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HISTORY IN THE 'ORATORS' 329 Euxenippus was commissioned to sleep in a temple and report his dream. His dream apparently was in favour of the god. The politician Polyeuctus made a motion in accordance with it ; but the Assembly over- ruled the dream, decided that the motion was illegal, and fined Polyeuctus twenty-live drachmas. In pardon- able irritation he turned on the dreamer, and prose- cuted him for reporting to the Assembly "things not in the public interest." There are innumerable side-lights on politics, espe- cially in Lysias as to the attitude of parties after the revolution of 404. To take one instance, his short speech Against the Corn-Dealers throws a vivid light on the economic condition of the time and the influence of the great guild of wholesale importers. The demo- cratic leader Anytus was corn-warden of the Piraeus in the year of scarcity 388. In a praiseworthy attempt to keep the price down, he had apparently authorised the retail corn-dealers of the Piraeus to form a ' ring ' against the importers, and buy the whole stock cheap. The dealers did so; but 'rings' in corn were expressly forbidden in Attic law, and the importers took action. They were too powerful to be defied ; they could at any time create an artificial famine. And we find the great democratic advocate making the best of a bad business by sacrificing the unhappy dealers and trying to screen Anytus ! Thirdly, it would be affected to deny to Greek oratory a permanent value on the grounds of beauty. The PJiilippics^ the Olynthiacs^ and the De Corona have some- thing of that air of eternal grandeur which only belongs to the highest imaginative work. Hyperides, -/Eschines, Andocides are striking writers in their different styles.