Such was the orator who is about to ascend the tribunal, or rather the statesman who is going to enter upon the administration of the public affairs, and to be the principle and soul of all the enterprises of Athens against Philip of Macedon. SECTION VII. Digressions upon the manner of fitting out flets by the Athenians, and the exemptions and other marks of honour granted by that city to such as had rendered it great services. The subject of this digression ought properly to have had place in that part of this volume where I have treated of the maritime af fairs of the Athenians. But at that time I had not in my thoughts those orations of Demosthenes which speak of them. It is a deviation from the chain of the history, which the reader may easily pass over, if he thinks fit. The word Trierarchs* signifies no more in itself than commanders of galleys. But those citizens were also called Trierarchs who were appointed to fit out the galleys in time of war, and to furnish them with all things necessary, or at least with part of them. They were chosen out of the richest of the people, and there was no fixed number of them. Sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes even ten Trierarchs were appointed to equip one vessel. At length the number of Trierarchs in general was fixed at 1200,† in this manner. Athens was divided into ten tribes. A hundred and twenty of the richest citizens of each tribe, were nominated to furnish the expenses of these armaments; and thus each tribe furnishing sixscore, the number of the Trierarchs amounted to 1200. Those 1200 men were again divided into two parts, of 600 each; and those 600 subdivided into two more, each of 300. The first 300 were chosen from among such as were richest. Upon pressing occasions they advanced the necessary expenses, and were reimbursed by the other 300, who paid their proportion as the state of their affairs would admit. A law was afterwards made, whereby those 1200 were divided into different companies, each consisting of sixteen men, who joined in the equipment of a galley. That law was very heavy upon the poorer citizens, and radically unjust, as it decreed that this number of sixteen should be chosen by their age, and not their estates. It ordained that all citizens, from twenty-five to forty, should be included in one of these companies, and contribute one-sixteenth⚫ so that by this law the poorer citizens were to contribute as much as the most opulent, and often found it impossible to provide for an expense so much above their power. From whence it happened, that the fleet was either not armed in time, or very ill fitted out; which means Athens lost the most favourable opportunities for actin. * Τριηραρχει. ↑ Ulpian. in Olynth i. p. 33 Demosthenes,* always intent upon the public good, to remedy these inconveniences, proposed the abrogation of this law by another. By the latter, the Trierarchs, were to be chosen, it by the number of their years, but the value of their fortunes. Each citizen, whose estate amounted to ten talents,† was obliged to fit out one galley at his own expense; and if to twenty talents, two; and so on i proportion. Such as were not worth ten talents, were to join with as many others as were necessary to complete that sum, and to fit out a galley. Nothing could be wiser than this law of Demosthenes, which reformed all the abuses of the other. By these means the fleet was fitted out in time, and provided with all things necessary; the poor were considerably relieved, and none but the rich displeased with it. For instead of contributing only a sixteenth, as by the first law, they were sometimes obliged by the second to equip a galley by themselves, and som.cimes two or more, according to the amount of their estates. The rich were in consequence very much offended at Demosthenes for this regulation; and it required, without doubt, no small courage in him to disregard their complaints, and to hazard the making himself as many enemies as there were powerful citizens in Athens. Let us hear himself. Seeing, says he, speaking to the Athenians, that your maritime affairs were in a ruinous condition, the rich possessed of an immunity purchased at a very low rate, the citizens of middle or small fortunes overwhelmned with taxes, and the republic itself, in consequence of these inconveniences, never attempting any thing till too late to be of any avail, I had the courage to establish a law, whereby the rich are brought back to their duty, the poor relieved from oppression, and, what was of the highest importance, the republic enabled to make the necessary preparations for war in due time. He adds, that there was nothing the rich would not have given him to forbear the proposing of this law, or at least to have suspended its execution: but he did not suffer himself to be swayed either by their threats or promises, and continued firm to the public good. Not having been able to make him change his resolution, they contrived a stratagem to render it ineffectual. For it was without doubt at their instigation that a certain person, named Patroclus, cited Demosthenes before the judges, and prosecuted him juridicially as an infringer of the laws of his country. The accuser not having the fifth part of the voices on his side, was according to custom fined 500 drachmas, and Demosthenes acquitted of the charge. He himself informs us of these particulars. I much doubt, whether at Rome, especially in the latter times, the affair would have taken this turn. For we see, that whatever at.empts were made by the tribunes of the people, and to whatever extremity the quarrel arose, it never was possible to induce the rich, who were far more powerful and enterprising than those of Athens, to renounce the possession of the lands, which they had usurped in manifest contravention of the institutions of the state The law of Demosthenes was approved and confirmed by the senate and people. We find, from what has been said, that the Trierarchs fitted out the galleys and equipped them at their own expense. The state paid the marine s and soldiers, generally at the rate of three oboli, or five perce a day, as has been observed elsewherc. The officers had greater pay. The Trierarch commanded the vessel, and gave all orders on board. When there were two of them to a ship, each commanded six months. When they quitted their office, they were obliged to give an account of their administration, and delivered a state of the vessel's equipage to their successor, or the republic. The successor was obliged to go immediately and fill up the vacant place; and if he failed to be at his post by a time assigned him, he was fined for his neglect. As the charge of Trierarch was very expensive, those who were nominated to it, were admitted to point out some other person richer than theinselves, and to demand that he should be put into their place; provided they were ready to change estates with such person, and to act as Trierarch after such exchange. This law was instituted by Solon, and was called the law of exchanges. Besides the equipment of galleys, which must have amounted to very great sums, the rich had another burden to support in time of war; that was, the extraordinary taxes and imposts laid on their estates; upon which sometimes the hundredth, sometimes a fiftieth, and even a twelfth, were levied, according to the different necessities of the state. Nobody at Athens,* upon any pretence whatsoever, could be exempted from these two charges, except the Novemviri, or nine Archons, who were not obliged to fit out galleys. So that we see clearly, that without ships or money, the republic was not in a condition., either to support wars, or defend itself. There were other immunities and exemptions, which were granted to such as had rendered great services to the republic, and sometimes even to all their descendants: such as maintaining the public places for the exercises with all things necessary for such as frequented them; instituting a public feast for one of the ten tribes; and defraying the expenses of games and shows; all which amounted to great sums. These immun. ies, as has already been said, were marks of honour and rewards for services rendered the state; as well as the * Demosth. auvers. Lept p. 545. statues which were erected to great men, the freedom of the city which was granted to strangers, and the privilege of being maintained in the Prytaneum at the public expense. The view of Athens in these honourable distinctions, which were sometimes perpetuated through families, was to express their high sense of gratitude, and to kindle at the same time in the hearts of their citizens a noble thirst of glory, and an ardent love for their country. Besides the statues erected to Harmodius and Aristogiton, the deliverers of Athens, their descendants were for ever exempted from all public employments, and enjoyed that honourable privilege many ages after. As Aristides died without any estate, and left his son Lysimachus no other patrimony but his glory and poverty, the republic gave him 100 acres of wood, and as much arable land, in Euboea, besides 100 minæt at one payment, and four drachmas, or forty pence, a day. Athens, in the services which were done it, regarded more the good-will than the action itself. A certain person of Cyrene. named Epicerdus, being at Syracuse when the Athenians were defeated, touched with compassion for the unfortunate prisoners dispersed in Sicily, whom he saw ready to expire for want of food, distributed 100 minæ amongst them, that is, about 2401. Athens adopted him into the number of its citizens, and granted him all the immunities before mentioned. Some time after, in the war against the thirty tyrants, the same Epicerdus gave the city a talent. These were but small matters on either occasion with regard to the grandeur and power of Athens; but they were deeply affected with the good-will of a stranger, who, without any view of interest, in a time of public calamity, exhausted himself in some measure for the relief of those with whom he had no connexion, and from whom he had nothing to expect. The same Athens granted the freedom of their city,|| and an exemption from customs, to Leucon, who reigned in the Bosphorus, and to his children, because they imported from the lands of that prince a considerable quantity of corn, of which they were in extreme want, subsisting almost entirely upon what came from foreign parts. Leucon, in his turn, not to be outdone in generosity, exempted the Athenian merchants from the duty of a thirtieth that was imposed upon all grain exported from his dominions, and granted them the privilege of supplying themselves with corn in his country in preference to all other people. That exemption amounted to a considerable sum. For they brought from therce alone 2,000,000 of quarters of corn, of which the thirtieth part amounted to almost 70,000. The children of Conon and Chabrias were also granted an immu Demosth. in Orat. ad Lep. p. 558. Demosth. in Orat. ad Lep. p. 757. Demosth. in Crat. ad Lep. p. 545, 546. nity from public offices The names alone of those illustrious generals sufficiently justify that liberality of the Athenian people. A person, however, called Leptines, out of a mistaken zeal for the public good, proposed to abrogate by a new law all the grants of that kind, which had been made from time immemorial, except those which regarded the posterity of Harmodius and Aristogiton; and to enact, that for the future the people should not be permitted to grant such privileges. Demosthenes strongly opposed this law, though with great delicacy towards the person who proposed it; praising his good intentions, and not speaking of him but with esteem; a much more efficacious manner of refuting than those violent invectives, and that eager and passionate style, which serve only to alienate the minds of the hearers, and to render an orator suspected, who discredits his cause himself, and shows its weak side, by substituting railing in the place of reasons, which are alone capable of convincing. After having shown that so odious a reform would prove of little or no advantage to the republic, from the inconsiderable number of the exempted persons, he goes on to expose its inconveniences, and sets them in a full light. It is first, says he, doing injury to the memory of those great men, whose merit the state intended to acknowledge and reward by such immunities; it is in some manner calling in question the services they have done their country; it is throwing a suspicion upon their great actions, injurious to, if not destructive of, their glory. And were they now alive and present in this assembly, which of us all would presume to offer them such an affront? Should not the respect we owe their memories make us consider them as always alive and present? But if we are a little affected with what concerns them, can we be insensible to our own interest? Besides that cancelling so ancient a law is to condemn the conduct of our ancestors, what shame shall we bring upon ourselves, and what an injury shall we do our reputation? The glory of Athens, and of every well-governed state, is to value itself upon its gratitude; to keep its word religiously, and to be true to all its engagements. A private person that fails in these respects is hated and abhorred; and who is not afraid of being reproached with ingratitude? And shall the commonwealth, in cancelling a law that has received the sanction of public authority, and been in a manner consecrated by the usage of many ages, be guilty of so scanaalous a prevarication? We prohibit lying in the very markets under heavy penalties, and require truth and good faith to be observed in them; and shall we renounce them ourselves, by the revocation of grants passed in all their forms, and upon which every private man has a right to insist? To act in such a manner, would be to extinguish in the hearts of our citizens all emulation for glory, all desire to distinguish themselves by great exploits, all zeal for the honour and welfare of their country |