Demosthenes

384-322 BCE · Greek (Athenian) · Deliberative Oratory, Forensic Oratory, Athenian Politics

It cannot be that you were wrong, men of Athens, when you took upon you the struggle for freedom and deliverance.

Topics Demosthenes addresses

• the Macedonian threat
• Philip II of Macedon
• the Peace of Philocrates
• the battle of Chaeronea
• the Theban alliance
• the freedom of Greece
• the graphe paranomon
• the crown of Ctesiphon
• the feud with Aeschines
• the Harpalus affair
• the theoric fund
• the symmories and naval finance
• the trierarchy
• citizen soldiers versus mercenaries
• seizing the moment for action
• judging policy by intention not outcome
• the oath by the men of Marathon
• the Lamian War
• deliberative oratory
• forensic oratory
• the art of delivery
• invective and ridicule in court
• narrative as argument
• prose rhythm in oratory

Converse with Demosthenes on Simposeum. Every reply is grounded in Demosthenes's own writing and cites the page it came from. The corpus is public-domain text.