The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Athens, B.C. 381. Died in the isle of Calauria, opposite Argolis, B.C. 322. Aged 59.] A chief, if not the chief of-- “Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce Democracie, Shook th’ Arsenal, and fulmin’d over Greece, To Macedon and Artaxerxes’ throne.”[29] This eloquence in Demosthenes--to the modern mind, the one unrivalled exemplar of the ancient Greek oratory---was like a trained athlete, living nerve and bone. When Athens lay daunted under the successes of Philip of Macedon, Demosthenes, by the sole power of speech, roused the people to energetic warfare. His style was fit for sustaining argument on the destinies of great nations. It was simple, severe, lofty, vehement, and of irresistible power. He acquired this consummate mastery, having, by an invincible perseverance, vanquished seemingly invincible natural obstacles. At one period of his life Demosthenes was accused of receiving a bribe from Harpalus, a Macedonian General, who fled to Athens, to escape the vengeance of Alexander. He quitted Athens. Upon the death of Alexander he returned to the city; but the Athenian arms proving unsuccessful against Antipater, the ruler of Macedonia, the life of the orator was demanded by the conqueror. Demosthenes fled again--this time to the isle of Calauria--where he took poison to save himself from the swords of the soldiery. Looking upon the deep, contemplative, sad brow, figured in stone, we might well fancy that we see, gleaming there, a too real consciousness of the requital awaiting even the greatest Athenian, for services which no reward could measure. [From the marble in the Louvre. Several busts in various collections had been called Terence, Pythagoras, Plato, and other names, when there were dug up in Herculaneum two bronze heads, on one of which was the name of Demosthenes; it was at once perceived that the busts above referred to had been wrongly named; for they one and all represented the great orator. A very beautiful carved medallion in amethyst exists also at Rome, which is an undoubted likeness of him. For an account of the statues of Demosthenes see Nos. 308 and 321 in the Handbook to the Roman Court and Nave.] [29] _Paradise Regained._