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Fighting Philip with Decrees: Demosthenes and the Syndrome of Symbolic Action
- American Journal of Philology
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 127, Number 3 (Whole Number 507), Fall 2006
- pp. 367-386
- 10.1353/ajp.2006.0040
- Article
- Additional Information
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Demosthenes' Philippic cycle conveys a satirical picture of Athenians trapped in a spiral of symbolic activity: to a demos nostalgic for great-power status but loath to energetic intervention, high-sounding resolutions substitute for low-level responses and by their character as official enactments create the illusion of meaningful engagement. This "syndrome" is a rhetorical scare-image subserving a political agenda. At a time when his influence was still limited, Demosthenes found it expedient to exaggerate the cautious approach of the "peace party" into a "knowing-doing gap" in order to move the audience to accept his own hard line on the Macedonian question.