Demosthenes, Speeches 27-38

Introduction to This Volume

INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME By Douglas M. MacDowell 1 The relatives mentioned in these speeches are shown in the genealogy on p. 8. For detailed discussion of the ramifications of the family, see Davies 1971: 113–159 (no. 3597). See also Cox 1998: 18–20. 2 For Athenian money, see the Series Introduction, p. xxv. 3 The scrutiny called dokimasia, when a young man was examined at the age of eighteen and registered as a citizen, was held in the summer, at the beginning of the Athenian year. It is not certain that the man had to have passed his eighteenth birthday; those in their eighteenth year (aged seventeen) may also have been regdemosthenes and his guardians The first five speeches in this volume (Orations 27–31) are the earliest of all Demosthenes’ speeches, written soon after he came of age in 366 bc. They were directed against the men who had been his guardians since the death of his father, and particularly against his cousin Aphobus, who was one of the guardians, and Aphobus’ brother-in-law Onetor, who was alleged to have been assisting Aphobus.1 According to Demosthenes’ own account, his father, also named Demosthenes, was a rich man when he died in 376. His property, listed in the first speech, included a workshop with slaves making knives, another workshop with slaves making beds, and several substantial sums of money deposited in banks or lent at interest, besides cash, jewelry, and other effects, to a total value of about 14 talents.2 Before his death he called his family around him and made various dispositions . His son, Demosthenes, was only seven years old, and his daughter was five. He therefore appointed three men to be guardians of the children and the property until the boy should come of age about ten years later.3 The guardians were his sister’s son Aphobus, his 10 demosthenes, speeches 27– 38 istered. Thus Demosthenes may have come of age when he was still under eighteen ; alternatively he may have been aged seven years and some months when his father died and the guardianship may have lasted ten years and some months, making eighteen altogether. 4 This is a striking example of the ability of an Athenian man to dispose of his wife to a new husband, passing on the dowry which he had received with her. The remarriage of Pasion’s wife was similar; see p. 155, note 16. For a general discussion of the role of Cleobule in the whole affair, see Hunter 1989. 5 Burke 1998 suggests that one of their motives was the ideological contempt of traditional landowners for a man whose wealth was based on manufacturing and commerce. brother Demon’s son Demophon, and an old friend named Therippides . He bequeathed his wife, Cleobule, to be married to Aphobus with a substantial dowry,4 and Aphobus was to have his house to live in for the ten years of Demosthenes’ minority. His daughter was to be married , when she was old enough, to Demophon, who himself was probably still quite young, with an even bigger dowry. Therippides was to have a large interest-free loan for the ten-year period. Demosthenes senior also recommended, his son says, that the rest of his property should be leased out, so that the rent paid for it would produce a fixed regular income to support the boy, with a surplus to be paid over to him when he came of age. If we can believe Demosthenes—and we probably can believe him in general terms, even if there is doubt about some of the details—the guardians turned out to be so negligent, greedy, and contemptuous5 that they transgressed most of these instructions and kept large parts of the property for themselves. Aphobus did not marry the widow, and Demophon did not marry the daughter, but they both kept the dowries. They sold many of the slaves and got back the loans. When Demosthenes came of age in 366, Aphobus did vacate the house and give back the remaining slaves with some cash, but Demosthenes estimates that the total value of what he was given was no more than 70 minas (somewhat over 1 talent). If they had handed over honestly the whole of what was due, including return of the two dowries, the total amount of the property with ten years’ accumulated income should, he claims, have been around 30 talents. Some time was taken up by...