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But the compositions of the poets we may affirm to be but a childish pastime; orators, however, have some claim when compared with generals; wherefore with good reason AeschinesAeschines, Against Ctesiphon, 146. asserts derisively that Demosthenes declares that he will enter a suit for possession on behalf of the Speakers’ Platform against the War Office. Is it, then, right to prefer Hypereides’ Plataean oration to Aristeides’ victory at Plataea? Or Lysias’s speech against the ThirtyThe speech Against Eratosthenes. to Thrasybulus’s and Archinus’s slaughter of those tyrants? Or Aeschines’ oration against Timarchus’s wanton ways to Phocion’s expedition to Byzantium, Cf. Life of Phocion, chap. xiv. (748 a); Diodorus, xvi. 77. by which he prevented the sons of Athenian allies from becoming victims of the wantonness and drunken lust of Macedonians? Or with the crownsWhether the crowns of Conon or the crowns received by the Athenian people should be read is hard to decide. In favour of Conon may be quoted Demosthenes, xx. 69-70; and in favour of the Athenian people (as well as Conon and Chabrias), Demosthenes, xxii. 616, and xxiv. 180. which the Athenian people in common received when they had given freedom to Greece shall we compare Demosthenes’ oration On the Crown? For in this speech the orator has made this matter exceedingly perspicuous and intelligible in taking his oath by the memory of those of our ancestors who risked their lives for us at Marathon, Quoted from De Corona, 208. not by the teachers who in the schools gave them as youths their early training.
