MENTIONED BY ^SCHINES AND DEMOSTHENES. 235 



KpaTia^ev) in the assembly, being in such a bad and unseemly habit of body through his 

 drunkenness and abominations that men of sense covered their eyes, being ashamed for the 

 city's sake that we employ such advisers." 



In this passage you will observe that iEschines expressly includes himself in the number 

 of those who adopted the ordinary custom of speaking with outstretched hand, and that he 

 attributes the contrary practice to the older orators, merely on the strength of the Salaminian 

 statue of Solon, which, as we shall see, was at that time a modern work of art. When he says 

 o vvvt TraVres ev e9et irparTo/ixev, it appears to me eminently absurd to claim him as the 

 subject of a statue, which exhibits the contrasted posture. 



The prosecution and ruin of Timarchus took place in b.c. 345 and caused some delay in 

 the intended attack on ^schines. But in August or September 343, the cause of the Embassy 

 came on, and Demosthenes in his great speech on that occasion makes many references to the 

 impeachment of his unhappy colleague. He adverts very emphatically to the passage about 

 Solon's statue which I have just read, and turns it against jEschines with his usual dexterity. 

 " Come now," he exclaims (de fals. Legat. p. 420, § 281), "consider what he said about Solon. 

 For he observed that Solon was represented as an example of the modesty of former orators, 

 having his mantle flung about him with his hand inside (etaw ttjv xelpa eyovra avafiefiXf]- 

 fievov), and this by way of reproaching and reviling the inconsiderateness of Timarchus. And 

 yet the Salaminians say that this statue has not yet been set up 50 years, whereas it is nearly 

 240 years from Solon to the present time, so that the artist who modelled that figure was not 

 a contemporary of Solon, no, not even his grandfather was. However he said this to the jury, 

 and imitated the posture" {i.e. on this occasion only : the verbs are aorists, elirev and e/uifir]<jaTo). 

 " But what was far more advantageous to the state than this attitude — namely, to see the soul 

 and mind of Solon — of this he gave no imitation, but quite the contrary." And then he pro- 

 ceeds to contrast the conduct of Solon, who put on a cap (mXiov TrepiOenevos, Plut. Solon, 8), 

 an outward mark of illness, and feigned insanity for a patriotic object, namely, to induce the 

 Athenians to renew their attempts on Salamis, with the conduct of iEschines, who put on 

 a cap {-mXi^iov) and shammed sickness in order to evade a public duty (de fals. Leg. p. 379, 

 6 136). Demosthenes concludes the passage as follows (p. 421, fi 285): " The necessary point, 

 jEschines, is not to make speeches with your hand inside your mantle — no, not that— but to 

 keep your hand inside when you go on an embassy. But you, having extended it and held it 

 open there and disgracing your countrymen, make pompous speeches here, and having learned 

 by heart and spouted some miserable phrases imagine that you will not pay the penalty for 

 such great and numerous crimes, if you only walk about with a little cap on your head, and 

 revile me." 



This passage properly examined will, I think, lead us to the inevitable conclusion that the 

 statue under consideration is a good copy of the famous Salaminian whole-length of the legis- 

 lator Solon, who had reunited Salamis with Athens. 



You will have observed that according to Demosthenes that statue had been erected less 

 than 50 years before b.c. 343, i. e. somewhere about b.c. 390. This was an epoch in the 

 history of Greek sculpture. It was towards the beginning of the period rendered illustrious 

 by the names of Scopas and Praxiteles. And whatever doubt may be entertained as to the 



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