§8ἀλλὰ νὴ Δία παιδιὰ τὰ τῶν ποιητῶν οἱ δὲ ῥήτορες ἔχουσί τι παραβαλλόμενοι πρὸς τοὺς στρατηγούς, ἐξ ὧν εἰκότως Αἰσχίνης σκώπτων τὸν Δημοσθένην λέγειν φησὶν ὅτι γράψεται τῷ βήματι διαδικασίαν πρὸς τὸ στρατήγιον.
But, by Zeus, the works of the poets are mere child’s play. Do the orators, then, have anything to show when compared to the generals? Hence Aeschines is right in mocking Demosthenes, saying that he would write a suit for precedence for the speaker's platform against the general's office.
ἆρʼ οὖν ἄξιον προκρῖναι τὸν Ὑπερείδου Πλαταϊκὸν τῆς Ἀριστείδου Πλαταιᾶσι νίκης;
Is it then proper to prefer Hyperides' Plataic speech to Aristides' victory at Plataea?
ἢ τὸν Λυσίου κατὰ τῶν τριάκοντα τῆς Θρασυβούλου καὶ Ἀρχίνου τυραννοκτονίας;
Or Lysias' speech against the Thirty to the overthrow of the tyranny by Thrasybulus and Archinus?
ἢ τὸν Αἰσχίνου κατὰ Τιμάρχου ἑταιρήσεως τῆς Φωκίωνος εἰς Βυζάντιον βοηθείας, διʼ ἧς ἐκώλυσε τοὺς τῶν συμμάχων υἱοὺς ἐνύβρισμά τε καὶ παροίνημα γενέσθαι Μακεδόνων;
Or Aeschines' speech against Timarchus' prostitution to Phocion's expedition to help Byzantium, through which he prevented the sons of the allies from becoming the victims of Macedonian insult and drunken outrage?
ἢ τοῖς κοινοῖς στεφάνοις, οὓς τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐλευθερώσας ἔλαβεν ὁ δῆμος, τὸν Δημοσθένους περὶ τοῦ στεφάνου παραβάλωμεν, ἐν ᾧ τοῦτο λαμπρότατον καὶ λογιώτατον ὁ ῥήτωρ πεποίηκεν, ὀμόσας τοὺς ἐν Μαραθῶνι προκινδυνεύσαντας τῶν προγόνων, οὐ τοὺς ἐν ταῖς σχολαῖς τὰ μειράκια προδιδάσκοντας.
Or shall we compare Demosthenes' speech On the Crown to the public crowns which the people received after freeing Greece, in which speech the orator did the most brilliant and eloquent thing by swearing by those of their ancestors who risked their lives at Marathon, and not by those who in the schools pre-instruct young boys?
ἐφʼ οἷς οὐ τοὺς Ἰσοκράτεις καὶ Ἀντιφῶντας καὶ Ἰσαίους, ἀλλὰ τούτους ἡ πόλις δημοσίαις ταφαῖς ἔθαψεν, ὑποδεξαμένη τὰ λείψανα τῶν σωμάτων, καὶ τούτους ἀπεθέωσε τοῖς ὅρκοις ὁ ῥήτωρ ὀμνύων οὓς οὐκ ἐμιμεῖτο.
For these achievements, the city buried not the likes of Isocrates, Antiphon, and Isaeus, but these men in public funerals, receiving the remains of their bodies; and the orator deified these men in his oaths, swearing by those whom he did not imitate.
Ἰσοκράτης δὲ τοὺς ἐν Μαραθῶνι προκινδυνεύσαντας ὥσπερ ἀλλοτρίαις ψυχαῖς φήσας ἐναγωνίσασθαι καὶ καθυμνήσας τὴν τόλμαν αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν ὑπεροψίαν τοῦ ζῆν, αὐτός, ὥς φασιν, ἤδη γέρων γεγονὼς πρὸς τὸν πυθόμενον πῶς διάγει,
οὕτως,
εἶπεν,
ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὑπὲρ ἐνενήκοντα ἔτη γεγονὼς καὶ μέγιστον ἡγούμενος τῶν κακῶν τὸν θάνατον. οὐ γὰρ ἀκονῶν ξίφος οὐδὲ λόγχην χαράττων οὐδὲ λαμπρύνων κράνος οὐδὲ στρατευόμενος οὐδʼ ἐρέττων, ἀλλʼ ἀντίθετα καὶ πάρισα καὶ ὁμοιόπτωτα κολλῶν καὶ συντιθείς, μονονοὺ κολαπτῆρσι καὶ ξυστῆρσι τὰς περιόδους ἀπολεαίνων καὶ ῥυθμίζων ἐγήρασε.
But Isocrates, though he said that those who risked their lives at Marathon fought as if with others' souls, and praised their daring and their contempt for living, yet he himself, as they say, when he was already an old man, replied to someone who asked how he was doing: "Just so, as a man over ninety years old, and who considers death to be the greatest of evils." For he did not spend his old age sharpening a sword or whetting a spear-point or polishing a helmet or campaigning or rowing, but pasting together and compounding antitheses, parallel structures, and cases of similar endings, all but smoothing and carving his periods with chisels and scrapers.
πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἔμελλεν ἄνθρωπος ψόφον ὅπλων φοβεῖσθαι καὶ σύρρηγμα φαλάγγων ὁ φοβούμενος φωνῆεν φωνήεντι συγκροῦσαι καὶ συλλαβῇ τὸ ἰσόκωλον ἐνδεὲς ἐξενεγκεῖν;
How then was a man not likely to fear the sound of weapons and the clash of phalanxes, who was afraid to clash a vowel with a vowel, or to utter an equal-membered clause deficient by a syllable?
Μιλτιάδης μὲν γὰρ ἄρας ἐς Μαραθῶνα τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ τὴν μάχην συνάψας ἧκεν εἰς ἄστυ μετὰ τῆς στρατιᾶς νενικηκώς, καὶ Περικλῆς ἐννέα μησὶ Σαμίους καταστρεψάμενος ἐφρόνει τοῦ Ἀγαμέμνονος μεῖζον ἔτει δεκάτῳ τὴν Τροίαν ἑλόντος· Ἰσοκράτης δὲ μικροῦ τρεῖς ὀλυμπιάδας ἀνήλωσεν, ἵνα γράψῃ τὸν πανηγυρικὸν λόγον, οὐ στρατευσάμενος ἐν τούτοις τοῖς χρόνοις οὐδὲ πρεσβεύσας οὐδὲ πόλιν κτίσας οὐδὲ ναύαρχος ἐκπεμφθείς, καίτοι μυρίους τοῦ τότε χρόνου πολέμους ἐνέγκαντος·
For Miltiades, setting out for Marathon, engaged in battle on the next day, and returned to the city victorious with his army; and Pericles, having subdued the Samians in nine months, thought more highly of himself than Agamemnon who took Troy in the tenth year; but Isocrates spent nearly three Olympiads in order to write his Panegyricus, during which times he neither served in the army, nor went on embassies, nor founded a city, nor was sent out as an admiral, although that time brought ten thousand wars.
ἀλλʼ ἐν ᾧ Τιμόθεος Εὔβοιαν ἠλευθέρου καὶ Χαβρίας περὶ Νάξον ἐναυμάχει καὶ περὶ Λέχαιον Ἰφικράτης κατέκοπτε τὴν Λακεδαιμονίων μόραν, καὶ πᾶσαν ἐλευθερώσας πόλιν ὁ δῆμος ἰσόψηφον αὐτοῖς τὴν Ἑλλάδα κατέστησεν, οἴκοι καθῆστο βιβλίον ἀναπλάττων τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, ὅσῳ χρόνῳ τὰ προπύλαια Περικλῆς ἀνέστησε καὶ τοὺς ἑκατομπέδους.
But while Timotheus was freeing Euboea, and Chabrias was fighting a naval battle near Naxos, and Iphicrates was cutting to pieces the Lacedaemonian mora near Lechaeum, and the people, having freed every city, made Greece equal in vote with themselves, he sat at home, molding a book with words, in the same amount of time Pericles erected the Propylaea and the hundred-foot temples.
καίτοι καὶ τοῦτον ὡς βραδέως ἀνύοντα τοῖς ἔργοις ἐπισκώπτων Κρατῖνος οὕτω πως λέγει περὶ τοῦ διὰ μέσου τείχους,
"
λόγοισι γὰρ αὐτὸ προάγει Περικλέης,
ἔργοισι δʼ οὐδὲ κινεῖ.
And yet, mocking even Pericles for being slow in finishing his works, Cratinus speaks somewhat like this concerning the Middle Wall: "For Pericles advances it in words, but in deeds he does not even move it.
"
σκόπει δὲ σοφιστικὴν μικροφροσύνην, τὸ ἔνατον μέρος τοῦ βίου εἰς ἕνα λόγον καταναλίσκουσαν.
"Consider then this sophistic small-mindedness, which consumes a ninth part of a life on a single speech.
ἀλλὰ δὴ μέγα τοὺς Δημοσθένους τοῦ ῥήτορος λόγους ἄξιόν ἐστι τοῖς τοῦ στρατηγοῦ ἔργοις παραβάλλειν;
But indeed, is it highly worth comparing the speeches of Demosthenes the orator with the deeds of the general?
τὸν κατὰ Κόνωνος αἰκίας τοῖς περὶ Πύλον τροπαίοις ἐκείνου;
His speech against Conon for assault with the trophies of that general at Pylos?
τὸν πρὸς Ἀρεθούσιον περὶ ἀνδραπόδων τοῖς ἐξανδραποδισθεῖσιν ὑπʼ ἐκείνου Σπαρτιάταις;
His speech against Arethusius concerning slaves with the Spartans enslaved by him?
ἢ ἡλικίᾳ τοὺς ἐπιτροπικοὺς ἔγραψε, ταύτην Ἀλκιβιάδης ἔχων Μαντινεῖς καὶ Ἠλείους ἐπὶ τὴν Λακεδαίμονα συνέστησε.
Or at the age he wrote his guardianship speeches, Alcibiades, being of the same age, united the Mantineans and Eleans against Lacedaemon.
καὶ μὴν οἵ γε δημόσιοι λόγοι τοῦτʼ ἔχουσι θαυμαστόν, ὅτι τοῖς Φιλιππικοῖς ἐπὶ πράξεις προτρέπεται καὶ τὴν Λεπτίνου πρᾶξιν ἐπαινεῖ.
And indeed, his public speeches have this wonderful feature, that by the Philippics he exhorts to actions and praises the action of Leptines.