Aeschines
Aeschines (c.397–c.322 BC),Athenian orator whose exchanges with Demosthenes in the courts in 343 and 330 provide a large part of the evidence for the relations of Athens and Macedon in the 340s and the 330s. His origins were sufficiently obscure to allow Demosthenes' invention full play. He probably did not receive the usual formal training in rhetoric, but after military service of some distinction in the 360s and early 350s, and a period as an actor, he embarked on a public career as a supporter first briefly of Aristophon and then of Eubulus, during whose supervision of the city's finances Aeschines' brother, Aphobetus, was a theoric commissioner (responsible for distribution of grants for attendance at festivals). In 347/6 both Aeschines and Demosthenes were members of the Council of 500 and their disagreements led to sixteen years of enmity. Early in 346 (though many have dated the affair to...
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