[46]
But not to spend our time
rehearsing ancient examples while others are available closer to our own
times,1 you will discover that Timotheus
was deemed worthy of the highest repute and numerous honors, not because of his
activities as a younger man, but because of his performances after he had
studied with Isocrates.2 You will discover
also that Archytas of Tarentum became ruler of his city and managed its affairs
so admirably and so considerately as to spread the record of that achievement to
all mankind; yet at first he was despised and he owed his remarkable progress to
studying with Plato.3
1 The phrase “closer to our own times” is defined by the mention of Timotheus, who died in 355 B.C., just after Demosthenes entered public life. The author, whether the orator or a forger, belongs to the second half of the fourth century.
2 Timotheus, son of Conon, was called by Cornelius Nepos the last Athenian general worthy of mention. Demosthenes regularly spoke of him with admiration.
3 There is a brief life of Archytas which may be consulted in the Loeb translation. It is not known positively that he was a pupil of Plato, but he was his friend: Plat. L. 7.338c,350a; Plat. L. 13.360c. His adherence was to the school of Pythagoras.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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