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Aeschines (; Ancient Greek: ; 389314 BC) was a Ancient Greece politician and one of the ten Attic orators.
In spring of 347 BC, Aeschines addressed the assembly of Ten Thousand in Megalopolis, Arcadia urging them to unite and defend their independence against Philip. In the summer 347 BC, he was a member of the peace embassy to Philip, where he found it necessary, in order to counteract the prejudice vigorously fomented by his opponents, to defend Philip and describe him at a meeting of the Athenian popular assembly as being entirely Greek. (1994). 9781566195195, Barnes Noble. ISBN 9781566195195 His dilatoriness during the second embassy (346 BC) sent to ratify the terms of peace led to him being accused by Demosthenes and Timarchus on a charge of high treason. Aeschines counterattacked by claiming that Timarchus had forfeited the right to speak before the people as a consequence of youthful debauches which had left him with the reputation of being a whore and prostituting himself to many men in the port city of Piraeus. The suit succeeded and Timarchus was sentenced to atimia and politically destroyed, according to Demosthenes. This comment was later interpreted by Pseudo-Plutarch in his Lives of the Ten Orators as meaning that Timarchos hanged himself upon leaving the assembly, a suggestion contested by some modern historians.Nick Fisher, Aeschines: Against Timarchos, "Introduction," p. 22 n. 71; Oxford University Press, 2001
This oration, Against Timarchus, is considered important because of the bulk of Athenian laws it cites. As a consequence of his successful attack on Timarchus, Aeschines was cleared of the charge of treason.Nick Fisher, Aeschines: Against Timarchos, "Introduction," p. 22 n. 71, passim; Oxford University Press, 2001
In 343 BC the attack on Aeschines was renewed by Demosthenes in his speech On the False Embassy. Aeschines replied in a speech with the same title and was again acquitted. In 339 BC, as one of the Athenian deputies ( pylagorae) in the Amphictyonic Council, he made a speech which brought about the Fourth Sacred War.
By way of revenge, Aeschines endeavoured to fix the blame for these disasters upon Demosthenes. In 336 BC, when Ctesiphon proposed that his friend Demosthenes should be rewarded with a golden crown for his distinguished services to the state, Aeschines accused him of having violated the law in bringing forward the motion. The matter remained in abeyance till 330 BC, when the two rivals delivered their speeches Against Ctesiphon and On the Crown. The result was a complete and overwhelming victory for Demosthenes.
Aeschines went into voluntary exile at Rhodes (to avoid the judgement of the jury, which was likely a large sum of money), where he opened a school of rhetoric. He afterwards removed to Samos, where he died aged 75. His three speeches, called by the ancients "the Three Graces," rank next to those of Demosthenes. Photius knew of nine letters by him which he called The Nine Muses; the twelve published under his name (Hercher, Epistolographi Graeci) are not genuine.
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