Plutarch, Demosthenes, ed. Bernadotte Perrin, 21

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[1] τότε δὲ τῆς ἀτυχίας τοῖς Ἕλλησι γεγενημένης οἱ μὲν ἀντιπολιτευόμενοι ῥήτορες ἐπεμβαίνοντες τῷ Δημοσθένει κατεσκεύαζον εὐθύνας καὶ γραφὰς ἐπʼ αὐτόν· ὁ δὲ δῆμος οὐ μόνον τούτων ἀπέλυεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τιμῶν διετέλει καὶ προκαλούμενος αὖθις ὡς εὔνουν εἰς τὴν πολιτείαν,

[2] ὥστε καὶ τῶν ὀστέων ἐκ Χαιρωνείας κομισθέντων καὶ θαπτομένων τὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἔπαινον εἰπεῖν ἀπέδωκεν, οὐ ταπεινῶς οὐδʼ ἀγεννῶς φέρων τὸ συμβεβηκός, ὡς γράφει καὶ τραγῳδεῖ Θεόπομπος, ἀλλὰ τῷ τιμᾶν μάλιστα καὶ κοσμεῖν τὸν σύμβουλον ἀποδεικνύμενος τὸ μὴ μεταμέλεσθαι τοῖς βεβουλευμένοις.

[3] τὸν μὲν οὖν λόγον εἶπεν ὁ Δημοσθένης, τοῖς δὲ ψηφίσμασιν οὐχ ἑαυτόν, ἀλλʼ ἐν μέρει τῶν φίλων ἕκαστον ἐπέγραφεν, ἐξοιωνιζόμενος τὸν ἴδιον δαίμονα καὶ τὴν τύχην, ἕως αὖθις ἀνεθάρρησε Φιλίππου τελευτήσαντος. ἐτελεύτησε δὲ τῇ περὶ Χαιρώνειαν εὐτυχίᾳ χρόνον οὐ πολὺν ἐπιβιώσας· καὶ τοῦτο δοκεῖ τῷ τελευταίῳ τῶν ἐπῶν ὁ χρησμὸς ἀποθεσπίσαι·

κλαίει ὁ νικηθείς, ὁ δὲ νικήσας ἀπόλωλεν.

Demosthenes. Plutarch. ed. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. 1919.

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Δημοσθένης (Greek) (Plutarch. Perrin, Bernadotte, editor. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VII. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1919.)

Translations (1)

Demosthenes Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VII. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1919.) — 21 focus

[1] At this time, however, when their disaster fell upon the Greeks, the orators of the opposing party assailed Demosthenes and prepared reckonings and indictments against him; but the people not only absolved him from these, nay, they actually continued to honour him and invited him again, as a loyal man, to take part in public affairs.

[2] Consequently, when the bones of those who had fallen at Chaeroneia were brought home for burial, they assigned to him the honour of pronouncing the eulogy over the men; nor did they show a base or ignoble spirit under the calamity which had befallen them, as Theopompus writes in his inflated style, but by the special honour and respect which they paid to their counsellor they made it manifest that they did not repent of the counsels he had given them.

[3] The oration, then, was pronounced by Demosthenes, but to the decrees which he proposed he would not put his own name, but rather those of his friends, one after the other, avoiding his own as inauspicious and unfortunate, until he once more took courage upon Philip’s death. And Philip died, surviving his success at Chaeroneia only a short time;¹ and this, it would seem, was foretold by the last verse of the oracle:—

Tears are for the conquered there, and for the

conqueror, death.

Plutarch Demosthenes 21

ed. Bernadotte Perrin

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