Demosthenes, Speeches 20-22

CONTENTS

Download PDF (40.9 KB)
 

SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE

Download PDF (56.4 KB)
pp. ix-x

This is the twelfth volume in a series of translations of The Oratory of Classical Greece. The aim of the series is to make available primarily for those who do not read Greek up-to-date, accurate, and readable translations with introductions and explanatory notes of all the surviving works and major fragments of the Attic orators of the classical ...

TRANSLATOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Download PDF (50.4 KB)
pp. xi-xii

I would like to express my gratitude to several scholars who were kind enough to help me at various stages in the preparation of this book. Fred Naiden read over some early drafts of the translations, pointed out errors and omissions, and offered suggestions for improvement. At a later stage, Peter J. Rhodes scrutinized the introductions ...

SERIES INTRODUCTION: Greek Oratory

Download PDF (131.3 KB)
pp. xiii-xxix

From as early as Homer (and undoubtedly much earlier) the Greeks placed a high value on effective speaking. Even Achilles, whose greatness was primarily established on the battlefield, was brought up to be “a speaker of words and a doer of deeds” (Iliad 9.443); and Athenian leaders of the sixth and fifth centuries,¹ such as Solon, Themistocles, ...

INTRODUCTION TO DEMOSTHENES

Download PDF (61.8 KB)
pp. 1-5

Since antiquity Demosthenes (384–322 BC) has usually been judged the greatest of the Attic orators. Although the patriotic and nationalistic tenor of his message has been more highly regarded in some periods of history than in others, he is unique in his mastery of so many different rhetorical styles and his ability to blend them into a powerful ensemble. ...

INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME

Download PDF (84.2 KB)
pp. 6-14

The three speeches in this volume were delivered at trials during the decade following the Social War (357–355 BCE). This period marked an important transition in the history of Athenian democracy. Earlier in the fourth century the Athenians attempted to regain the hegemony that they had lost by their defeat in the Peloponnesian War.¹ In 378 the ...

20. Against Leptines

Download PDF (370.1 KB)
pp. 15-74

The Athenians assigned many public duties called liturgies to wealthy citizens and metics (resident aliens). These were divided into military (e.g., the trierarchy) and festival liturgies. The festival liturgies were quite numerous: there were normally over 97 every year, but this number could rise to over 118 once every four years when ...

21. Against Meidias

Download PDF (463.0 KB)
pp. 75-166

Meidias, the defendant in this case, was born around 395 or later¹ and came from a wealthy family; his father Cephisodorus served as trierarch.² Meidias made enough money from mining in Attica (see 167) to perform liturgies (151, 156), to qualify for inclusion among the Three Hundred in the naval symmories (157), and to donate a trireme ...

22. Against Androtion

Download PDF (195.2 KB)
pp. 167-196

Androtion was a wealthy Athenian who was active in politics.¹ His father Andron was associated with prominent intellectuals in the late fifth century² and may have played a role in the Revolution of 411.³ Two sources make Androtion a student of the orator Isocrates,⁴ but in his Antidosis, Isocrates (15.93–94) does not list him among his pupils.⁵...

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THIS VOLUME

Download PDF (83.9 KB)
pp. 197-206

INDEX

Download PDF (66.6 KB)
pp. 207-211