Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/293

 EARLY RHETORICAL TENDENCIES. 207 lice, to plead his own cause personally, he was mado io feel keen- ly the helpless condition of an incompetent speaker, and the necessity of acquiring oratorical power, not simply as an instru- ment of ambition, but even as a means of individual defence and safety. 1 It appears also that he was, from childhood, of sickly constitution and feeble muscular frame ; so that partly from his own disinclination, partly from the solicitude of his mother, lie took little part either as boy or youth in the exercises of the pa- Isestra. His delicate clothing, and somewhat effeminate habits, procured for him as a boy the nickname of Batalus, which re- mained attached to him most part of his life, and which his ene mies tried to connect with degrading imputations. 2 Such com- parative bodily disability probably contributed to incite his thirsl tor mental and rhetorical acquisitions, as the only road to cele- brity open. But it at the same time disqualified him from ap propriating to himself the full range of a comprehensive Grecian education, as conceived by Plato, Isokrates, and Aristotle ; an ed- ucation applying alike to thought, word, and action combining bodily strength, endurance, and fearlessness, with an enlarged 1 Plutarch, Demosth. c. 4. Such a view of the necessity of a power of pub- lic speaking, is put forward by Kallikles in the Gorgias of Plato, p. 486, 511. c. 90, 142. ri/v (trjTopiKqv TIJV iv rolf diKaarripioLf 6iaa uov a av, etc. Compare Aristot. Rhetoric, i. 1, 3. 'Aronov, el rw o-w^art /IEV aiaxpdv /*% dvvaatiai ftoij&eiv iavry, ^oyy <5c, OVK alaxpov o ftiiXTiov Idiov iff- TIV uvdpdmov rfjf rov au/iarof ;^pac. The comparison of Aristotle is instructive as to the point of view of a free Greek. " If it be disgraceful not to be able to protect yourself by your bodily force, it is equally so not to be able to protect yourself by your powers of speaking ; which is in a more peculiar manner the privilege of man." See also Tacitus, Dialog, de Orator, c. 5. 2 Plutarch, Demosth. c. 4 ; ^Eschines cont. Timarch. p. 17, 18. c. 27, with Scholia, De Fal. Leg. p. 41. c. 31. el "yap rif aov TU K0fj.jja ravra TrepiKhufievof icai roitf (taA,aKoi)f xiTuvianove, iv oZf roi)f Kara ruv Aoyovf ypuQeif, TrepieveyKcif, doit] elf ruf %elpa rCiv eJt/caarwv, ol/j,aL ui> av~ ror)f fiTif fiTj irpoeiiruv ravra Troirjaeiev, uxopijaeiv Eire -yvvaiKbf elre uvtipbt etfifiQaaiv iadf/rct. Compare JEsch. Fal. Leg. p. 45. 1 he foundation of the nickname Batalus is not clear, and was difl'erenth understood by different persons ; compare also Libanius, Vita Demosth. p. 294. ap "Westcrmann, Scriptorcs Eiographici. But it can hardly have been a very discreditable foundation, since Demosthenes takes the name to him self, De Corona, p. 283.