“Had you for Greece been strong, as wise you were,
The Macedonians had not conquered her.”
Æschines (389-314 B.C.), of whose early life little is known, after his defeat at the hands of Demosthenes, went into exile. We are told that his victorious rival magnanimously forgave him, and even offered him money for the journey; which led Æschines to exclaim: “How I regret leaving a country where I have found an enemy so generous that I must despair of ever meeting with a friend who shall be like him!”
Æschines afterward established himself as a teacher of oratory in Rhodes. Here he once repeated to his pupils his famous oration against Ctesiphon in the contest for the crown, which filled them with wonder that so able an orator should have been defeated. But when at their request he read the reply of Demosthenes, his audience rose to their feet with eager acclamations; and the orator, forgetting all jealousy in his admiration, cried: “What would you have said, had you heard the wild beast himself roaring it out?”
The oration against Ctesiphon is one of three familiarly known in antiquity as “the Three Graces”—a title indicative of the refinement and easy flow of the author’s style, deficient as it was in the energy and vehemence of his great rival.
MINOR DRAMATIC AND LYRIC POETS.
Ion (flourished 450 B.C.): a history and lyrics, as well as tragedies; called “the Eastern Star,” from the first words of an ode he was composing when death overtook him.
Achæus (born 484 B.C.): tragic and satirical pieces.
Ag’athon the Athenian: received his first tragic prize, 416 B.C.; his masterpiece was “the Flower.”
Callis’tratus (flourished 420 B.C.): author of the convivial ode celebrating the memory of Harmodius and Aristogiton (p. 158).