaps, since Aristotle quotes the two remarks together, they were both made in the same period, that is, in 349/8.

43 Dem. xviii, 70; 75.

44 x, 70.

45 E.g. vi, 1–5; viii, 21–3; ix, 5; x, 1.

46 Dem. xxi, 203.

47 Dem. viii, 28.

48 Xen. Hell. vi, 3, 2.

49 It is worth noting that, apart from the supposed share of Eubulus in recalling Xenophon and in making peace with the allies, his first recorded political activity is in 355/4 (Dem. xx, 137); but the statement of Dem. iii, 28, as interpreted above, implies political activity sometime between 362 and 349.

50 Cf. Dem. xx, 115; iii, 28.

51 Schäfer, op. cit. I2, p. 179.

52 Dem. xxii, 48–9.

53 Whether the similar activities of Satyrus (Dem. xxii, 63) belong to the same year, as supposed by Glotz, (Hist. Grecque III, p. 201)Google Scholar, is quite uncertain.

54 Dem. xx, 127: for the date cf. ib. 144 and second Argument to the speech 3.

55 Dem. xxiv. 11; the dating depends on the similarity of this to the other two measures.

56 Op. cit. I2, pp. 179–80; 361.

57 Op. cit. I2, pp. 179–80.

58 Dem. xxii, 72.

59 Ib. 14; 72.

60 Id. viii, 74–5.

61 Id. xx, 68–74.

62 Ib. 84–5.

63 Op. cit. I2, pp. 362–3; 415–16.

64 Dem. xxi, 205–7.

65 Id. xxii, 10.

66 Schäfer, op. cit. I2, p. 362.

67 xxii, 1–3; xxiv, 6–8.

68 Op. cit. I2, pp. 415–16.

69 See above, p. 74.

70 For, pace Schäfer, they are comparatively silent about Timotheus, as opposed to Conon; see last paragraph but one.

71 Schäfer gave more weight to it; some later writers (e.g. Jäger, W., Demosthenes, pp. 56–9Google Scholar) mention it alone of the grounds for the theory.

72 Dem. xxii, 38.

73 Polyeuctus, the son of Timocrates, was active in politics by 346 (IG II2, 212, 1. 65 = Tod 167); so Timocrates will have been born before 400.

74 Dem. xxiv, 176; cf. IG II2, 216 and 217. These decrees do not, pace Köhler and Kirchner, imply a date about 377/6; a date not before 358/7 appears from Dem. xxii, 72 and xxiv, 180.

75 Dem. xxiv, 162; 166; 169; 172–5.

76 Dem. xxiv, 11–16; 39–46.

77 IG II2, 212 = Tod 167.

78 Dem. xxx.

79 Dem. xxi, 139.

80 Dem. xxiv, 12.

81 The Peloponnesian War seems to have impoverished many families who were previously influential; cf. Lys. xix, 45–9; 52; Isoc. viii, 126; xv, 161; Aesch. ii, 147.

82 He commanded in Sicily in 427/6 (Thuc. iii, 86; 90; 103; 115), fought at Delium in 424 (Plat. Lach. 181b; Symp. 221a), proposed the truce with Sparta in 423 (Thuc. iv, 118), swore to the peace and alliance with Sparta in 421 (Thuc. v, 19; 24) and his share in making the peace aroused the jealousy of Alcibiades (Thuc. v, 43, 2).

83 Thuc. v, 61, 1; 74, 3.

84 The statement of Plutarch (Mor. 605c = de exil. 14 = F. Gr. Hist. III B 324 T 14) need not be doubted: he says that Androtion wrote his Atthis in exile at Megara. The doubt expressed by Schäfer (op. cit. I2, p. 390) should be dispelled by the discovery of parts of Didymus's commentary on Demosthenes.

85 F. Gr. Hist. III B 324 F 41.

86 Dem. xx, 146.

87 Ib. 137.

88 IG II2, 107 = Tod 131.

89 IG II2, 106 = Tod 135.

90 Dem. xx, 146.

91 Xen. Hell. vi, 2, 39.

92 Arist. Rhet. i, 7, 13, 1364a19; Schäfer, op. cit. I2, pp. 107–10.

93 Aesch. iii, 138.

94 Xen. Hell. vi, 3, 2.

95 Anaxandrides ap. Athen. xii, 553d; cf. Arist. Rhet. i, 14, 1, 1374b25.

96 Plut. Dem. 13. Plutarch says that Melanopus often made the remark; but its anecdotal character requires a specific situation, and Plutarch's generalisation may merely indicate his ignorance of the circumstances.

97 Xen. Hell. vi, 3, 2.

98 Harpocration s.v. Melanopus. Diophantus even named one of his sons Melanopus—[Dem.] xxxv, 6.

99 Dem. xxii, 60.

100 For Aristophon spoke in defence of the law of Leptines—Dem. xx, 146.

101 Dem. xix, 293.

102 Dem. xxi, 218 and schol. ad. loc.

103 Op. cit. I2, pp. 179–80.

104 XV, 17–21.

105 Theophr. Char. 26.

106 Dem. liv, 14–37.

107 Some were proud of their broken ears (Plat. Gorg. 515e).

108 The fragment in which Andocides talks about vegetables (fr. 4 Blass) may come from the speech To his Comrades.

109 Attische Politik, p. 154.

110 Op. cit. pp. 249–50.

111 xix, 99–100.