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DEMOCHARES (c. 355–275 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 1 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DEMOCHARES (c. 355–275 B.C.) , See also:nephew of See also:Demosthenes, Athenian orator and stateman, was one of the few distinguished Athenians in the See also:period of decline. He is first heard of in 322, when he spoke in vain against the surrender of Demosthenes and the other See also:anti-Macedonian orators demanded by See also:Antipater. During the next fifteen years he probably lived in See also:exile. On the restoration of the See also:democracy by See also:Demetrius Poliorcetes in 307 he occupied a prominent position, but was banished in 303 for having ridiculed the See also:decree of Stratocles, which contained a fulsome eulogy of Demetrius. He was recalled in 298, and during the next four years 1 fortified and equipped the See also:city with provisions and See also:ammunition. In 296 (or 295) he was again banished for having concluded an See also:alliance with the Boeotians, and did not return until 287 (or 286). In 28o he induced the Athenians to erect a public See also:monument in See also:honour of his See also:uncle with a suitable inscription. After his See also:death (some five years later) the son of Demochares proposed and obtained a decree (See also:Plutarch, Vitae decem oratorum, p. 851) that a statue should be erected in his honour, containing a See also:record of his public services, which seem to have consisted in a reduction of public expenses, a more prudent management of the See also:state finances (after his return in 287) and successful begging See also:missions to the rulers of See also:Egypt and See also:Macedonia. Although a friend of the Stoic See also:Zeno, Demochares regarded all other philosophers as the enemies of freedom, and in 306 supported the proposal of one See also:Sophocles, advocating their See also:expulsion from See also:Attica. According to See also:Cicero (See also:Brutus, 83) Demochares was the author of a See also:history of his own times, written in an oratorical rather than a See also:historical See also:style.

As a See also:

speaker he was noted for his freedom of See also:language (Parrhesiastes, See also:Seneca, De ira, iii. 23). He was violently attacked by See also:Timaeus, but found a strenuous defender in See also:Polybius (xii. 13). See also Plutarch, Demosthenes, 30, Demetrius, 24, Vitae decem oratorum, p. 847; J. G. See also:Droysen's See also:essay on Demochares in Zeitschrift See also:fur See also:die Altertumswissenschaft (1836), Nos. 2o, 21.

End of Article: DEMOCHARES (c. 355–275 B.C.)

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