Greek Texts & Translations

19.243Moreover, having no witnesses to produce in support of your accusations, you quoted verses to the jury: Rumor, that many people spread abroad,
Dieth not wholly: Rumor is a god.

And now, Aeschines, everybody says that you made money out of your embassy; so, of course, as against you, the rumor that many people spread abroad does not wholly die. 19.244That you may understand how far more numerous are your accusers than those of Timarchus, observe this. He was not known even to all his neighbors; but there is not a man in Greece or in foreign parts who does not aver that you ambassadors made gain of your embassy. If rumor is true, the rumor of the multitude is against you; and for the veracity, and even the divinity, of rumor, and for the wisdom of the poet who composed these verses, we have your own assurance.

19.245After these heroics he naturally proceeds to collect and declaim some iambic poetry, for instance: Whoso delights to walk with wicked men,
Of him I ask not, for I know him such
As are the men whose converse pleases him.
UnknownThen follows the passage about “the man who frequented cockpits, and consorted with Pittalacus,” and so forth; “do you not know what his character is?” Well, Aeschines, your iambics shall now serve my turn for an observation about you. I shall be speaking with the propriety of the Tragic Muse, when I say to the jury: Whoso delights to walk (especially on an embassy) with Philocrates, of him I ask not, for I know him well—to have taken bribes, as Philocrates did, who made confession.

19.246Well, when he tries to insult other people by calling them speech-makers and charlatans, he shall be shown to be open to the same reproach. For those iambics come from the Phoenix of Euripides. That play was never acted by Theodorus or Aristodemus, for whom Aeschines commonly took the inferior parts; Molon however produced it, and perhaps some other players of the old school. But Sophocles' Antigone was frequently acted by Theodorus, and also by Aristodemus; and in that play there are some iambic lines, admirably and most instructively composed. That passage Aeschines omitted to quote, though he has often spoken the lines, and knows them by heart; 19.247for of course you are aware that, in all tragic dramas, it is the enviable privilege of third-rate actors to come on as tyrants, carrying their royal scepters. Now you shall weigh the merits of the verses which were specially written by the poet for the character of Creon-Aeschines, though he forgot to repeat them to himself in connection with his embassy, and did not quote them to the jury. Read.Iambics from the Antigone of Sophocles
Who shall appraise the spirit of a man,
His mind, his temper, till he hath been proved
In ministry of laws and government?
I hold, and long have held, that man a knave
Who, standing at the helm of state, deserts
The wisest counsel, or in craven fear
Of any, sets a curb upon his lips.
Who puts his friend above his fatherland
I scorn as nothing worth; and for myself,
Witness all-seeing Heaven! I will not hold
My peace when I descry the curse that comes
To sap my citizens' security;
Nor will I count as kin my country's foes;
For well I wot our country is the ship
That saves us all, sailing on even keel:
Embarked in her we fear no dearth of friends.
Soph. Ant. 175-190

19.248Aeschines did not quote any of these lines for his own instruction on his embassy. He put the hospitality and friendship of Philip far above his country,—and found it more profitable. He bade a long farewell to the sage Sophocles; and when he saw the curse that came,—to wit, the army advancing upon the Phocians,—he sounded no warning, sent no timely report; rather he helped both to conceal and to execute the design, and obstructed those who were ready to tell the truth. 19.249He forgot the ship that saves; forgot that embarked in her his own mother, performing her rites, scouring her candidates, making her pittance from the substance of her employers, here reared her hopeful brood to greatness. Here, too, his father, who kept an infant-school, lived as best he could,—next door to Heros the physician, ^note as I am told by elderly informants,—anyhow, he lived in this city. The offspring of this pair earned a little money as junior clerks and messengers in the public offices, until, by your favor, they became full-fledged clerks, with free maintenance for two years in the Rotunda. ^note Finally, from this same city Aeschines received his commission as ambassador.