Demosthenes (384–322 BC, Greek: Δημοσθένης, Dēmosthénēs) was a prominent
Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens.
Chronological Table
384 Birth of
Aristotle.
383 Birth of Philip II. king of Macedon
382 Probable birth year of Demosthenes.
Seizure of the Cadmeia at Thebes by the Lacedaemonians, in the first
campaign of their war
against Olynthus.
381 Siege of Phlius by Agesilaus.
380 Isocrates publishes his Пагчуириса!.
379 The Cadmeia recovered by the Theban
exiles.
378 Death of Lysias and Archonship of
Nausinicus. New valuation at Athens for taxation.
376 Chabrias gains the battle of Naxos.
Phocion, then a young man, present at it.
375 Demosthenes an orphan at seven years of
age. Some assign BC. 382, others BC 377 for the date.
374 Plataeae destroyed by the Thebans, the
inhabitants taking refuge at Athens. Timotheus restores some Zacynthiau
exiles . Isocraties:
373 Timotheus superseded in hie appointment
for Corcyra by Iphicrates. Trial of Timotheus.
371 Congress at Sparta excluding Thebes.
Battle of Leuctra. Foundation of Megalopolis.
369 First invasion of Laconia by Thebans.
Restoration of the Messenians. Alliance of Athens with Lacedaemon.
368 Second invasion of Laconia by the
Thebans. Attempt of the king of Persia to negotiate peace.
367 Archidamus III gains the ' Tearless
Battle.' Pelopidas goes on an embassy to Persia. Aristotle visits Athens
at seventeen years of age.
366 Epaminondas enters Achala. Oropus lost by
the Athenians. Alliance between Athens and Arcadia. Corinth and Phlius
make a separate peace with Thebes. Demosthenes of age, and commences
proceedings against his guardians.
364 Battle at Olympia between the Arcadians
and Eleans during the games. Timotheus conquers Potidaea. Speech of
Demosthenes against Aphobus.
362 Fourth expedition of Epaminondas into
Peloponnesus. Battle of Mantineia, and his death. Artaxerxes Ochus
succeeds to the
Persian throne. Revolt of some of his Satraps.
361 General peace, but excluding the
Lacedaemonians. Recognition of the independence of Messene.. Banishment of
Callistratus the orator.
360 Failure of Timotheus in his attempt on
Amphipolis then held by the Olynthians. Theopompus commences his
history from this year. Embassy of Athenians to Thrace.
359 Accession of Philip. Cotys king of Thrace
assassinated, and Thrace divided amongst three kings. Assassination of
Alexander of Pherae.
358 Amphipolis taken by Philip. Expedition of
the Athenians to Euboea against the Thebans. Cersobletes gives up the
Chersonese to the Athenians except Cardia.
357 Commencement of the Social War. Death of
Chabrias. The Phocians seize Delphi and its treasures. Philip conquers
Pydna and Potidaea.
356 Birth of Alexander. Isocratis vtpl
Elpi'iviis. Alliance of Philip with Olynthus.
355 Athens makes peace with her allies.
Demosthenes is twenty-seven years of age.
His speeches against Androtion and against Leptines.
354 Speech Trial and condemnation of
Timotheus.
353 Philip seizes Pagasae, and besieges
Methone, p. 26. The speech for the Megalopoíitans late in this year or
early in the next. The speech against Timocrates.
352 Lycophron of Pherae calls in Onomarchus.
Philip's attempt to pass Thermopylae foiled by the Athenians. The speech
against Aristocrates. Philip besieges 'Hpcitov теГ^оу in Thrace,
and falls sick.
351 The First Philippic and the speech for
the Rhodians
350 The speech irpbs Boiwrbr vfpl
roí ovíparos, and the irapaypa<p¡Kos inrtp
QopfjLÍuvos.
349 Battle of Tamynae in Euboea. Demosthenes
thirty-two years of age and Choragus. (Mr. Clinton gives B.c. 350 as the
date for these events.) The Olyuthiac Orations.
348 Capture of Olynthus by Philip. Probable
date of the speech against Meidias.
347 Philip celebrates the Olympia at Dium.
Death of Plato. First embassy to Philip for peace on the motion of
Philocrates (November). The speeches *pbt Bourrby trrtp irpoucis, and rpbs
Патш- vtTov TrapaypaipLKÍS.
346 Return of the first embassy (March), and
acceptance of peace by Athens. Philip prosecutes his conquests in Thrace
till the second embassy receives his ratification. Philip then
crushes the Phocians, concludes the Sacred War, is made one of the
Amphictyons, and celebrates as president the Pythian game?. The speeches
... and .... Isocratis
345 Aeschinis ката Tiapxou. Philip intrigues
in the Peloponnesus, and supports the Messenians against Sparta.
344 Demosthenes as Ambassador of Athens warns
the Messenians and Argives of Philip's intentions. Thessalv divided and
regulated by Philip after a victorious campaign in Thrace. The Second
Philippic. Amendments proposed in the Peace.
343 Philip fails in his attempts on Ambracia
and Leucas, through the intervention of Athens. Demosthenes goes as an
Ambassador to Acarnania. Philip supports the Cardians against Diopeithes.
The speech on Halonncsus. The speeches irtpl napairpeffßdas.
342 Macedonian troops occupy Oreus in Euboea.
Philip in Thrace for eleven months, and threatens the Propontis and the
Hellespont. Aristotle visits the court of Philp. The speech on the
Chersonese, also that кат' 'Ob-vfi-iuoSapov. (Clinton dates the ' Do
Chersoneso ' in B.c. 341.)
341 Expedition of Athens to Euboea on the
motion of Demosthenes. The tyrants of Oreus and Eretria expelled
from the island. Demosthenes has a public
vote of thanks for his services. Persuades the Byzantines to join in
alliance with Athens. The Third
Philippic.
340 Philip besieges
Perinthus. Declares war against Athens, and publishes his letter or
manifesto. Obliged to raise the siege of Perinthus. Attacks Byzantium,
which is succoured by the Athenians under Phocion. Philip thereby
compelled to withdraw and make peace with the Byzantines. A second vote of
thanks to Demosthenes, who reforms the
Athenian navy. The Fourth Philippic.
339 Philip invades
the Scythians of Bulgaria, and is defeated on his return by the Thracian
Triballi. Aeschines goes as the Pylagoras or representative of Athens, to
the Amphictyonic meeting, and instigates the Amphictyons against Amphissa.
Philip appointed their commander-in-chief. Seizes upon Elateia.
Demosthenes proposes and negotiates an
alliance with Thebes.
338
Demosthenes honored with a third vote of
thanks (March). Battle of Chaeroneia. Death of Isócrates, " the old man
eloquent." Demosthenes delivers the Funeral
Oration over those slain at Chaeroneia. The speeches against Aristogeiton.
337 Ctesiphon
proposes the public presentation of a crown to Demosthenes. Philip marches
into the Peloponnesus, and convenes a congress of States at Corinth.
Appointed chief of the Greeks against Persia. Aeschines commences
proceedings against Ctesiphon.
336 Assassination of
Philip, and accession of Alexander. Deinarchus began to compose Orations.
335 Alexander invades
Thrace, and attacks the Triballi. Revolt and destruction of Thebes. Demand
of Athenian Orators by Alexander.
334 Alexander crosses
the Hellespont, and is victorious at the Granicus.
333 Battle of Issus.
The speech ката eeoxplvov Mti{u.
332 Siege of Tyre.
The speech irpiis Фор^шса inrtp Samíiiv.
331 Battle of Arbela.
Defeat of Agis by Antipater.
330 Death of Darius.
The speech ' De Corona.'
329 The speech ката
AtovvyoSiipov ßaßijs
328 Alexander
advances to the Oxus and into Sogdiana.
327 The ... exhibited
in the camp of Alexander on Hydaspes.
326 Alexander reaches
the month of the Indus.
325 Harpalus flies to
Athens.
324 Demosthenes is
condemned in the matter of Harpalus, and retires into exile.
323 Death of
Alexander, and the Lamían war. Return of Demosthenes. Hypreidis
322 Battle of Cranon.
Death of Demosthenes. His nephew Demochares already engaged in
public affairs. Antipater disfranchises 12,000
of the poorer citizens of Athens and settles them in Thrace. Death of
Aristotle.
317 Death of
Phocion.
314 Death of Aeschines
280 Honors paid to Demosthenes.
Demosthenes was born BC 382., and died BC.
322., in the little island of Calauria, in the Sinus Saronicus.(a) He is stated
to have delivered sixty-five orations, of which all that he left in writing have
probably come down to us. (b) Those extant are distributable into three kinds:
viz. 1. The Harangues to the People, or including the Philippics,
and those Philippics distinguished by the name of Olynthiac : 2. The Orations
upon Public Causes including the Speech on the Crown: and 3. The Orations on
Private Causes.
It is remarked in a treatise Concerning Oratory (c), ascribed to Tacitus, that
the convulsions of society are the true sources of eloquence. It was Catiline,
Verres, Milo, and Mark Antony, says the historian, that spread so much glory
around Cicero ; nor did Demosthenes owe his vast reputation to his speeches
against his guardians. The truth of this observation seems borne out by
experience, and, doubtless, the momentous times in which Demosthenes nourished
added greatly to the extraordinary effect of his speeches. At the time when the
first Philippic was delivered, the Macedonian power was on the ascendant, and
the genius of one man was threatening the liberties of Greece. Philip, who
ascended the throne BC 359., had, in the first instance, defeated the Illyrians;
and afterwards, in alliance with the Olynthians, he successively captured the
important maritime towns of Amphipolis, Pydna, and Potidaea. (a) Whilst, again,
the Athenians had been foiled in the Confederate War, their distinguished
general Chabrias falling in the attack on Chios, BC 357. (b), Philip had a
little later seized upon Pagasae, and commenced the siege of Methone, BC 353.
(c) In the succeeding year to this the Athenians were in a like untoward manner
thwarted in the Thessalian war, when their fleet, under Chares, co-operated with
the Phocians under Onomarchus against Philip, but nevertheless the Macedonian
gained a complete victory, and Thessaly fell by the results of the battle under
his dominion, (d) Under such circumstances, then, Demosthenes spoke his first
oration against Philip, being himself a host in the unconquerable zeal with
which he opposed himself to him whom he viewed as the intended enslaver of
Greece.
Shortly after these events, when the Macedonian king had settled the affairs of
Thessaly, he occupied himself in extending his dominion and influence,
particularly in Thrace and the northern continent, strengthening the Macedonian
border, and forming advantageous alliances with his neighbours, (e) But whilst
he was in Thrace, he received intelligence that the Athenian party had acquired
the ascendancy in Olynthus, and that that state threatened to forsake his
alliance. The Olynthians had about thirty years previously nearly overwhelmed
the Macedonian kingdom, and therefore imagined that when united to the Athenians
they would be able to obtain the same position, or, at any rate, to withstand
the Macedonians. And thus, the Athenian party at Olynthus managed finally to
carry their proposal for an union with Athens in her war against Philip, (a) At
the same time, an opportunity seemed to offer for engaging all Greece in a
league against the threatening ambition of that king; and accordingly, whilst
j35schines was commissioned by the Athenians to proceed to the Peloponnesus in
order to gain over the Arcadians (in which indeed he failed), to Demosthenes was
committed the task of urging on the people at home. In this undertaking the
consummate orator produced the orations against Philip, known by the title of
Olynthiac. In these Olynthiac orations, one of the principal objects was to
persuade the Athenians to give up, for the purposes of the war, the theatrical
fund, or that part of the public revenue distributed amongst them for the
entertainment of the theatres : and as there was a law in force condemning to
death any one who should propose the diversion of any part of this fund to other
purposes, than that to which it was legally appropriated (b); great art was
requisite in bringing this proposal before the people. But the eloquence of
Demosthenes, the promise of the Olynthian alliance, and the prospect held out of
glory and indulgence, produced an extraordinary zeal among the Athenians for the
prosecution of the war. (c) Accordingly a force was decreed, amounting to
fourteen thousand men, of whom four thousand were to be Athenian citizens, (a)
Soon after this, in the third Attic month, the end of September, or beginning of
October, Chares, the Athenian general, set sail with his fleet. To the great
disappointment however of the Olynthians, his troops consisted only of two
thousand middle armed mercenaries.
Alarmed at the smallness of this armament, an embassy was sent by the Olynthians
to Athens, requesting additional troops, and Demosthenes thereupon delivered his
second Olynthiac oration (b), which was followed by Charidemus being ordered to
reinforce Olynthus with eighteen triremes, and four thousand men: and these
united forces ravaged Pallene and Bottiaea. It was late in the year before
Philip could collect his forces; and when he marched into the Olynthian
territory, Chares had already withdrawn with his fleet.
As Philip had afforded ready protection to the towns in the Olynthian
confederacy friendly to his cause, and it was evident that in the spring, when
operations could recommence, he would attack them with a superior force, the
Olynthians, in alarm, sent again an embassy to Athens, urging the early supply
of forces, formed out of the Athenian citizens themselves, according to the
promise made them. In support of their demands Demosthenes spoke his third
Olynthiac, and, according to his recommendation, a complement of two thousand
heavy-armed troops and three hundred horse, all Athenian citizens, was sent to
reinforce the army already employed.
Such was the occasion of the third Olynthian oration. It is well known that
Olynthus was nevertheless shortly compelled to surrender to Philip, BC 347. (a),
and the influence of the conqueror extended itself throughout Greece, until the
confederacy against him was finally overthrown by the decisive battle of
Chaeronea, in which the combined army of the Athenians and Thebans was
completely routed (b); and the genius of the Macedonian thenceforth became
predominant.
The remainder of the life of Demosthenes was passed in ineffectual endeavors to
rescue Greece from Macedonian domination until the time when, after having been
driven into exile by his countrymen, and again recalled in triumph, he finally
was compelled to flee to the island of Calauria, and finding his position
desperate submitted to a voluntary death. During this latter period, he
delivered the famous oration On the Crown: This oration was spoken in defense of
his friend Ctesiphon, against whom the orator schines had preferred an
accusation for illegal conduct, in having moved a decree for a golden crown to
Demosthenes, although the real object was an attack upon Demosthenes himself;
and, as Ctesiphon had grounded his decree of honor on that orator's merit
towards the republic, it was the object of Eschines to show that
Demosthenes was wholly unworthy, not only of honor, but of any public esteem,
(c) That part of the great orator's reply, which is given in this translation,
consists in an assertion of his services to his countrymen, and of the goodness
of his advice to them ; and in denying that he could be justly charged with the
event; or that noble and great actions were not equally praiseworthy, though
completely successful, and that, agreeably to the law, which, to prevent
frivolous accusations, subjected to banishment an accuser who did not obtain the
votes of one fifth of the court, the rival orator was banished to Rhodes, or, as
by some supposed, retired thither of his own accord.
It is to be observed that Mr. Mitford, in his History of Greece, endeavors most
unfairly to disparage Demosthenes, for no other reason, apparently, than that he
was the foremost man of the democracy, whilst the modern historian had an inbred
antipathy to the rude and sometimes licentious freedom of the Grecian states.
But he should rather have borne in mind, that Demosthenes was not the creator of
the institutions of his country, but only their ardent defender against an
encroaching power, and striving with earnest zeal to call into being the
principles of patriotism and disinterestedness. And if he found the
unworthiness, the unjust aggression, the cowardly retreating, the selfish
supineness, inherent in all multitudes unformed by education and discipline, he
only met what has been the lot of all patriots, not excepting the great
Washington himself. How much, indeed, do the eager calls of Demosthenes upon his
countrymen, to make provision for the defense of their country, put us in mind
of the difficulties the American patriot had to struggle under, when those for
whom he was risking every thing left him almost without means. But the fact is
that, although there was much to be admired in the Athenian constitution,
providing as it did a sort of House of Lords in the Areopagus, an assembly as
illustrious for magnanimity and worth in those days as the House of Peers is in
British annals, and also a kind of House of Commons in the General Council,
which digested and prepared legislative measures; yet
there was this fatal error, that all measures had to be referred for ultimate
decision not to a class of men superior to others, but to the whole community,
which, in the constitution of human nature, then as now, necessarily contained a
great preponderance of the bad over the good. And how base, yet how natural, do
we find the motives actuating the needy yet pleasure-loving mass ! Not only did
they appropriate a vast proportion of the revenues of the state to their own
amusement at the theatres, but even declared it death for any one to propose the
rescinding of this law, a grievance and folly of which Demosthenes complains in
the Third Olynthiac. This reference of every thing to the whole mass of the
population (the principle of universal suffrage) was, in fact, the ruin of every
thing good in the Athenian constitution: for the still small voice of the wise
was hardly heard amidst the roar of the ignorant; and whilst the one sought for
the ultimate good of their country by 'denying themselves accustomed luxuries,
the other snatched at present enjoyment, careless of destruction until it was at
their gates.
It may not have been improper or unprofitable to have pointed out this
misfortune in the Athenian state, since, even in our own times, men are found
who would utterly destroy that constitution which in theory excited the
admiration of Tacitus in ancient times, although he never expected it would be
exemplified in practice (a), by establishing the principle of universal
suffrage, i. e. of the predominance of the many, who of necessity are ignorant
and often corrupt, over the few, who, by habit and study, by discipline and
religion, are enabled to form a just and wise opinion.
As a youth in ancient Athens, Demosthenes had a severe speech
impediment, and people jeered at his stuttering when he addressed his first
large public assembly.
Demosthenes, the son of a prosperous sword maker, was orphaned when he was
only 8. His guardians so pilfered his estate that little was left when
Demosthenes came of age. Seeking justice, he successfully pleaded his own
case and won damages. To improve his elocution, he talked with
pebbles in his mouth and recited verses while running along the seashore over
the roar of the waves.
Demosthenes' diligent work was successful and at the age of 25 he
had entered public life. He had won popularity and power when King Philip of
Macedon was beginning the conquest of Greece. Realizing the peril, Demosthenes
made eloquent appeals for his countrymen to unite and preserve their freedom.
These powerful orations against Philip were known as philippics, a term still in
use to describe any impassioned denunciation or tirade.
The Athenians were too late in heeding Demosthenes ' warnings and
he was falsely accused of taking a bribe. He was fined and imprisoned but
escaped. When his final effort to obtain freedom for Greece failed, he
swallowed poison from his pen and died.
Demosthenes' greatest oration is entitled `On the Crown'. He delivered it
in 330 BC. It was a review and justification of his public life and a
condemnation of his bitter rival, Aeschines, who was forced into exile.
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1]
If the decree, men of the senate, ordered that the crown should be given to the
man having the largest number of advocates, it would have been senseless for me
to claim it, for Cephisodotus
alone has spoken on my behalf, while a host of pleaders has spoken for my
opponents. But the fact is, the people appointed that the treasurer should give
the crown to the one who first got his trireme
ready for sea; and this I have done; so I declare that it is I who should be
crowned.
[2]
Also I am surprised that my opponents neglected their ships, but took
care to get their orators ready; and they seem to me to be mistaken in regard to
the whole affair, and to imagine that you are grateful, not to those who do
their duty, but to those who say they do it; and they have formed a totally
different estimate regarding you from that which I hold. For this very reason it
is right that you should feel more kindly disposed toward me; for it is plain
that I entertain a higher opinion of you than they do.
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Figures
... claim to be professional teachers of rhetoric actually say, Socrates. ...
Lysias, Against
Eratosthenes 21. *Demosthenes, On the Crown 48. Anastrophe: transposition ...
The Internet
Classics Archive | Demosthenes by Plutarch
... though at that time the accusers of Demosthenes were in the height of power,
and ... the
rest of his life in teaching rhetoric about the island of Rhodes, and upon ...
Greek Prose Style:
Greek 701 at CUNY
... home page for Greek 701, Greek Rhetoric and Prose Style, a course in ...
centuries BCE,
ranging from Hekataios to Demosthenes. Assignments are fairly brief (about ...
Demosthenes
- Britannica.com
... orator. He also studied legal rhetoric. In his Parallel Lives Plutarch, the
Greek
historian and biographer, relates that Demosthenes built an underground study
...
Rhetoric Notes:
Issues
... Bibliomania; George Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric; Christian Classics
Ethereal
Network Contains ... Gorgias and his Phaedrus, Demosthenes' On the Crown;
Various ...
Plurabelle Books -
Rhetoric
... John Bender; David Wellbery: The Ends of Rhetoric. History, Theory,
Practice. Stanford
UP 1990. xiv ... Demosthenes: The Oration of Demosthenes against Meidias. Ed ...
Classical
Rhetoric
... subject, Aristotle (384-322 BC) defined rhetoric as the art of identifying
(and ... the
speeches of his exact contemporary Demosthenes (384-322 BC) and especially ...
Rhetoric for Rookies
... Analysis Technical vocabulary: grammar, rhetoric, logic Parsing Literature
Notebooks;
Genesis Imitation ... lives, such as that comparing Demosthenes and Cicero. ...
Perseus
Encyclopedia - Who was Demosthenes?
... more in their own terms. And because of the relatively low standing of
rhetoric
in our time, Demosthenes is less read than formerly. But he still represents ...
Rhetoric
| Classic
... to live the life proper to man. Rhetoric , Poetics and others. ... Nathaniel
Cordova.
Cicero Homepage. The Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero (Trans. John Dryden).
...
Academics,
Classical Languages - Albright College
... III Advanced Greek prose; selections from Herodotus and Thucydides
(history),
Plato and Aristotle (philosophy), and Isocrates and Demosthenes (rhetoric). ...
Perseus
Encyclopedia demosthenes
... more in their own terms. And because of the relatively low standing of
rhetoric
in our time, Demosthenes is less read than formerly. But he still represents ...
Classical
Rhetoric Syllabus
... by Lysias, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Hyperides, and the Letter of
Philip
II of Macedon. Plato: Gorgias. This is Plato's attack on the way rhetoric was
...
Rhetoric
bibliography, FSEM019, Fall 1996
... A Synoptic History of Classical Rhetoric. Ed. James J. Murphy. Davis, CA:
Hermagoras
P, 1983. 77-89. Murphy, James J., ed. Demosthenes' On the Crown: A ...
Reading Classics
Gateway: Rhetoric & Law
... Arpinas: Maggia 1996 (italiano). Classical Medieval and Renaissance
Rhetoric;
Demosthenes, information collected by Marieke Roelofs (under construction ...
Demosthenes
and Cicero Compared by Plutarch
... in speaking, yet thus much seems fit to be said; that Demosthenes, to make
himself
a master in rhetoric, applied all the faculties he had, natural or acquired ...
Cleopatra,
the Last Pharaoh
... a child, she was educated in Hellenic culture Homer's epic poems,
Demosthenes rhetoric,
lyre-playing and horsemanship. But Cleopatra was also the first Ptolemy ...
DEMOSTHENES
... the 'death of Greek political liberty' Some people dismiss Demosthenes'
outbursts
as political rhetoric, others hold his political abuse of Philip from Macedon ..
THE COMPARISON OF
DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO
... faculties in speaking, yet thus much seems fit to be said; that Demosthenes,
to make
himself a master in rhetoric, applied all the faculties he had, natural or ...
Methods
and Perspectives, 10: Rhetoric
... presentation (contrast modern usage: 'strong on rhetoric, short on
substance' etc). ... speeches
by the great orators: Demosthenes, Cicero etc become school texts ...
Rhetoric
and Public Speaking
... on rhetoric and political philosophy, as well as panegyric speeches
(somewhat in
the manner of Isocrates, probably), and a biopgraphy of Demosthenes; and he ...
Canon
or Rhetoric
... the other canons will not matter. Demosthenes contended that this was the
most ... of
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