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DINARCHUS, the son of Socrates or Sostratus,—born, as some think, at Athens, but according to others, at Corinth, —came to Athens very young, and there took up his dwelling, at that time when Alexander made his expedition into Asia. He used to hear Theophrastus, who succeeded Aristotle in his school. He was frequently conversant with Demetrius the Phalerian too. He betook himself more especially to the affairs of the commonwealth after the death of Antipater, when some of the orators were killed and others banished. Having contracted friendship with Cassander, he became in a short time vastly rich, by exacting great rates for his orations of those for whom he wrote them. He opposed himself to the greatest and most noble orators of his time, not by being overforward to declaim publicly,—for his faculty did not lie that way,—but by composing orations for their adversaries. And when Harpalus had broken out of prison, he wrote several orations, which he gave to their accusers to pronounce against those that were suspected to have taken bribes of him.
