Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/402

 378 mSTORY OF GREECE. harangue, that Demosthenes was a vile man and a mischievous politician : accordingly, assuming the argument to be just, Ktesi- phon had deceived the people in an aggravated way, — first, by proposing a reward under circumstances contrary to law ; next, by proposing it in favor of an unworthy man. The first part of the argument only is of the essence of the graphe paranomon the second part is in the nature of an abuse growing out of it, — springing from that venom of personal and party enmity which is inseparable, in a greater or less degree, from free political action, and which manifested itself with virulence at Athens, though within the limits of legality. That this indictment, as one of the most direct vents for such enmity, was largely applied and abused at Athens, is certain ; but though it probably deterred unpractised citizens from originating new propositions, it did not produce the same effect upon those orators who made politics a regular business, and who could therefore both calculate the tem- per of the people, and reckon upon support from a certain knot of friends. Aristophon, towards the close of his political life, made it a boast that he had been thus indicted and acquitted seventy-five times. Probably, the worst effect which it produced was that of encouraging the vein of personality and bitterness which pervades so large a proportion of Attic oratory, even in its most illustrious manifestations ; turning deliberative into ju- dicial eloquence, and interweaving the discussion of a law, or decree, along with a declamatory harangue against the character of its mover. "We may at the same time add that the graphe paranomon was often the most convenient way of getting a law or a psephism repealed, so that it was used even when the an- nual period had passed over, and when the mover was therefore out of danger, — the indictment being then brought only against the law, or decree, as in the case which forms the subject of the harangue of Demosthenes against Leptines. If the speaker of this harangue obtained a verdict, he procured at once the repeal of the law, or decree, without proposing any new provision in its place ; which he would be required to do, — if not peremp- torily, at least by common usage, — if he had carried the law for repeal before the nomothetse. The dikasteries provided under the system of Perikles varied in number of members : we never hear of less than two hun-