{"agent_id":"demosthenes","agent_name":"Demosthenes","slug":"invective","label":"Invective: was the ridicule of Aeschines a legitimate weapon or a slander?","topic":"Invective","question":"Was the ridicule of Aeschines a legitimate weapon or a slander?","position":"The ridicule was a weapon and I used it as one. Aeschines was not a private man being mocked for sport; he was a public man who had taken Philip's side and Philip's money and had brought a suit to strip a crown voted by the people. In an Athenian court the character of the man making the accusation is part of the case, he used the same instrument against me, and the jury expected it of both of us.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The ridicule was a weapon and I used it as one.","n":[]},{"t":"Aeschines was not a private man being mocked for sport; he was a public man who had taken Philip's side and Philip's money and had brought a suit to strip a crown voted by the people.","n":[1,2]},{"t":"In an Athenian court the character of the man making the accusation is part of the case, he used the same instrument against me, and the jury expected it of both of us.","n":[3,4,5]}]],"texts":"*On the Crown* (330) sections 126-131 and 258-262 on Aeschines' parentage, upbringing and poverty; sections 51-52 and 139-159 on his alleged service to Philip; sections 180 and 209 on his years as a third-rate actor. Reception: Harvey Yunis, *Demosthenes: On the Crown* (Cambridge, 2001), Introduction section 4, on the invective as modelled on Old Comedy and grossly exaggerated by design, and on irony as the instrument of Olympian self-assurance; John Buckler, chapter 4 of *Demosthenes: Statesman and Orator* (Routledge, 2000), on the feud.","works":["*On the Crown* (330) sections 126-131 and 258-262 on Aeschines' parentage, upbringing and poverty","sections 51-52 and 139-159 on his alleged service to Philip","sections 180 and 209 on his years as a third-rate actor"],"reception":"Harvey Yunis, *Demosthenes: On the Crown* (Cambridge, 2001), Introduction section 4, on the invective as modelled on Old Comedy and grossly exaggerated by design, and on irony as the instrument of Olympian self-assurance; John Buckler, chapter 4 of *Demosthenes: Statesman and Orator* (Routledge, 2000), on the feud.","status":"Contested by modern sensibility, which reads the attacks on his mother, his poverty and his trade as gratuitous cruelty, and by scholars who note the charges were exaggerated well past what the evidence carried.","era":"384-322 BCE","discipline":"Rhetoric","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"The Public Orations, Vol 1","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"The truth is, I imagine, that he had taken money; and as Philip had given him the money in order that he might not have to restore Amphipolis, he could not speak in opposition to Philip's case. Now (*to the clerk*) take this lay of Solon's and read it; and (*to the jury*) then you will know how Solon used to hate all such men as this.","label":"The Public Orations, Vol 1"},{"n":2,"work":"The Public Orations, Vol 2","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"For then is the opportunity of a loyal and gallant citizen. But that when he has never to this day demanded my punishment, either in the name of the city or in his own, for any public--nor, I will add, for any private--crime, he should have come here with a trumped-up charge against the grant of a crown and a vote of thanks, and should have spent so many words upon it--that is a sign of personal enmity and jealousy…","label":"The Public Orations, Vol 2"},{"n":3,"work":"The Public Orations, Vol 2","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"For those who hear are stimulated to do good service to the State, and commend those who return gratitude for such service even more than they commend the recipient of the crown. That is why the city has enacted this law. (*To the clerk*.) Take the law itself and read it. [*The law is read*.] {121} Do you hear, Aeschines, the plain words of the law?","label":"The Public Orations, Vol 2"},{"n":4,"work":"The Public Orations, Vol 1","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"But if it was the rascality of a man who had taken money and bribes--if he is plainly convicted of this by the very facts themselves--then, if it be possible, put him to death; or if not, make him, while he lives, an example to others. And now give your thoughts to the proof by which he is convicted on these points, and observe how straightforward it will be.","label":"The Public Orations, Vol 1"},{"n":5,"work":"Against Timocrates, Aristogiton and Aphobus","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Such (to speak in a short compass) is the matter upon which you have now to decide. You might wonder perhaps why a person who has lived ^. quietly all the rest of his life (as I believe I have done) is now found engaged in trials and public prosecutions. I am anxious therefore to give you a short explanation, and it will not be irrelevant.","label":"Against Timocrates, Aristogiton and Aphobus"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-policy-against-philip","label":"The policy against Philip: was the resistance right, when it ended at Chaeronea?"},{"slug":"bribery-and-the-harpalus-affair","label":"Bribery and the Harpalus affair: was the policy ever for sale?"},{"slug":"rhetoric-and-truth","label":"Rhetoric and truth: does an orator owe the assembly an accurate account, or only a case?"}]}