The New International Encyclopædia/Æschines

ÆSCHINES, ĕs′kī-nēz (Gk. Αἰσχίνης, Aischinēs) (389–314 B.C.). An Athenian orator, second only to his great rival, Demosthenes. He was born at Athens in humble station, served as a soldier, then became a clerk to some of the lower magistrates, and for a time was an actor in smaller parts. Finally, he became secretary to two distinguished statesmen, Aristophon and Eubulus, through whose influence he twice obtained election to a government secretary's office. Then, through his eloquence, grace, and legal knowledge, he rapidly became one of the leading men in the State. Sent as a member of the embassy to Philip of Macedon in 347 B.C., he was won over to favor the Peace of Philocrates (346), and then became the leader of the peace party at Athens as against Demosthenes, who headed the party which believed that Philip was to be opposed at every point and at any cost. In 345 he was charged with treason by Demosthenes and Timarchus, but, with the aid of powerful friends, defended himself successfully. Again, in 342, Demosthenes revived the charges in his famous speech On the False Embassy. Again Æschines answered successfully in a speech having the same title. He continued to favor Philip actively, and no doubt contributed to the spread of Macedonian supremacy. His fall was due, however, to his hatred of Demosthenes, whom Ctesiphon had proposed to reward with the public gift of a golden crown in recognition of his services to the State. Æschines thereupon charged Ctesiphon with making an illegal proposal, and in 330 attacked him in his brilliant oration, Against Ctesiphon, really directed against Demosthenes. He was completely defeated by Demosthenes' speech, On the Crown, and so failed in his suit against Ctesiphon, suffered atimia, and was condemned to pay 1000 drachmas fine. He went into exile at Rhodes, where, tradition says, he opened a school of oratory. He died at Samos. Æschines's posthumous fame is due to his three extant speeches, Against Timarchus, On the False Embassy, and Against Ctesiphon, which, according to Photius, were called in antiquity, "The Three Graces." An anecdote often repeated shows the esteem in which the third was held. On one occasion he read to his audience in Rhodes his oration against Ctesiphon, and some of his auditors expressing their astonishment that he should have been defeated in spite of such a powerful display, he replied: "You would cease to be astonished if you had heard Demosthenes." The speeches are edited by Schultz (1865); Weidner (1872); and in all collections of the Attic Orators. Consult especially, Jebb, Attic Orators (London, 1876–80), and Blass, Attische Beredsamkeit (Leipzig, 1887–98), The twelve letters which bear his name are spurious.