Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/412

 380 HISTORY OF GREECE. rated into a mere name. It was moreover the great temptation for young men, coming from all parts of Greece, to visit Athens. Accordingly, a year had hardly passed, when Philon, impeach- ing Sophokles the author of the law, under the Graphe Parano- mon, prevailed on the Dikastery to find him guilty, and condemn him to a fine of five talents. The restrictive law being thus re- pealed, the philosophers returned.^ It is remarkable that Demo- chares stood forward as one of its advocates ; defending Sopho- kles against the accuser Philon. From scanty notices remaining of the speech of Demochares, we gather that, while censuring the opinions no less than the characters of Plato and Aristotle, he denounced yet more bitterly their pupils, as being for the most part ambitious, violent, and treacherous men. He cited by name several among them, who had subverted the freedom of their respective cities, and committed gross outrages against their fellow-citizens.^ Athenian envoys were despatched to Antigonus in Asia, to testify the gratitude of the people, and communicate the recent complimentary votes. Antigonus not only received them gra- ciously, but sent to Athens, according to the promise made by his son, a large present of 150,000 medimni of Trheat, with tim- ber sufficient for 100 ships. He at the same time directed De- metrius to convene at Athens a synod of deputies from the allied ' Diogen. Laert. v. 38. It is probably to this return of tXe philosophers that thc(l>vyu6uv ku&oSo^ mentioned by Philochorus, as forofhadowed by the omen in the Acropolis, alludes (Philochorus, Frag. 145, ed. Didot, ap. Dionys. Hal. p. 637). 2 See the few fragments of Demochares collected in Fragmorts Histwco- rum Grascorum, ed. Didot, vol. ii. p. 445, with the notes of Carl Miiller. See likewise Athenseus, xiii. 610, with the fragment from the cflniic writer Alexis. It is there stated that Lysimachus also, king of Thrnce, had banished the philosophers from his dominions. Demochares might find (besides the persons named in Athenae. t. 21.5 xi 508) other authentic examples of pupils of Plato and Isokratea who l>ad been atrocious and sanguinary tyrants in their native cities — seo th*} •o.ase of Klearchus of Herakleia, Memnon ap. Photium, Cod. 224. cap. 1. C'^ion and Leonides, the two young citizens who slew Klearchus, and who y-e>-j.«hed in endeavoring to liberate their country — were also pupils of Plato ^7n«:tin, xvi. 5). In fact, aspiring youths, of all varieties of purpose, were liheJv to seek this mode of improvement. Alexander the Great, too, the very isiwer- Bonation of subduing force, had been the pupil of Aristotle).