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Origins and Early Life

Aeschines, known in Greek as Aischines, was born around 389 BCE and is associated above all with Athens, the leading city of classical Greece. Ancient biographical tradition places him in a modest household: his father, Atrometus, is said to have taught boys, and his mother, Glaucothea, was connected with religious observances. Before entering public life he worked in the theater as an actor and later as a clerk, occupations that exposed him to performance, diction, and the language of public decree. He also served as a soldier, gaining the civic credentials expected of an Athenian before moving into the sphere of politics and lawcourts where he would make his name.

Entry into Politics

Aeschines rose amid the city's fierce debates over finance, empire, and the challenge posed by the rising Macedonian kingdom. He attached himself to the circle of Eubulus, a statesman associated with fiscal prudence and a cautious foreign policy, and learned the machinery of the Assembly and the Council as a secretary and public functionary. The question that defined his career was how Athens should respond to Philip II of Macedon. In the mid-340s BCE, as the war with Philip dragged on, the orator Philocrates proposed peace. Aeschines supported this course, and he was chosen as one of the envoys sent to negotiate with Philip, working alongside figures who were at once his colleagues and rivals, among them Demosthenes.

The Macedonian Question and the False Embassy

The peace concluded with Philip, known as the Peace of Philocrates, did not settle the Greek world. Disputes over the pace of negotiations, the delivery of oaths, and the gains Philip made during lulls in diplomacy led to bitter recriminations at Athens. Demosthenes, moving sharply into an anti-Macedonian stance, accused Aeschines of misconduct on the embassy and of favoring Philip's interests. Aeschines answered with the speech On the Embassy, defending his conduct and arguing that he had acted for the city's advantage within the constraints of the situation. He was acquitted, but the trial stamped him as a principal voice of the peace party and as Demosthenes' most formidable antagonist.

Lawcourt Battles and Civic Morality

The courtroom was the natural stage for these political struggles. Before the embassy case came to trial, Aeschines prosecuted Timarchus, an ally of Demosthenes, on charges that, if proven, would strip Timarchus of his right to speak in the Assembly. The speech Against Timarchus survives and shows Aeschines employing Athenian statutes on public morals to disqualify a political opponent. The strategy succeeded. This victory bolstered his standing among supporters of moderation and procedure, even as it intensified the hostility of the faction around Demosthenes and Hyperides.

Amphictyonic Affairs and the Road to Chaeronea

Aeschines' role extended beyond Athenian borders into interstate religious politics. As Athenian representative to the Amphictyonic Council at Delphi, he helped press charges of sacrilege against the city of Amphissa, an action that opened the Fourth Sacred War. Philip II used the ensuing conflict to intervene in central Greece in the name of the Amphictyons. The culmination was the Macedonian victory at Chaeronea in 338 BCE, which subdued the independent power of Athens and Thebes. After the defeat, Aeschines continued to counsel accommodation, a position that paralleled the prudence of Phocion, another prominent Athenian who urged realism in the face of Macedonian supremacy.

The Crown Trial

The final and most famous confrontation between Aeschines and Demosthenes came over a proposal by Ctesiphon to award Demosthenes a public crown for his services to the city. Aeschines charged that the motion violated the law, arguing both procedural defects and unworthiness of the honor. The trial in 330 BCE produced two masterpieces: Aeschines' Against Ctesiphon and Demosthenes' On the Crown. The jury awarded victory to Demosthenes. Under Athenian rules, Aeschines failed to secure a fifth of the votes and became liable to a penalty that effectively pushed him into exile.

Exile and Teaching

Aeschines left Athens for Rhodes, where he taught rhetoric. Later sources place him also on Samos. His reputation as a teacher drew on his mastery of narrative, invective, and the careful exposition of law and decree. A well-known anecdote, repeated in antiquity, has him reading Demosthenes' On the Crown to students in Rhodes and remarking on its power; whether or not the story is exact, it reflects the rivalry's enduring fame and Aeschines' own appreciation of eloquence. He is reported to have died around 314 BCE, having spent his final years away from the city whose politics had made him both prominent and polarizing.

Works and Style

Three speeches by Aeschines have survived complete: Against Timarchus, On the Embassy, and Against Ctesiphon. They form a coherent record of late classical Athenian politics viewed from the side that advocated legality, cautious diplomacy, and the conservation of civic resources. Stylistically, Aeschines favored clear narrative, appeals to the letter and spirit of statute, and sharply drawn character portraits. Where Demosthenes often pressed the jury with urgent, forward-driving argument against Macedonian encroachment, Aeschines placed emphasis on procedure, precedent, and the dangers of reckless policy.

Associations and Opponents

The principal figures in Aeschines' public life were Demosthenes, his relentless adversary; Philip II, whose expansion precipitated the choices that divided Athens; Ctesiphon and Philocrates, whose proposals triggered two of the defining cases of the age; Eubulus, whose program of financial stability shaped Aeschines' early orientation; Phocion, whose post-Chaeronea policy of restraint often intersected with Aeschines' own; and Hyperides, a brilliant orator aligned with the anti-Macedonian camp. Alexander the Great's succession to Philip, and the transformation of Greek politics that followed, provided the altered landscape in which Aeschines' exile and teaching took place.

Legacy

Aeschines stands among the canonical Attic orators not only for stylistic merit but for the window his speeches give onto the civic arguments of his time. Read beside Demosthenes, he represents a consequential alternative: the belief that Athens, threatened by superior force, should seek advantage through law, alliance, and managed peace rather than confrontation at all costs. However posterity has judged that choice, the surviving works show a statesman and advocate deeply engaged with the institutions, laws, and anxieties of his city. Through them, Aeschines remains a central witness to the last decades of the independent Athenian polis.