Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/411

 jlAW respecting the philosophers 379 tenance in the Prytaneum to his eldest surviving descendant.* Among those who accompanied the Phalerean Demetrius into exile was the rhetor or logogi-apher Deinarchus. The friendship of this obnoxious Plialerean, and of Kassan- der also, towards the philosopher Theophrastus, seems to have been one main cause which occasioned the enactment of a re- strictive law against the liberty of philosophizing. It was de- creed, on the proposition of a citizen named Sophokles, that no philosopher should be allowed to open a school or teach, except under special sanction obtained from a vote of the Senate and people. Such was the disgust and apprehension occasioned by the new restriction, that all the philosophers with one accord left Athens. Tliis spirited protest, against authoritative restriction on the liberty of philosophy and teaching, found responsive sym- pathy among the Athenians. The celebrity of the schools and professors was in fact the only characteristic mark of dignity still remaining to them — when their power had become extinct, and when even their independence and free constitution had degene- B. c.) left three sons, who are said, shortly after his death, to have been prosecuted by Menesaechtnus, and put in prison (■' handed over to the Eleven "J. But Thrasykles, supported by Demokles, stood forward on tiieir behalf; and Demosthenes, then in banishment at Troezen, wrote em- phatic remonstrances to the Athenians against such unworthy treatment of the sons of a distinguished patriot. Accordingly the Athenians soon repented and released them. This is what we find stated in Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 842. The third of the so-called Demosthenic Epistles purports to be the letter written on this subject by Demosthenes. The harsh treatment of the sons of Lykurgus Cwhatever it may have amounted to, and whatever may have been its ground) certainly did not last long; for in the next page of the very same Plutarchian life (p. 843), an account is given of the family of Lykurgus, which was ancient and sacerdotal ; and it is there stated that his sons after his death fully sus- tained the dignified position of the family. On wiiat ground they were accused, we cannot make out. According to the Demosthenic epistle (which epistles I have before stated that I do not believe to be authentic), it was upon some allegation, which, if valid at all, ought to have been urged against Lykurgus himself during his life (p. 1477, 1478); but Lykurgus had been always honorably acquitted, and always held thoroughly estimable, up to the day of his death (p. 1475),
 * Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 842-852. Ljkurgus at his death (about 324