5.3
For, as a valuable coin has greatest worth in smallest bulk, so effective speech would seem to indicate much with few words. Indeed, it is said that once upon a time, when, the theatre was filling up with people, Phocion himself was walking about behind the scenes lost in thought and that when one of his friends remarked: You seem to be considering, Phocion, he replied: Yes, indeed, I am considering whether I can shorten the speech which I am to deliver to the Athenians.
5.4
And Demosthenes, who held the other orators in great contempt, when Phocion rose to speak, was wont to say quietly to his friends: Here comes the pruning-knife of my speeches.Cf. the Demosthenes, x. 2. But perhaps this must be referred to Phocion’s character; since a word or a nod merely from a good man is of more convincing weight than any number of elaborate periods.
6.1
When he was a young man, Phocion attached himself to Chabrias the general as a close follower, profiting much thereby in military experience, and sometimes also rectifying that general’s temperament, which was uneven and violent. For though Chabrias was sluggish and hard to move at other times, in actual battle his spirit was excited and all on fire, and he would rush on with the boldest at too great a hazard, just as, without doubt, he actually threw away his life at ChiosIn 357 B.C. Chios, Rhodes, and Byzantium had revolted from Athens. by being the first to drive his trireme to shore and trying to force a landing.
