Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/424

 892 HISTORY OF GREECE. into which the countrymen of Aristeides and Peiikles had been driven, by their own conscious weakness under overwhehning pressure from without. I cannot better complete that picture than by showing what the leading democratical citizen became, under the altered at- mosphere which now bedimmed his city. Democharcs, the nephew of Demosthenes, has been mentioned as one of the few distinguished Athenians in this last generation. He was more than once chosen to the highest public offices ; ^ he was conspicu- ous for his free speech, both as an orator and as an liistorian, in the face of pow^erful enemies ; he remained throughout a long life faithfully attached to the democratical constitution, and was banished for a time by its opponents. In the year 280 u. c, he prevailed on the Athenians to erect a public monument, with a commemorative inscription, to his uncle Demosthenes. Seven or eight years afterwards, Demochares himself died, aged nearly eighty. His son Laches proposed and obtained a public decree, that a statue should be erected, witb an annexed inscription, to his honor. We read in the decree a recital of the distinguished public services, wdiereby Demochares merited this compliment from .his countrymen. All that the proposer of the decree, his son and fellow-citizen, can find to recite, as ennobling the last half of the father's public life (since his return from exile), is as follows : — 1. He contracted the public expenses, and introduced a more frugal management. 2. He undertook an embassy to King Lysimachus, from whom he obtained two presents for the people, one of thirty talents, the other of one hundred talents. 8. He proposed the vote for sending envoys to King Ptolemy in ' Egypt, from whom fifty talents were obtained for the people. 4. He went as envoy to Antipater, received from him twenty tal- ents, and delivered them to the people at the Eleusinian festi- val.^ ' roIyl)ius. xii. 13. » See the decree in Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 850. The Antipater here mentioned is the son of Kassander, not the father. There is no necessity for admitting the conjecture of Mr. Clinton (Fast. Hell. App. p. 380) that the name ought to be ^n^/70Hi/s, and not Antipaiei- ; although it may per- haps be true that Demochares was ou favorable terms with Antigonus Gonatas (Diog Laert vii. 14).