302 HISTORY OF GREECE. pagitic report. Demosthenes was brought to trial, first of all the persons accused, before a numerous Dikastery of 1500 citizens,^ who confirmed the report of the Areopagites, found him guilty, and condemned him to pay fifty talents to- the state. Not being able to discharge this large fine, he was put in prison ; but after some days he found means to escape, and fled to Trcezen in Pelo- ponnesus, where he passed some months as a dispirited and sor- rowing exile, until the death of Alexander.-^ What was done with the other citizens included in the Areopagitic report, we do not know. It appears that Demades ^ — who was among those comprised, and who is especially attacked, along with Demos- thenes, by both Hyperides and Deinarchus — did not appear to take his trial, and therefore must have been driven into exile ; yet if so, he must have speedily returned, since he seems to have been at Athens when Alexander died. Philokles and Aris- togeiton were also brought to trial as Ijeing included by the Areopagus in the list of delinquents ; but how their trial ended, does not appear.* This condemnation and banishment of Demosthenes — un- questionably the greatest orator, and one of the greatest citizens, in Athenian antiquity, — is the most painful result of the de- bates respecting the exile Harpalus. Demosthenes himself denied the charge ; but unfortunately we possess neither his defence, nor the facts alleged in evidence against him ; so that our means of forming a positive conclusion are imperfect. At the same time, judging from the circumstances as far as we 1 Deinarchus atlv. Dcmosih. s. 108, 109. '■' Plutarch, Demostli. 26. '^ I)cinarchu.s adv. Deinostli. s. 104.
- See the two orations composed by Deinarchus, against Pliiloklcs and
Aristogeiton. In the second and third Epistles ascribed to Demosthenes (p. 1470, 1483, 1485), he is made to state, that he alone had been condemned by the Dy- kastery, because his trial had come on first — that Aristogeiton and all the others tried were acquitted, though the charge against all was the same, and the evidence against all was the same also — viz. nothing more than the simple report of the Areopagus. As I agree with those who hold these epistles to be probably spurious, I cannot believe, on such auihority alone, that all the other persons tried were acquitted — a fact highly improbable in itself.
