There are various
other statements made by the many authors who have related the
story, but there is no need to enter into their discrepancies; yet
I must not omit what is said by Demochares, the relation of
Demosthenes, who is of opinion, it was not by the help of poison
that he met with no sudden and so easy a death, but that by the
singular favor and providence of the gods he was thus rescued from
the cruelty of the Macedonians. He died on the sixteenth of
Pyanepsion, the most sad and solemn day of the Thesmophoria, which
the women observe by fasting in the temple of the goddess.
Soon after his death, the people of Athens bestowed on him such
honors as he had deserved. They erected his statue of brass; they
decreed that the eldest of his family should be maintained in the
Prytaneum; and on the base of his statue was engraven the famous
inscription,--
Had you for Greece been strong, as wise you were,
The Macedonian had not conquered her.
A little before we went to Athens, the following incident was said
to have happened. A soldier, being summoned to appear before his
superior officer, and answer to an accusation brought against him,
put a little gold which he had into the hands of Demosthenes's
statue.
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