Menesaechmus an Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 and an inveterate enemy of the orator Lycurgus

Lycurgus of Athens

Lycurgus was a logographer in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace in the third century BCE.Lycurgus was born at Athens about 396 BC, and was the son of Lycophron, who belonged...

, by whom he was impeached on a charge of impiety and convicted. When Lycurgus felt his end drawing near (323 BC

323 BC

Year 323 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Longus and Cerretanus...

), he had himself brought into the council

Boule (Ancient Greece)

In cities of ancient Greece, the boule meaning to will ) was a council of citizens appointed to run daily affairs of the city...

 to give an account of his public conduct, and Menesaechmus was the only man who ventured to find fault with it. He continued his hostility to the sons of Lycurgus after their father's death, and so far succeeded in a prosecution against them, that they were delivered into the custody of the Eleven. They were released, however, on the remonstrance of Demosthenes

Demosthenes

Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...

.