Vitae decem oratorum
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Hypereides was the son of Glaucippus and grandson of Dionysius, of the deme of Collytê. He had a son, Glaucippus, named after his grandfather, who was an orator and writer of speeches.
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He in turn had a son Alphinous. After being a pupil of the philosopher Plato, along with Lycurgus, and of the orator Isocrates, Hypereides entered upon public life at Athens at the time when Alexander was interfering in the affairs of Greece. And he spoke in opposition to him concerning the generals whose surrender he demanded of the Athenians and concerning the triremes. He also advised against disbanding the mercenary force at Taenarum under the command of Chares, since he was well disposed towards that general. At first he pleaded in suits at law in return for a fee. And since he was believed to have shared the Persian funds
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with Ephialtes, and was elected trierarch when Philip was besieging Byzantium, he was sent out to aid the Byzantines; and in that year he bore the expense of a chorus,
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when others were released from all contributions to the public service. He also proposed honours for Demosthenes, and when suit was brought by Diondas on the ground that the decree was contrary to law, he was acquitted. Although he was a friend of Demosthenes, Lysicles, Lycurgus, and their associates, he did not remain so to the end; but when Lysicles and Lycurgus were dead and Demosthenes was being tried for receiving bribes from Harpalus, he was chosen from all the orators (for he alone was unbribed) and brought the accusation against him. And when he was brought to trial by Aristogeiton for illegal conduct in proposing a decree after the battle of Chaeroneia to grant citizenship to the resident aliens, to set the slaves free, and to put the sacred objects, the children, and the women in Peiraeus for safekeeping, he was acquitted. And when certain persons blame d him for having disregarded many laws in his decree, he said,
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The shields of the Macedonians cast a shadowThe shadow of the shields made him fail to see the laws (taking παριδόντα literally). over my eyes,
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and
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It was not I, but the battle of Chaeroneia, that proposed the decree.
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After this, however, Philip was frightened and granted permission to remove the bodies of the slain, though before that he had refused it to the heralds who came from Lebadeia. Later, however, after the battle of Crannon,
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when his surrender was demanded by Antipater and the people was on the point of surrendering him, he fled from the city to Aegina along with those against whom decrees had been passed. Here he met Demosthenes and excused
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himself for his disagreement with him. After leaving Aegina he was seized forcibly by Archias,
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nicknamed
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The Exile-Hunter
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(a Thurian by birth, at first an actor, but at that time an assistant of Antipater), in the temple of Poseidon
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while clinging to the statue of the god. He was brought to Antipater at Corinth, and when put to the torture he bit off his tongue that he might not be able to utter any secrets of his native city. And in this way he died, on the ninth day of the month of Pyanepsion. But Hermippus
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says that he went to Macedonia, where his tongue was cut out and he was thrown out unburied, and that Alphinous, who was his cousin (or, as some say, the son of his son Glaucippus), obtained possession of the body by the aid of a physician named Philopeithes, burned it and brought the bones to Athens to his relatives contrary to the decrees of the Athenians and the Macedonians; for they had ordered, not only that he be exiled, but that he be not even buried in his own country. And others say that he died at Cleonae after being brought there with the rest, where his tongue was cut out and he perished in the manner related above; and that his relatives obtained the bones and buried them with his ancestors before the gates of the Hippades,
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as Heliodorus says in the third book of his work
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On Monuments
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. But now the monument has fallen in ruins and cannot be identified.
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He is said to have excelled all in addressing the people; and by some critics he is ranked above Demosthenes. Seventy-seven speeches are current
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under his name, fifty-two of which are genuine.
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He was also very prone to sexual indulgence, so that he turned his son out of the house and brought in Myrrhina, the most expensive prostitute, kept Aristagora in Peiraeus, and at his own estate in Eleusis kept the Theban girl Phila, whom he had ransomed for twenty minas. He used to walk in the Fish-market every day.
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And, as it is indeed reasonable to suppose, it was because he had been intimate also with Phrynê
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the courtesan that when she was on trial for impiety he became her advocate; for he makes this plain himself at the beginning of his speech.
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And when she was likely to be found guilty, he led the woman out into the middle of the court and, tearing off her clothes, displayed her breasts. When the judges saw her beauty, she was acquitted.
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He quietly compiled accusations against Demosthenes and the fact became known; for once, when he was ill, Demosthenes came to his house to visit him and found him with the document against himself in his hand; and when Demosthenes was angry, Hypereides said,
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It will do you no harm while you are my friend, but if you become my enemy, it will prevent your doing anything against me.
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He also proposed a decree conferring honours upon Iolas, who was supposed to have given Alexander the poison.
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He took part with Leosthenes in the Lamian War
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and delivered the funeral oration for the fallen in marvellous fashion. When Philip was preparing to sail against Euboea, and the Athenians were afraid, he assembled forty triremes by private contributions, and in his own name and his son’s he gave two triremes, the first contribution made. And when a dispute arose with the Delians as to which people should have control of the sanctuary, although Aeschines was chosen Athenian advocate, the senate of the Areopagus elected Hypereides; and his speech is the one entitled
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The Delian
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. He was also an envoy to the Rhodians. And when envoys came from Antipater and praised their sender as a good man, in replying to them he said,
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We know that he is good, but we do not want a good master.
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It is said that in addressing the public he did not employ the actor’s art, that he merely related the facts of the case and did not bore the jurors even with these. He was sent also to the Eleans to defend the athlete Callippus against the charge of having used corruption in the contest, and he won his case; but when he brought a suit against the grant of a gift for Phocion, which Meidias, son of Meidias, of the deme Anagyros, proposed in the archonship of Xenias,
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on the twentyfourth day of Gamelion, he was defeated.