objects are the same with those of my countrymen; I have no interest separate or distinct. Is that so with you? How can it be when immediately after the battle you went as ambassador to Philip, who was at that period the author of your country's calamities, notwithstanding that you had before persisted in refusing that office, as all men know? * And who is it that deceives the state? Surely the man who speaks not what he thinks. On whom does the crier pronounce a curse? Surely on such a man. What greater crime can an orator be charged with, than that his opinions and his language are not the same? Such is found to be your character. And yet you open your mouth, and dare to look these men in the faces! Do you think they don't know you? or are sunk all in such slumber and oblivion, as not to remember the speeches which you delivered in the assembly, cursing and swearing that you had nothing to do with Philip, and that I brought that charge against you out of personal enmity without foundation? No sooner came the news of the battle, than you forgot all that; you acknowledged and avowed that between Philip and yourself there subsisted a relation of hospitality and friendship-new names these for your contract of hire. For upon what plea of equality or Justice could Æschines, son of Glaucothea the timbrel-player, be the friend or acquaintance of Philip? I cannot see. No! You were hired to ruin the interests of your countrymen: and yet, though you have been caught yourself in open treason, and informed against yourself after the fact, you revile and reproach me for things which you will find any man is chargeable with sooner than I. Many great and glorious enterprises has the commonwealth, Eschines, undertaken and succeeded in through me; and she did not forget them. Here is the proof--on the election of a person to speak the funeral oration immediately after the event, you were proposed, but the people would not have you, notwithstanding your fine voice, nor Demades, though he had just made the peace, nor Hegemon, nor any other of * At the opening of every public assembly of the Athenians a crier pronounced a solemn curse on all who should speak against the public interest. your party-but me. And when you and Pythocles came forward in a brutal and shameful manner (O merciful Heaven!) and urged the same accusations against me which you now do, and abused me, they elected me all the more. The reason— you are not ignorant of it-yet I will tell you. The Athenians knew as well the loyalty and zeal with which I conducted their affairs, as the dishonesty of you and your party; for what you denied upon oath in our prosperity, you confessed in the misfortunes of the republic. They considered therefore, that men who got security for their politics by the public disasters had been their enemies long before, and were then avowedly such. They thought it right also, that the person who was to speak in honor of the fallen and celebrate their valor, should not have sat under the same roof or at the same table with their antagonists; that he should not revel there and sing a pæan over the calamities of Greece in company with their murderers, and then come here and receive distinction; that he should not with his voice act the mourner of their fate, but that he should lament over them with his heart. This they perceived in themselves and in me, but not in any of you: therefore they chose me, and not you. Nor, while the people felt thus, did the fathers and brothers of the deceased, who were chosen by the people to perform their obsequies, feel differently. For having to order the funeral banquet (according to custom) at the house of the nearest relative to the deceased, they ordered it at mine. And with reason: because, though each to his own was nearer of kin than I was, none was so near to them all collectively. He that had the deepest interest in their safety and success, had upon their mournful disaster the largest share of sorrow for them all. ALEXANDRIA. THE city of Alexandria, as the name suggests, was founded by the great Macedonian conqueror B.C. 332. From its advantageous position between East and West, it quickly became not only the emporium of the world, but also the new centre of the intellectual activity of ancient times. Under the first of the Ptolemies the study of literature received a powerful impulse from royal patronage. Learning became the pastime and chief pleasure of princes and courtiers, who engaged the services of professional literary men. With the aid of Demetrius Phalereus, Ptolemy Soter founded the famous Alexandrian library, and also the Museum in connection with which cultivated men were maintained by a system of endowments. Literature was still further stimulated by Ptolemy II. He ordered the Greek translation of the Hebrew sacred books, known as the Septuagint, from the "seventy" engaged in the work. Books were obtained for the library from traders of all nations whose ships entered the port of Alexandria. The outcome of all this was a bevy of men eminent in science, poetry, and grammar; and also a plentiful crop of literary pedants. The grammatical craze which followed had the effect of moulding the Greek language into definite form. For the preservation of much of the ancient literature the modern world is indebted to the Ptolemies. While Athens, shorn of its political importance, still remained a seat of learning, the court and library of Alexandria attracted, from every land where Greek was spoken, men of talent who wished to improve their minds and display their abilities. Many of these came from Sicily, where Syracuse had long held a somewhat similar position as a centre of culture and refinement. Chief among these was the pastoral poet Theocritus. Others came from various parts of Asia Minor, while the learned Callimachus came from the neighboring Cyrene. All contributed to the new glory which had arisen in the ancient seat of civilization. VI-3 THE fame of Theocritus, the prince of bucolic poetry, depends on his faithful pictures of natural scenery and the common Sicilian people. He is generally considered the only poet of the Alexandrian epoch whose works can rank with the brilliant Grecian songs of earlier days. His lays of country life and love are genuine pastorals; his damsels, reapers, herdsmen and fishermen are true to life. His idylls breathe the air and give forth the very sounds of nature. They tell of the oak-tree's shade, the murmuring of the pines, poplars and nodding elms, the soft couch of fern or flower, birds chirping on the boughs, and beetling cliffs from which the shepherds watch the fishers in the surf below. Theocritus is free from that affectation which was generally characteristic of the Alexandrian school. He had a keen sense of the ludicrous as well as of the beautiful. Not the least notable of his qualities are a facile mode of expression and remarkable descriptive power. Theocritus was a native of Syracuse and visited Alexandria about 280 B.C. After enjoying the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which he rewarded by poetic eulogy, he returned to his native place. Its king, Hiero II., was a less generous patron, and the poet showed his dissatisfaction in Idyll XVI. Besides the thirty idylls ascribed to Theocritus, there are twenty-two epigrams. They are written in the Sicilian Doric dialect, which may be compared to the Lowland Scotch of Burns. His idylls are not all of rural scenery and life. In some cases he adopts the epic style, as in the story of Hercules the Lion-Slayer. In Idyll XV. he gives a graphic portrayal of the bustling life of Alexandria. Virgil, imitating Theocritus, became the creator of bucolic poetry in Roman literature. POLYPHEMUS IN LOVE. (From Idyll XI.) THE poet asserts that there is no remedy for Love but the Muses. He then gives an account of the love of the Cyclops Polyphemus for the sea-nymph Galatea. -'Twas when advancing man hood first had shed The early pride of summer o'er His Galatea on these plains he But not, like other swains, the With fragrant flowers, or fruits or garlands fair, But with hot madness and aburpt And while his bleating flocks, Without a shepherd's care their fold, self-taught, From morning's dawn he sang till evening's close- O Nymph, than lambs more soft, than curds more white! Yet harsh as unripe fruitage of the vine. You come, when pleasing sleep has closed mine eye, Swift as before the wolf the lambkin bounds, THE FR SYTERIAN WOOD |