Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/356

 332 LITERATURE OE ANCIENT GREECE speeches For Apollodorus in the Demosthenic collection, those of Hyperides For Lycophron and Against A thenogenes, and most of the will cases of Isaeus. Very similar is the case of Lysias, viii., in which some person unnamed renounces the society of his companions — resigns from his club, as we should say — on the ground that they have spoken ill of him, have accused him of intruding upon them, and have persuaded him to buy a bad horse. There were doubtless other versions of the affair in existence, and the motive for having the protest copied and circulated is obvious. Another Lysian fragment has a somewhat similar origin. The second part of the speech for Polystratus (§ ii to the end) is not a defence of Polystratus at all, but a moral rehabilitation of the speaker himself, the defendant's son. Again, there are the orators' own publications — some- times mere pamphlets never spoken, sometimes actual speeches reissued in permanent form as an appeal to the widest possible circle. Andocides's publication On the Mysteries is a defence of his career, without which he could scarcely have lived safely in Athens. It was the same with the rival speeches On the Crown. ^■Eschines had lost his case and his reputation ; in self-defence he published a revised and improved version of his speech, answering points which he had missed at the actual trial. This compelled Demosthenes, who at the time had almost entirely ceased writing, to revise and publish his reply. Most of our political speeches, however, such as the Olynthiacs and Philippics, seem to have been circulated to advocate a definite policy ; and it is noteworthy that publication is almost always the resort of the Opposition, not condescended to by the men in power.