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Nevertheless, in spite of the many things which remind us how the city fared under both kinds of leadership, we are so pleased with the depravity of our orators that, although we see that many of our other citizens have been stripped of their patrimony because of the war and of the disorders which these sycophants have caused, while the latter, from being penniless, have become rich,A frequent charge. See Isoc. 12.140 ff.; Dem. 23.208-209. Aeschines (Aeschin. 3.173) makes it against Demosthenes himself: “he maintains himself, not from his private income, but from your perils.” The popular orators were in a strong position to make or break the fortunes or the reputations of men and of cities. Isocrates attributes the bad treatment of the general Timotheus by the Athenians to the latter’s failure to court the favor of the orators, which other military leaders took pains to do. See Isoc. 15.136. Generals in the field found oportunities to enrich themselves and were prudent enough to “cultivate” the popular leaders at home. Chares, particularly, had the reputation of doing this. See Isoc. 8.50, note. On the question of bribery at this time see Butcher, Demosthenes pp. 11 ff. yet we are not aggrieved nor do we resent their prosperity
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but remain patient with a condition of affairs wherein our city is reproached with doing violence to the Hellenes and extorting money from them,See Aristoph. Wasps 655-724. while these men reap the harvest,Cf. Aristoph. Wasps 1114 ff. and wherein our people, who are told by the sycophants that they ought to rule over the rest of the world, are worse off than those who are slaves to oligarchy,See Isoc. 4.105. while these men, who had no advantage to start with, have risen because of our folly from a mean to an enviable position.
