3 58 LITERATURE OE ANCIENT GREECE traditional Life s 2. mere hash of hostile anecdotes, and a current jest accused him of trying to influence a jury by partially undressing a certain Phryne in court. His works were absolutely lost till this century, when large pirts of five speeches — not eloquent, but surpassing even Lysias in coolness and humour, and a frank dislike of humbug — have been recovered in papyri from Upper Egypt. Demosthenes himself was engaged in preparing for the future war and trying to counteract Philip's intrigues in the Peloponnese {Phil. IL). It was a pity that in 344 he revived the old action against ^schines {Oti Mis- conduct of Ambassadors). The speeches of both orators are preserved. yEschines appears at his best in them, Demosthenes perhaps at his worst. His attack was in- temperate, and his prejudice led him to combine and colour his facts unfairly. He could have shown that ^schines was a poor diplomat; but, in spite of his politi- cal ascendency, he could not make the jury believe that he was a corrupt one. yEschines was acquitted, and Demosthenes was not yet secure enough of his power to dispense with publishing his speeches. We possess one {On the Chersonnese) in' which he defends the irregularities of his general Diopeithes on Philip's frontier ; and another {Phil. III.) in which he issues to all Greece an arraignment of Philip's treacherous diplomacy. Most of Demosthenes's public speeches have the same absence of what we call rhetoric, the same great self-forgetfulness. But something that was once nnrrow in his patriotism is now gone, and there is a sense of im- minent tragedv and a stern music of diction which makes the Thii-d Philippic unlike anything else in literature. War was declared in 340, and at first Athens was sue-
