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AFTER CH.ERONEA 361 demanded the persons of ten leaders of the war party at Athens, Demosthenes among them. Demades, the mediator after Chaeronea, acted the same part now. Alexander was appeased by the condemnation of the general Charidemus ; the other proclaimed persons were spared (335 B.C.). These repeated failures made Demosthenes cautious. He drew closer to the patient opportunism of Demades and gradually alienated the extreme war party. This gave his old enemies the opening for their most elabo- rate attack. It was indirect and insidious in more ways than one. A certain Ctesiphon — celebrated, according to ^schines, as being the only man who laughed at Demosthenes's jokes — had proposed soon after Chaero- nea to crown Demosthenes in the theatre of Dionysus in recognition of his public services, ^schines had in the same year indicted Ctesiphon for illegality, but for some reason the trial did not take place till 330. The speech Against Ctesiphon rests on three charges : it was illegal to crown an official during his term of office, and Demosthenes held two offices at the time ; secondly, it was against precedent to give crowns in the theatre ; thirdly, Demosthenes was a bad citizen and ought not to be crowned. Obviously, if the third point was to be considered at all, the other two sank into insignificance. The action was a set challenge to Demosthenes, and he came forward as counsel for Ctesiphon {On the Crown), to meet it by a full exposition of his political life. But here comes the insidiousness of ^schines's attack. In the real points at issue between the two policies the country was overwhelmingly on the side of De- mosthenes. The burning question was whether the