Thirteen Declamations

III. BY PACHYMERES

...-cles’ house will provoke many to battle and will produce sufficient soldiers hoplites: heavily-armed infantry for the fatherland.

Certainly, my foresight regarding the city and my care for the fatherland will, I know, be wondered at by everyone—as is natural—and especially by those whose disposition is reasonable and patriotic. Even Zeus, the God of Friendship original: "Philios Zeus", after whom I was named¹ by a vote of your council, has, I believe, accepted my purpose; he brought down the lightning-bolt, not to punish vice, but to make manifest my virtue, since it was not yet the right time to reveal my intentions.

But this spiteful and contentious man alone subverts my good deed and charges me with an attempt at tyranny, accusing one who is merely providing for how the common people demos: the citizen body of ancient Athens might be sustained. He says that there is a tyranny, and he attaches the crime to me; yet he has no evidence to produce that shows I harbor the thoughts of tyrants, even if he were to "burst while speaking"² upon the orator's platform. For tell me: can you bring forward anyone—whether a free man, a slave, a relative, a stranger, or even one of my enemies—with whom I ever shared a word about tyranny? Let such a man come forward and convict me; let him speak during the time allotted to my water-clock clepsydra: a water-vessel used to time speeches in Athenian courts⁴, and I shall remain silent. And yet, this is the manner of accusation, and this is how you have sworn to judge, for this is how charges are brought: "Did someone strike me?" Then the witness stands by. "Is this man a traitor to the city?" Then here is the co-conspirator. "Is he ill-disposed?" Then the person who knows of it is present. But you act as if you were indicting for treason the very man who keeps watch over the city at night out of goodwill...

¹ Theon, Preliminary Exercises original: "Progymnasmata" ch. 8, 8: Pericles was called "The Olympian" because of his greatness in successful achievements. I have placed other passages from authors concerning Pericles the Olympian in the Anecdota, p. 359. But I did not previously know that this nickname had been bestowed by a public decree. Below on pages 14 and 15, he mentions the "vote" again. His guide seems to have been Aristides, Oration 53, p. 630. Dealing with the rewards which the people once gave to citizens who deserved well of the fatherland, he says: "Who of all men does not know that Pericles,

the son of Xanthippus, was called 'The Olympian' in the same way as Zeus?"
² Thus our author original: "Noster" in Declamation III, VII. Demosthenes, On the Crown original: "Ctes." § 8: "not even if you burst while lying." In that passage, the manuscripts read diarrhageies [you might burst], which Pachymeres seems to have read. Psellus, Short Works original: "Opusc." p. 179: "he might burst while lying." See the note there. Aristides, Oration 49, p. 498: "just as he purposely adds 'bursting you.'" Many examples in Gataker on Marcus Aurelius original: "Anton." 8, 4.
³ Scholion gloss: a marginal explanation: A demand for proof.
⁴ See note 6, p. 4.