Charikles was mean
enough to accept this commission; and he incurred even more disgrace
from the appearance of the tomb when it was completed. It stands at
the present day in the precinct of Hermes, on the road from Athens to
Eleusis, and cannot have cost anything like thirty talents, which sum
is said to have been paid to Charikles by Harpalus for its
construction. Besides this, after his death, his daughter was adopted
by Charikles and Phokion, and received every attention from them.
When, however, Charikles was prosecuted for having taken a share of
the treasure of Harpalus,[635] and begged Phokion to come into court
and speak in his favour, Phokion refused, saying "Charikles, I chose
you to be my son-in-law in all honesty."
When Asklepiades, the son of Hipparchus, first brought the news of
Alexander's death to Athens, Demades advised the people not to believe
it. Such a corpse, he declared, must have been smelt throughout the
world. Phokion, seeing that the people were excited at the report,
endeavoured to soothe and pacify them. Upon this many rushed to the
tribune, and loudly declared that Asklepiades had brought true
tidings, and that Alexander was really dead. "If," replied Phokion,
"he is dead to-day, he will be dead to-morrow and the day after, so
that we may quietly, and with all the greater safety, take counsel as
to what we are to do."
XXIII. When Leosthenes plunged the city into the war[636] for the
liberation of Greece, as Phokion opposed him, he sneeringly asked him
what good he had done the city during the many years that he had been
general.
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