Demosthenes

(de-mos'the-neez,) the most illustrious orator of antiquity, was B. near Athens, 382-385 B. c., and is said to have studied philosophy under Plato. Although hampered by constitutional and physical infirmities, D. resolved to devote his career to the study and mastery of oratory; and, at the age of 27, succe fully contested the palm of eloquence with Leptines. He next declared himself the champion of Greek liberty against the encroachments of Philip, king of Macedon. Incorruptible alone among the orators of his time, he spurned Philip's proffers and promises alike, and in a famous series of orations, known as the Philippics, bet. 352 and 340, he launched the unrivalled powers of his invective against the natural enemy of his country. At the battle of Chærone a, B. c. 338, D. cowardly turned his back upon the enemy, and fled. He neverthele preserved his controlling influence in the State, and was decreed a crown of gold in reward of his patriotic services. This provoked his great rival, Æsc hines, and a war of disputatious emulation broke out between them, lasting several years, and resulting in D.'s triumph, 330, by the delivery of his oratorical masterpiece, On the Crown. D., on suspicion afterwards of receiving a bribe of Maced on i an gold, was mulcted in a heavy fine he was unable to pay, and consequently he exiled himself to Ægin a, in which island he remained till the death of Alexander the Great. After his return to Athens, being unsucce ful in his opposition [s. 276]