DINARCHUS

Form: Deinarchos.

The last of the ten great Attic orators. He was born at Corinth about 361 B.C., and came early to Athens, where he became the pupil and friend of Theophrastus and Demetrius of Phalerum. After B.C. 336, and especially after the death of the great orators, he acquired wealth and reputation by writing speeches for others. He was involved in the ruin of his patron, Demetrius, and in 307 went into voluntary exile at Chalcis in Euboea. It was fifteen years before he obtained permission to return, through the good offices of Theophrastus. Robbed of his property by the treachery of a friend, and nearly blind, he died at Athens, more than 70 years old. His speeches, which were very numerous (there were at least fifty-eight), are all lost, except three on the trial of Harpalus, one of which is directed against Demosthenes. They do not give a favourable idea of his powers. In the opinion of the ancients his style had no individuality, but was an unsuccessful imitation, at one time of Lysias, at another of Hyperides, at another of Demosthenes.