Chapter 7. AESCHINES (c. 400 B.C.)
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Aeschines was the son of Charinus the sausagemaker, but others make his father's name Lysanias.
He was a citizen of Athens, industrious from his
birth up. For this reason he never quitted Socrates;
hence Socrates' remark, "Only the sausage-maker's
son knows how to honour me." Idomeneus declared
that it was Aeschines, not Crito, who advised Socrates
in the prison about making his escape,
1 but that
Plato put the words into the mouth of Crito because
Aeschines was more attached to Aristippus than to
himself. It was said maliciously--by Menedemus
of Eretria in particular--that most of the dialogues
which Aeschines passed off as his own were really
dialogues of Socrates obtained by him from Xanthippe. Those of them which are said to have no
beginning (
ἀκέφαλοι) are very slovenly
and show
none of the vigour of Socrates; Pisistratus of Ephesus
even denied that they were written by Aeschines.
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Persaeus indeed attributes the majority of the seven
to Pasiphon of the school of Eretria, who inserted
them among the dialogues of Aeschines. Moreover,
Aeschines made use of the
Little Cyrus, the
Lesser
Heracles and the
Alcibiades of Antisthenes as
well
as dialogues by other authors. However that may
be, of the writings of Aeschines those stamped with
a Socratic character are seven, namely
Miltiades,
which for that reason is somewhat weak; then
Callias, Axiochus, Aspasia, Alcibiades, Telauges,
and
Rhinon.
They say that want drove him to Sicily to the
court of Dionysius, and that Plato took no notice of
him, but he was introduced to Dionysius by Aristippus, and on presenting certain dialogues received
gifts from him.
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Afterwards on his return to Athens
he did not venture to lecture owing to the popularity
of Plato and Aristippus. But he took fees from
pupils, and subsequently composed forensic speeches
for aggrieved clients. This is the point of Timon's
reference to him as "the might of Aeschines, that
not unconvincing writer." They say that Socrates,
seeing how he was pinched by poverty, advised him
to borrow from himself by reducing his rations. Aristippus among others had suspicions of the genuineness of his dialogues. At all events, as he was
reading one at Megara, Aristippus rallied him by
asking, "Where did you get that, you thief?"
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Polycritus of Mende, in the first book of his
History
of Dionysius, says that he lived with the tyrant until
his expulsion from Syracuse, and survived until the
return of Dion, and that with him was Carcinus the
tragic poet. There is also extant an epistle of
Aeschines to Dionysius. That he had received a
good rhetorical training is clear from his defence of
the father of Phaeax the general, and from his
defence of Dion. He is a close imitator of Gorgias
of Leontini. Moreover, Lysias attacked him in a
speech which he entitled "On dishonesty." And
from this too it is clear that he was a rhetorician.
A single disciple of his is mentioned, Aristotle, whose
nickname was "Story."
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Panaetius thinks that, of all the Socratic dialogues, those by Plato, Xenophon, Antisthenes and
Aeschines are genuine; he is in doubt about those
ascribed to Phaedo and Euclides; but he rejects the
others one and all.
There are eight men who have borne the name of
Aeschines: (1) our subject himself; (2) the author of
handbooks of rhetoric; (3) the orator who opposed
Demosthenes; (4) an Arcadian, a pupil of Isocrates;
(5) a Mitylenean whom they used to call the "scourge
of rhetoricians"; (6) a Neapolitan, an Academic
philosopher, a pupil and favourite of Melanthius of
Rhodes; (7) a Milesian who wrote upon politics;
(8) a sculptor.