Chaeron the Spartan Demagogue
There was at this time in Sparta a man named Chaeron,
note
who in the previous year had been on an
embassy to Rome, a man of ready wit and great
ability in affairs, but still young, in a humble
position of life, and without the advantages of a liberal education. By flattering the mob, and starting questions which no
one else had the assurance to move, he soon acquired a certain
notoriety with the people. The first use he made of his power
was to confiscate the land granted by the tyrants to the sisters,
wives, mothers, and children of the exiles, and to distribute it
on his own authority among the poor without any fixed rule or
regard to equality. He next squandered the revenue, using the
public money as though it were his own, without the authority
of law, public decree, or magistrate. Annoyed at these proceedings, certain men managed to get themselves appointed
auditors of the treasury in accordance with the laws. note Seeing
this, and conscious of his mal-administration of the government,
Chaeron sent some men to attack Apollonides,
the most illustrious of the auditors, and the most
able to expose his embezzlements, who stabbed
him to death in broad daylight as he was coming from the
bath. Upon this being reported to the Achaeans, and the
people expressing great indignation at what had been done,
the Strategus at once started for Sparta; and when he arrived
there he brought Chaeron to trial for the murder of Apollonides,
and having condemned him, threw him into prison. He then
incited the remaining auditors to make a real investigation into
the public funds, and to see that the relations of the exiles got
back the property of which Chaeron had shortly before deprived
them.
