Visions of Attica

Chapter 15 examines Demosthenes’ warnings of a Macedonian attack on Attica. Since the fifth century, Attica had figured prominently in the political imagery of classical Athens; the defence of the Attic homeland against foreign invaders was highlighted in this imagery and the narratives that articulated the political identity of the Athenians, their self-perception as group, and the collective values on which they built their community. The chapter argues that Demosthenes’ warnings of a Macedonian threat to Attica were informed by this tradition, and that he drew on this old and emotive imagery in order to turn the struggle against his enemies into a matter of Athenian identity. After providing an overview of Attica as depicted in the political imagery of classical Athens, the chapter considers the theme of Attica under attack in Demosthenes’ oratory against Philip II of Macedon.

Corruption

Chapter 13 examines the problem of corruption in Classical Athens. There are numerous references to corruption in Demosthenes, Attic oratory, and Greek literature. In an Athenian context, corruption typically involved the bribery of prominent officials. A central issue is ‘katapolitical’ bribery, or bribery at the expense of public interests or with intention to damage institutions or the community. The article considers the institutional and legal regulations adopted by Athens to combat bribery as well as the range of penalties and procedures against offenders, including prosecution. It also discusses the case of Aeschines, who was prosecuted by Demosthenes in his speech On the False Embassy (Dem. 19; Aeschin. 2) for mismanagement on the second embassy (parapresbeia) in support of the Peace of Philocrates in 346.

The Athenian Military

Chapter 12 focuses on the Athenian military during the fourth century. By the time Demosthenes was a youth Athens had more or less recovered after its major losses in the Peloponnesian Wars, but it never regained the position of power that it used to occupy in Greece at the beginning of the war. Although the Peace of Antalcidas (or King’s Peace) of 387 had largely freed Athens from the constraints of the peace treaty of 404 and despite the establishment in 378/7 of the Second Athenian League, the city was reduced to just one among a number of powers in the Greek world. Major military setbacks in conflicts with leading members of the Alliance in 357–355 and against Philip II of Macedon further restricted the Athenians’ sphere of influence. The chapter first considers military development and military leadership in fourth-century Athens before discussing the Athenian army and the fleet.

Athenian State Finances

Chapter 11 examines the finances of Classical Athens. Following its defeat at the hands of the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, Athens had to deal with a number of longer-term fiscal challenges. Most immediately, the loss to Sparta put an end to wealth drawn from the empire in tribute and other sources. By war’s end, the city had exhausted the large reserves it once commanded. Another major challenge was the loss in revenues from the Laurium mines with the flight of the slave labour force. After discussing the challenges and responses of the Athenian state with regards to public finance during the fourth century, the article considers Demosthenes’ views on Athenian state finance as articulated in his speeches.

Historical Readings of Oratory

Chapter 3 examines how contemporary historians use the Attic orators. It first considers political histories of Philip II of Macedon and their dependence upon speeches from the Demosthenic corpus, noting how the emergence of vernacular translations of Demosthenes and Aeschines in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France and England were harbingers of the first histories of Philip. The chapter then explores problems that affect historians, in particular those relating to authorship, authenticity, chronology, and bias, before describing how the orators are useful for different types of historians, such as economic, social, religious, and legal historians. Finally, it analyses problems that arise from the constraints of the corpus, focusing on the forensic speeches. More specifically, it considers the consequences of using speeches that represent a limited class of litigants and that aim at persuasion rather than truth; epigraphic evidence may at times be a remedy for the first problem, and the application of the method of ‘forensic attestation’ for the second.

The Epitaphios, Erotikos, Prooimia, and Letters

Chapter 30 examines Demosthenes’ Funeral Oration (Epitaphios), Erotikos or Erotic Essay, prologues (prooimia) or rhetorical openings of political speeches, and six letters—works that have often been relegated to the sidelines of Demosthenic studies because of the orator’s longer and more famous speeches, but offer crucial insights into the history, society, and politics of ancient Greece as well as Demosthenes’ rhetorical style. The content and context of these works and their authenticity are discussed. It shows that almost all of the six letters found in Demosthenes’ corpus were written during his period of exile in the aftermath of the Harpalus affair, and that the authorship of the prooimia is almost certainly Demosthenic since some of them match openings of his extant speeches.

Literary Readings of Oratory

Chapter 2 first maps some significant literary features in Demosthenes’ public speeches (such as êthos, pathos, logos, inter- and intra-textuality, and manufactured pseudo-objectivity) and then in four case studies demonstrates their application to support his political agenda: persuasion by êthos takes a satirical turn to galvanize visceral emotion and enforce self-recognition; an elaborate ‘language war’ reinforces the illusion of objective analysis; intra-textual self-validation produces luminous showpieces where identity is enacted; and virtuoso ekphrastic moments disclose the poetics of demegoric persuasion. Together these features create a sense of urgency and inevitability, engaging and persuading through powerful affective, cognitive, and aesthetic appeals.

Views on the Past

Chapter 14 examines how versions of the past, particularly the Athenian past, figure and are deployed rhetorically in the public part of Demosthenes’ texts. It considers Demosthenes’ conception of Athenian history and the ways that he fashioned his historical material for communication to mass audiences by comparing his practice with that of Lycurgus, Aeschines, Hyperides, and Dinarchus. It discusses the basic unit of historical reference in Athenian oratorical texts, the paradeigma or illustrative analogy, and analyses Demosthenes’ uses of historical themes and argumentation in relation to the overall strategies of the speeches concerned. Finally, it highlights some key factors affecting the compositional and presentational choices made by orators as well as the extent to which orators modelled their self-presentation strategies on those of their political seniors (or indeed on more chronologically distant figures) and modified them to respond to those of successful rivals.

Political Elites

Chapter 8 focuses on how political elites in Athens are represented in Demosthenes’ speeches, with particular emphasis on the speakers and politicians. The speakers were a self-selected rather than elected group whose status depended on the willingness of ordinary citizens to listen to them and take them seriously. They were also usually members of the wealth elite. Although there were no formal political parties in Athens, fourth-century politicians often collaborated in informal groups to achieve their objectives. The article considers select passages from Against Meidias, a speech by Demosthenes that illustrates the importance of competition, democratic ideology, and personal history in shaping his portrayal of the proper and improper ways of being elite.

Law and Justice

Chapter 6 examines the role of law and justice in the speeches of Demosthenes and other Greek orators. The Demosthenic corpus consists of 42 judicial speeches in which issues of justice are central and legal cases are assessed for their conformity with the laws of Athens. After discussing how the laws and justice figure in the oratory of Demosthenes, in connection with the judges’ expectations and with the rules and institutional habits that determined how these cases were assessed, the chapter considers the place of law and justice in Athenian trials. It also analyses the ways that the law is applied in the Athenian lawcourts and the importance of laws being consistent among themselves and in the principles they foster.