Plutarch's Lives Volume III. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 810 pages of information about Plutarch's Lives Volume III..

Plutarch's Lives Volume III. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 810 pages of information about Plutarch's Lives Volume III..
party from the public offices, made them less inclined to create a disturbance, and taught them to be content with their country as it was, and to turn their minds to agricultural pursuits.  When he saw Xenokrates paying his tax as a resident alien, he wished to enrol him as a citizen; but Xenokrates refused, saying that he would not put himself under the new constitution after he had gone on an embassy to prevent its being established.

XXX.  When Menyllus offered him presents, Phokion replied that he did not consider him to be a better man than Alexander, and saw no greater reason why he should accept a present now than when Alexander offered it to him.  As Menyllus begged his son Phokus to accept it, Phokion said, “If Phokus alters his nature, and becomes frugal, his father’s property will be enough for him; but, as it is, nothing will satisfy him.”

He gave a sharp reply to Antipater, who asked him to perform some disgraceful service for him.  “I cannot,” said he, “be Antipater’s friend and his toady at the same time.”

Antipater himself is said to have remarked that he had two friends at Athens, Phokion and Demades, the one of whom he could not persuade to take a bribe, while the other took bribes and never was satisfied.  Phokion indeed considered it a great proof of his virtue that he had grown old in poverty, after having so many times been elected general of the Athenians, and having been the friend of kings; while Demades openly prided himself both upon his wealth and his contempt for the laws.  Although there was a law in force at Athens at that period, which forbade foreigners to appear in a chorus, and imposed a fine of one thousand drachmas upon the choragus who allowed them to do so, Demades exhibited a chorus of one hundred foreigners, and publicly paid in the theatre a fine of a thousand drachmas for each of them.  On the occasion of the marriage of his son Demeas, he said, “My boy, when I married your mother, our next-door neighbours heard nothing of it; but kings and potentates shall attend your nuptials.”

Although the Athenians tormented Phokion with requests that he would use his influence with Antipater to get the Macedonian garrison withdrawn, he always contrived to postpone making this application, either because he knew that it would not be granted, or because he thought that the fear of the Macedonian troops compelled the Athenians to live in a quiet and orderly fashion; but, on the other hand, he induced Antipater to postpone indefinitely his demand for money from the city.  The Athenians now betook themselves to Demades, who eagerly promised his services, and, together with his son, started for Macedonia, to which country it seems as if he was brought by the direct agency of the gods at a time when Antipater was on a sick bed, and Kassander, who was now at the head of affairs, had discovered a letter addressed by Demades to Antigonus in Asia, inviting him to cross over into Greece and Macedonia, and free them from their dependence on an old and rotten warp[648] -by which expression he meant to sneer at Antipater.  As soon as Kassander saw Demades arrive in Macedonia he had him arrested, and first led his son close to him and then stabbed him, so that his robe was covered with his son’s blood, and then, after bitterly upbraiding him with his ingratitude and treason, killed him also.

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Plutarch's Lives Volume III. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.