Demochares is first heard of in 322 BC, when he spoke in vain against the surrender of Demosthenes and the other anti-Macedonian orators demanded by Antipater.
In 280 BC, he induced the Athenians to erect a public monument in honour of his uncle with a suitable inscription.
After his death (some five years later), Laches, the son of Demochares proposed and obtained a decree [2] that a statue should be erected in his honour, containing a record of his public services, which seem to have consisted in a reduction of public expenses, a more prudent management of the state finances (after his return in 287 BC) and successful begging missions to the rulers of Egypt and Macedon.
[1] Although a friend of the Stoic Zeno, Demochares regarded all other philosophers as the enemies of freedom, and in 306 BC supported the proposal of one Sophocles, advocating their expulsion from Attica.
[5] See also Plutarch, Demosthenes,[6] Demetrius,[7] Vitae decem oratorum;[8] Johann Droysen's essay on Demochares in Zeitschrift fur die Altertumswissenschaft (1836), Nos.