Harpalus
Harpalus (
Life
Lame in one leg and therefore exempt from military service, Harpalus did not follow Alexander into the
Harpalus Affair
In 324 BC, Harpalus sought refuge in Athens. He was imprisoned by the Athenians at the instigation of Demosthenes and Phocion, despite the opposition of Hypereides, who wanted an immediate—and certain to fail[3]—uprising against Alexander.[4] The Ecclesia, at the suggestion of Demosthenes,[4] decided to guard Harpalus' money, which was entrusted to a committee headed by Demosthenes himself. When the committee counted the money, they found 350 talents, although Harpalus had declared that he had 700 talents.[4]
When Harpalus escaped and fled to Crete, the orator faced a new wave of public outrage. The Areopagus held an inquiry, the results of which led to Demosthenes being charged with the misuse of 20 talents from the money Harpalus had brought. At Demosthenes' trial in the Heliaia before an unusually large jury of 1,500, Hypereides, the chief prosecutor, pointed out that Demosthenes had admitted taking the money, but said that he had used it for the people and had borrowed it free of interest. The prosecutor rejected this argument and accused Demosthenes of being bribed by Alexander.[4] Demosthenes was found guilty, fined 50 talents and imprisoned, as he was unable to pay such a huge sum, but after a few days, thanks to the carelessness or connivance of some citizens,[5] he escaped and travelled around Calauria, Aegina and Troezen. The Athenians soon overturned the sentence and sent a ship to Aegina to bring Demosthenes back to the port of Piraeus.[6]
Demosthenes did not return to Athens until nine months later, after Alexander's death.
Death on Crete
According to Pausanias, "shortly after Harpalus ran away from Athens and crossed with a squadron to Crete, he was put to death by the servants who were attending him (in 323 BC), though some assert that he was assassinated by Pausanias, a Macedonian".[7] The geographer also tells the following story: "The steward of his money fled to Rhodes, and was arrested by a Macedonian, Philoxenus, who also had demanded Harpalus from the Athenians. Having this slave in his power, he proceeded to examine him, until he learned everything about such as had allowed themselves to accept a bribe from Harpalus. On obtaining this information he sent a dispatch to Athens, in which he gave a list of such as had taken a bribe from Harpalus, both their names and the sums each had received. Demosthenes, however, he never mentioned at all, although Alexander held him in bitter hatred, and he himself had a private quarrel with him."[7]
Harpalus appears in the historical novel
References
- S2CID 250245906.
- ^ Kingsley, Bonnie M. (1986). "Harpalos in the Megarid (333-331 B.C.) and the Grain Shipments from Cyrene (S.E.G. IX 2 + = Tod, Greek Hist. Inscr. II No. 196)". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 66: 165.
- ^ a b c Grote, George (1856). A history of Greece, Volume 12. London: John Murray.
- ^ a b c d Hypereides, Against Demosthenes, 1
- ^ Plutarch, Demosthenes, 26
- ^ Plutarch, Demosthenes, 31
- ^ a b Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2, 33