"113843"
The future orator was in the eighth year of his
age when he lost his father (376) and thus fell
under the care of guardians who for ten years
(37 6--366) mismanaged the estate.
The future orator was in the eighth year of his
age when he lost his father (376) and thus fell
under the care of guardians who for ten years
(37 6--366) mismanaged the estate.
Demosthenese - First Philippic and the Olynthiacs
vi PREFA OE
the latter. It also touches on the textual criticism
of Demosthenes, with special reference to the evidence
of the MSS, the degree of importance to be attached
to citations and imitations by later writers, and to
certain laws of oratorical composition. It closes with
a conspectus of the literature of the subject, in the
form of a select list of editions, dissertations, and
works of reference.
The text, though founded mainly on that of Dindorf
as revised by Blass in the Teubner edition of 1885,
not unfrequently departs from it, not only in cases
where the editor has himself abandoned it, but also
in others where the evidence of the MSS seems too
strong to be overruled. Special attention has been
paid to the punctuation; and, in OZ. 3 ? 6, rmer
cee? Nel and To AYNATo'N has been printed for the
first time in a distinctive type, to show that it is
virtually a quotation and not the language of Demo-
sthenes himself.
The critical notes aim at supplying a conspectus of
the more important various readings and of other
evidence bearing on the text. It is hardly necessary
to state that much has been done for the textual
criticism of Demosthenes since the publication of the
Ziirich edition by Baiter and Sauppe in 1850. In
preparing these notes I have used the facsimile of the
Paris MS, also the critical edition of Voemel (1857),
and the Cmnmentarius Criticus of Blass in the three
volumes of the Teubner text (1885--9). In the
present speeches there is little room for conjectural
emendation. In OZ. 1 ? 3 I have proposed O'dJeTep [--
0'711'GL Kai rapaowroioil'rat fOI' the probably COI'I'llpt
Tpe? l/fq'l'al. wk, but neither this proposal, nor one
due to a Greek correspondent at Athens, is as satis-
factory as a more recent suggestion, Kama--rpe? 'pqmi.
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? PREFACE vii
In writing the explanatory notes I have constantly
consulted the French edition of Weil and the German
editions of \Vestermann and Rehdantz as revised by
Rosenberg and Blass respectively. After completing
the first draft of my commentary, I have occasionally
referred to several other editions, and mentioned any
points that appeared to deserve notice in them.
Except in points of rhetoric, which are a distinctive
feature of the commentary of Rehdantz, but are
perhaps best reserved for oral exposition, I have
aimed at giving rather more space to points of detail
than is customary in the current editions. Special
attention has naturally been paid to the distinctive
characteristics Of the Greek of Demosthenes and
to the citation of parallel passages from the Attic
Orators in general. For the Syntax of the Greek
Verb references are given to Goodwin's Moods and
Tenses (ed. 1889), and the results of some recent
investigations on points of Demosthenic Syntax have
been summarised and made accessible to English
readers. Notes intended mainly for advanced
students are usually printed in smaller type.
Among these is a suggestive note on the festival-
fund (OZ. 1 ? 19) for which I am indebted to Mr.
Leonard Whibley, Fellow and Lecturer of Pembroke
College, Cambridge. I may here add that, in the
final revision of the proofs in general, I owe much
to the skill and accuracy of the Reader on the staff
of Messrs. R. & R. Clark of Edinburgh.
On the general history of the period, While I am
fully conscious of the varied merits of the works of
Thirlwall, Curtius, Holm and Beloch, I have found
no better guide than Grote, whose judgment on
political and economic questions at Athens gains
additional weight from his experience as a banker
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? viii PR EFA OE
and as a Member of Parliament. Readers of his
I/ife may remember that, writing to Sir George
Cornewall Lewis in July 1852, he says: 'I am now
in the midst of the Philippics and Olg/nthiacs of Demo-
sthenes. No part of the History has been more
irksome to write, because of the total want of good
historical witnesses. ' In matters of chronology and
other questions bearing on the life and times of the
orator, I have naturally made much use of the more
recent work of Arnold Schaefer, Demosthenes und seine
Zeil. But I hold (with others) that the Athenian
expedition to Euboea which he assigns to 350 13. 0.
is better placed two years later, i. e. after instead of
before the date usually assigned for the delivery of
the Olynthiacs (349 B. C. ) I may here recall with
gratitude the help and the encouragement in the
study of the Attic Orators that I have derived not
only from scholars at home, such as Professor J ebb,
but also from scholars abroad, Rudolf Rauchenst-ein
of Aarau (1798-1879), Arnold Schaefer of Bonn
(1819--1883), Friedrich Blass, now of Halle, and
M. Rodolphe Dareste of Paris.
The deliberative or parliamentary speeches of
Demosthenes, though prompted in each case by the
immediate crisis, are all alike pervaded by one
dominant idea, that Athens was the natural leader
of Hellas, that she was bound to guard Hellenic
interests against foreign aggression, and that her
imperial position could only be maintained by
personal sacrifices and personal service on the part
of her citizens. Of the political speeches which the
orator delivered between 340 and 338 13. 0. , when
he had attained the height of his power, and actually
succeeded in uniting Athens and Thebes against
Philip, not one has survived. The public utterances
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? PREFA CE ix
of this period were immediately translated into acts,
and in the storm and stress of a time of crisis, there
was little opportunity, and perhaps no political need,
for their preservation, when they had once accom-
plished their purpose. It is the parliamentary -
speeches of the earlier time,- when the orator was
gradually winning his way to a commanding position--
speeches which were in general not crowned by any
practical result--that have descended to posterity,
probably because they were reproduced immediately
after their delivery, and widely circulated with a
view to the formation of public opinion on the great
questions of the day.
Though as a rule unsuccessful in their immediate
purpose, these speeches have been universally recog-
nised as masterpieces of eloquence. Nor are they
wanting in the element of abiding interest in
modern times. The earliest work of Niebuhr was
an anonymous translation of the First Philippic,
published at Hamburg in 1805 with a dedication
to the Tzar of Russia and a comparison of Philip
to Napoleon Bonaparte. The same comparison in-
spires the preface to the contemporary translation
of all the public speeches by Jacobs. At Berlin in
September 1813 Boeckh discoursed dc Demosthenis
Philippicae primae loco (4 , 7, 8), pmese'nti patriae
statui aptissimo, and, after translating the passage in
question, he adds 2---
ex huiusmodi orationibus intell'igas, quantum apud
Britannos, Germanorum afines nostrosque mmc socios, ad
formandns o'ratm-es et rims reipubh'cae ge'rendae aptos Demo-
sthenis lectio studiosa cowferat.
Turning to our own country, I may add that
Lord Brougham's criticisms on Demosthenes are
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? x PREFACE
familiar to leading scholars abroad ; and, in a speech
delivered in Edinburgh on 18th January 1854, the
first Lord Lytton observes :--
'All men in modern times, famous for their eloquence,
' have taken Demosthenes as their model. Many speakers
in our own country have literally translated passages from
his orations, and produced electrical effects upon sober
English senators by thoughts first uttered to passionate
Athenian crowds. '
While Demosthenes, in his First Philippic (4 ? 25),
describes the military officers of Athens as most of
them staying at home, and only marching in festal
processions through the marketplace, the elder Pitt,
in his speech on the reduction of the Land Forces
(4th Feb. 1738), says in a similar spirit :--
'As for the soldiers, I believe it may be said of at
least three-fourths of them, that they never went under
any fatigue except that of a review. '
In the course of a speech in the debate on the
Russian armament (1st March 1792) we find the
effective reply of Fox to an 'honourable gentleman '
(Mr. Grant), who ' to illustrate the value of Oczakow '
at the mouth of the Dnieper, then regarded as the
key of Constantinople, 'went back . . to the days of
Philip and Demosthenes' by referring to a passage
in the Fourth Philippio 8), in which
'Demosthenes, urging the Athenians to make war on
Philip, reproached them with inattention to a few towns
he had taken, the names of which they scarcely knew,
telling them that those towns were the keys by which he
would in time invade and overcome Greece. '
Passages of a thoroughly Demosthenic type, though
too long to quote, may be found in the speeches of
the younger Pitt, on the motion for augmenting the
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? PREFA CE xi
national force in case of invasion (18th Oct. 1796;
Pitt's Parliamentary Speeches ii 195); on the general
defence bill (2nd June 1801 ; iii 301 f); and on the
volunteer regulation bill (27th Feb. 1804 ; iii 307 f).
Even in recent times the orator's description of the
weakness, and his expectation of the impending fall,
of a dominion 'founded' (like that of Macedonia)
' on oppression and falsehood and perjury ' (OZ. 2 ? 9)
--language which may possibly have been partially
justified by the facts, but was certainly not con-
firmed by subsequent events--finds its closest verbal
parallel in the repeated criticisms of English states- ,
men on the 'crumbling fabric' of the Turkish
Empire. Lastly, as recently as 28th October 1896,
at the opening of a Unionist club at Gateshead, the
Marquis of Londonderry, in speaking of the ' necessity
of political education,' concluded by commending,
as a text upon which Unionists might appeal to the
people, the words of Demosthenes, 'In God's name,
I beg of you to think' (Thde Philippa; ? 43 Myl-
{ean 81" 1. 7069 666v).
CAMBRIDGE,
)llarch 1 897
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? ---q_--|----I-----I~I---=--
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? CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION erE
I Life of Demosthenes from 384 to 351 B. C. xv--xxvii
II illacedonia before the reign of Philip . xxvii--xxxiv
III The reign of Philip, down to 351 13. 0. . xxxiv--xlv
IV The First Philipptc of Demosthenes . xlv-lii
V The Olyn/thiacs of Demosthenes . . lii--lxiii
VI The order of the Olynthiaes . . . lxiii--lxvii
VII The close of the Olynthian war . . lxvii--lxix
VIII 0n the evidence for the Tent . . . lxix--lxxiv
IX Select List of Editions, Dissertations, and
Books of Reference . . . . lxxiv-lxxviii
X List of the principal abbreviations used
in the Notes . . . . . lxxx
GREEK TEXT wrrn CRITICAL NOTES . . . 1--69
EXPLANATORY NOTES . . . . . . 71-224
GREEK INDEX . . . . . . . 225-239
ENGLISH INDEX . . . . . . . 241-246
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? INTRODUCTION
I Life of Demosthenes from 384 to 351 13. 0.
DEMOSTHENES was born in the year 384 8. 6. His
father, who bore the same name, was a man of con-
siderable wealth, which was invested Demosthenes,
in a cutlery and upholstery business.
"113843"
The future orator was in the eighth year of his
age when he lost his father (376) and thus fell
under the care of guardians who for ten years
(37 6--366) mismanaged the estate. His bodily frame
was weak, his health delicate, and his physical
training imperfect; but, even in his youth, he
aspired to become a public speaker. His young
ambition was first fired by a famous speech delivered
in open court by the orator Callistratus on the
affair of Oropus. Hearing some of his instructors
arranging to be present, he persuaded one of them
to take him, and was provided with a place where
he might sit unseen, and hear all that was said.
He was struck by the enthusiastic congratulations
which the orator afterwards received on the success
of his cause, and still more by the powerful effect
of an eloquence which seemed capable of carrying
everything before it. Casting aside all other kinds
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? xvi LIFE OF DEMOSTHENES FROM 384 T0 861 13. 0.
of learning, he concentrated all his endeavours on
training himself as a speaker (Plutarch Dem. c. 5).
On completing his eighteenth year he came of
age (366), and prepared to seek redress for the
wrongs he had suffered at the hands of his guardians.
For this purpose he secured the aid of Isaeus, the
ablest man of his time as an authority on the law
- of inheritance, and the influence of that expert may
be traced in the speeches Against Aphobus, delivered
, by Demosthenes in suing his guardians
misfigfiw in 363 (07-. 27, 28, etc. ) Although
successful in his suit, all that he had
practically gained was a wider reputation and a
higher degree of confidence in public speaking.
He had happily tasted something of the fame
which could be won by success in forensic pleading,
and he now began to 100k forward to playing a
part as a political speaker. But, on the first
occasion on which he addressed the Assembly,
he was received with derision. His timid bearing,
his involved style, together with the weakness of
his voice, the shortness of his breath, and the in-
distinctness of his articulation, had made it difficult
for his audience to understand him. He left the
place of assembly and went down to the Peiraeus,
where he was wandering about disconsolately, when
an old man, who in his boyhood had listened to
Pericles, came up to him and assured him that his
style was really Periclean ; at the same time he
upbraided him for his faintheartedness in not facing
his audience boldly, and for his neglect of his general
health and his bodily powers (Plut. Dem. c. 6).
Demosthenes himself, in his old age, told a younger
orator, Demetrius of Phalerum, how he had mastered
the defects of an indistinct pronunciation by
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? SPEECHES AGAINST APHOBUS, ETC. xvii
reciting long passages with pebbles in his mouth,
and how he had trained his voice by declaiming
when he was out of breath, either with running, or
with walking up a steep ascent (c. 11). On another
occasion, in his early days, when he had failed to
win the ear of the Assembly, and was going home
disconcerted, he was met by the actor Satyrus who
drew his attention to the weak points in his delivery,
and made him see by his own rehearsal the vast
importance of action. In complete seclusion he
daily devoted himself to the improvement of his
delivery (c. 7). He also gave himself constant
practice in writing down, rearranging and repeating
arguments suggested in conversation with others,
changing and modifying the form of expression in
every possible way. This laborious method gave
rise to an impression that he had no great natural
aptitude for speaking, and there is no doubt as to
his general reluctance to speak without due pre-
meditation (0. 8), although, on the few occasions when
he broke this rule, he did so with the most brilliant
success. His usual reserve, and his indifference to
any distinction that might be attained by these
sudden outbursts of unpremeditated speech, were,
no less than his style and delivery, inspired by a
desire to follow in the footsteps of Pericles (c. 9).
His own delivery was much admired in the popular
Assembly, though cultivated people, like Demetrius,
considered it inelegant and unmanly, while one of
his own contemporaries contrasted his artificial
manner and his forced pathos with the reserve and
the self-possession of older speakers who discoursed
with the multitude in a stately and magnificent
way; admitting, however, that his speeches, when
read, appeared far superior to those of others in
b
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? xviii SPEECH ON THE TRIERARC'HIO' GROWN
point of construction and in force (0. 11 ? ? 3, 4).
While Pericles was the orator's great exemplar, he
also owed much to the historical associations by
which he was surrounded. To the future statesman
the monuments of art that crowned the Acropolis
were eloquent memorials of the greatness of Athens
in the Periclean age. He was also much indebted
to the literature of his country. With the published
masterpieces of Isocrates he was undoubtedly familiar,
and their influence may be traced in some of the
smoother and more flowing portions of the Philippics. 1
To Thucydides his debt was still deeper, as may be
seen not only in the matter of some of his speeches,
but also in the style of all. He resembles Thucydides
in his brevity, conciseness and energy, in his
occasional harshness and roughness, and his power of
arousing the emotions, though he is certainly no
slavish follower of the historian's manner, nor does
he emulate his archaic and unfamiliar diction, or his
anacoluthic constructions, or his far too frequent
obscurity. 2
Next to the speeches against his guardians, the
earliest extant speech delivered by the orator himself
mp1 1. 0;, appears to be that On the Trierarchic
1222121395 Crown (Or. 51). In 359 B. C. Demo-
- 359 no sthenes went to the Hellespont as trier-
arch under Cephisodotus, and it was probably in the
same year that he delivered this speech. He here
claims the crown promised to the trierarch who was
the first to have his ship ready for sea. It is the
1 OZ. 3 ? ? ~23--9. Blass Attischc Beredsamlceit In i 892 notices
the Isocratean use of the Plural of abstract words, such as
repiouaia. and eziropla in Dem. 3 ? 33, 5 ? 8.
2 Dionysius Hal. Time. 53, 55. Blass Le. 87 f2. Cp. Introd.
to Cicero's Orato'r pp. xxiv--xxix.
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? AGAINST SPUDIAS, C'ALLIOLES, CONON xix
only extant speech delivered by Demosthenes before
the Council of the Five Hundred. 1
Before embarking on his public career, he devoted
much of his time to the not unprofitable profession
of a Ao-yoypdqtos, or writer of speeches to be delivered
by litigants on either side in the law-courts of
Athens. The earliest place among these 'Private
Speeches' has been assigned, on grounds of style, to
the speech Against Spudias on a ques-
tion of dowry (Or. 41) and to that ? 11522? "
Against Callicles in a claim for damages KGKKi'EMG
caused by cutting off an alleged water-
. s-
course (Or. 55). The speech Against
Conon in a case of assault and battery is sometimes
ascribed to this period (Or. 54). 2
A second period of the orator's career opens
with the close of the Social War in 355. At the
beginning of this period stands the KM-'Avspm
speech Against Androtion (Or. 22), TWWS 355 "-
written for one Diodorus, attacking as illegal Andro-
tion's proposal to confer a golden crown on the out-
going Council in spite of the fact that in its year of
office it had added no new ships to the navy. The
importance to Athens of an effective navy is here
emphasised by an appeal to the experience of the
past; and, although large portions of the speech
are solely concerned with points of law, the closing
passage 67--7 8) has the same lofty tone that is
attained in the great deliberative speeches of subse-
quent years. In particular, the fine allusion to
"the former achievements' of Athens, and to 'the
splendour of the sacred edifices raised to commemorate
1 Blass m i 2422 f. _
2 ASchaefer Dem. and swim Zeit iii B 251. Clinton sug-
gests 341 no. Op. Select Private Oratiorts ii3 pp. lxiii, 242.
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? xx AGAINST ANDROTION, AGAINST LEPTJNES
them, yonder Propylaea, the Parthenon, the porticos
and arsenals ' (22 ? 76) is repeated three years later
in the speech Against Aristocrates (23 207), and
finds an echo six years later in the Third Olgnthiae :--
The public works (of our forefathers) are edifices and
ornaments of such beauty and grandeur, in temples and
in dedicated offerings, that posterity has no power to
surpass them (3 ? 25).
To the followmg year, 354, belongs the first
speech delivered by Demosthenes himself in a forensic
Mb; Ayn-TL cause of public interest, the speech
"I" 354 "- Against the Law of Leptines (Or. 20).
The law in question abolished the hereditary privi-
leges bestowed on public benefactors and made it illegal
to grant such privileges for the future. Demosthenes
attacks this law as unconstitutional, inexpedient, and
dishonourable, as involving a breach of public faith
and a slur on the good name of Athens. The tone
of the speech, delivered (it will be remembered) by
the orator himself, as contrasted with the scathing
invective directed against the life of Androtion in a
speech written for another, is marked by a studious
moderation, and even by courtesy towards the orator's
opponents. He here appears as 'a sound constitu-
tional lawyer, or rather a sagacious politician, warning
his countrymen against the dangers of an unwise
measure of legislation. ' 1 He dwells in glowing
terms on the exploits of the Athenian commanders,
Conon 68--74) and Chabrias 75-86) ; and he
refers, for the first time, to Philip of Macedon, to his
capture of Pydna (in 357) and Poteidaea (in 356), and
1 CRKennedy Dem. against Leptines etc. p. 235. Cp. Introd.
to Leptines p. xxxviii.
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? ON THE S Y MM ORIES xxi
to the bounties which were the source of his influence
over his adherents 61, 63).
To the latter part of the same year belongs the
first deliberative, or parliamentary, speech of Demo-
sthenes that has come down to us,-- mp, my
the speech 0n the Symmories, which erup- OpLGW
is also the first of his three Hellenic B'c'
orations (Or. 14). The debate is on war with Persia,
and the orator seizes the opportunity to lay down some
leading principles of foreign policy and to propose a
measure for the reform of the navy. The proposal is
connected with the recent application to the trier-
archy of the system of 'symmories' already applied
to the war-tax. 1 It aims at ensuring greater prompti-
tude in naval preparations by means of a better
organisation, by breaking up the larger boards into
smaller groups, and by assigning to each group a
corresponding portion of the fleet and its proper
share of the funds. 2 The reform is introduced in
terms that form a forecast of the tone of the
Philtmaies.
The first and foremost point in our preparations is
for every citizen to be willing and eager to do his duty.
Whenever you have all had a common wish and every
man has thereupon deemed that its accomplishment
depended on himself, nothing has ever escaped you. On
the other hand, whenever you have wished only, and
then looked at one another, each expecting to be idle,
while his neighbour did the work, nothing has ever come
to pass (14 15).
Though actual foes of Athens in Greece, as
contrasted with contingent enemies such as Persia,
1 See note on 2 ? 29 l. 270.
2 14 ? ? 16--23 ; Butcher's Demosthenes pp. 37 f.
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? xxii A GA INS T TIM OGRA TES
are vaguely indicated, there is no real reference to
Philip 11). For the present, the orator seems
hardly conscious of the distant cloud that is destined
ere long to darken the Hellenic horizon.
In the following year the client for whom
Demosthenes had composed the speech Against
mm Androtion, secured his services for a
TLpoxpd'rovg similar speech Against Timocrates.
353 B'c' Androtion had been acquitted, but he
had since been required to refund certain public
moneys which he had embezzled, and, in default, he
was liable to imprisonment as a debtor to the State.
In the interest of Androtion and others in the same
position, Timocrates proposed and carrieda measure for
extending the period during which payment of public
debts might be made, and for this measure he was
indicted by Diodorus. Large portions of the speech
are almost identical with that Against Androtion,
many of the arguments are merely verbal and
technical, some of them even captions and sophistical.
A higher level, however, is reached in the appeal to
the public interests which would be imperilled if the
State were prevented from enforcing payment of its
dues.
Even without such a law as this, we might congratulate
ourselves if we could meet the sudden emergencies of war ;
but, with it, supposing you should be summoned to arms
in your own defence, do you suppose that the enemy will
await the dilatory subterfuges of miscreants at home?
(? ? 94--5). The defendant has deluded you into passing
a law which not merely opens but actually destroys our
prison-house, and makes our courts of justice useless (? 209).
It is the laws that are the morals of the State (? 210).
It is the laws that preserve and consolidate all our
advantages 216).
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the latter. It also touches on the textual criticism
of Demosthenes, with special reference to the evidence
of the MSS, the degree of importance to be attached
to citations and imitations by later writers, and to
certain laws of oratorical composition. It closes with
a conspectus of the literature of the subject, in the
form of a select list of editions, dissertations, and
works of reference.
The text, though founded mainly on that of Dindorf
as revised by Blass in the Teubner edition of 1885,
not unfrequently departs from it, not only in cases
where the editor has himself abandoned it, but also
in others where the evidence of the MSS seems too
strong to be overruled. Special attention has been
paid to the punctuation; and, in OZ. 3 ? 6, rmer
cee? Nel and To AYNATo'N has been printed for the
first time in a distinctive type, to show that it is
virtually a quotation and not the language of Demo-
sthenes himself.
The critical notes aim at supplying a conspectus of
the more important various readings and of other
evidence bearing on the text. It is hardly necessary
to state that much has been done for the textual
criticism of Demosthenes since the publication of the
Ziirich edition by Baiter and Sauppe in 1850. In
preparing these notes I have used the facsimile of the
Paris MS, also the critical edition of Voemel (1857),
and the Cmnmentarius Criticus of Blass in the three
volumes of the Teubner text (1885--9). In the
present speeches there is little room for conjectural
emendation. In OZ. 1 ? 3 I have proposed O'dJeTep [--
0'711'GL Kai rapaowroioil'rat fOI' the probably COI'I'llpt
Tpe? l/fq'l'al. wk, but neither this proposal, nor one
due to a Greek correspondent at Athens, is as satis-
factory as a more recent suggestion, Kama--rpe? 'pqmi.
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? PREFACE vii
In writing the explanatory notes I have constantly
consulted the French edition of Weil and the German
editions of \Vestermann and Rehdantz as revised by
Rosenberg and Blass respectively. After completing
the first draft of my commentary, I have occasionally
referred to several other editions, and mentioned any
points that appeared to deserve notice in them.
Except in points of rhetoric, which are a distinctive
feature of the commentary of Rehdantz, but are
perhaps best reserved for oral exposition, I have
aimed at giving rather more space to points of detail
than is customary in the current editions. Special
attention has naturally been paid to the distinctive
characteristics Of the Greek of Demosthenes and
to the citation of parallel passages from the Attic
Orators in general. For the Syntax of the Greek
Verb references are given to Goodwin's Moods and
Tenses (ed. 1889), and the results of some recent
investigations on points of Demosthenic Syntax have
been summarised and made accessible to English
readers. Notes intended mainly for advanced
students are usually printed in smaller type.
Among these is a suggestive note on the festival-
fund (OZ. 1 ? 19) for which I am indebted to Mr.
Leonard Whibley, Fellow and Lecturer of Pembroke
College, Cambridge. I may here add that, in the
final revision of the proofs in general, I owe much
to the skill and accuracy of the Reader on the staff
of Messrs. R. & R. Clark of Edinburgh.
On the general history of the period, While I am
fully conscious of the varied merits of the works of
Thirlwall, Curtius, Holm and Beloch, I have found
no better guide than Grote, whose judgment on
political and economic questions at Athens gains
additional weight from his experience as a banker
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? viii PR EFA OE
and as a Member of Parliament. Readers of his
I/ife may remember that, writing to Sir George
Cornewall Lewis in July 1852, he says: 'I am now
in the midst of the Philippics and Olg/nthiacs of Demo-
sthenes. No part of the History has been more
irksome to write, because of the total want of good
historical witnesses. ' In matters of chronology and
other questions bearing on the life and times of the
orator, I have naturally made much use of the more
recent work of Arnold Schaefer, Demosthenes und seine
Zeil. But I hold (with others) that the Athenian
expedition to Euboea which he assigns to 350 13. 0.
is better placed two years later, i. e. after instead of
before the date usually assigned for the delivery of
the Olynthiacs (349 B. C. ) I may here recall with
gratitude the help and the encouragement in the
study of the Attic Orators that I have derived not
only from scholars at home, such as Professor J ebb,
but also from scholars abroad, Rudolf Rauchenst-ein
of Aarau (1798-1879), Arnold Schaefer of Bonn
(1819--1883), Friedrich Blass, now of Halle, and
M. Rodolphe Dareste of Paris.
The deliberative or parliamentary speeches of
Demosthenes, though prompted in each case by the
immediate crisis, are all alike pervaded by one
dominant idea, that Athens was the natural leader
of Hellas, that she was bound to guard Hellenic
interests against foreign aggression, and that her
imperial position could only be maintained by
personal sacrifices and personal service on the part
of her citizens. Of the political speeches which the
orator delivered between 340 and 338 13. 0. , when
he had attained the height of his power, and actually
succeeded in uniting Athens and Thebes against
Philip, not one has survived. The public utterances
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? PREFA CE ix
of this period were immediately translated into acts,
and in the storm and stress of a time of crisis, there
was little opportunity, and perhaps no political need,
for their preservation, when they had once accom-
plished their purpose. It is the parliamentary -
speeches of the earlier time,- when the orator was
gradually winning his way to a commanding position--
speeches which were in general not crowned by any
practical result--that have descended to posterity,
probably because they were reproduced immediately
after their delivery, and widely circulated with a
view to the formation of public opinion on the great
questions of the day.
Though as a rule unsuccessful in their immediate
purpose, these speeches have been universally recog-
nised as masterpieces of eloquence. Nor are they
wanting in the element of abiding interest in
modern times. The earliest work of Niebuhr was
an anonymous translation of the First Philippic,
published at Hamburg in 1805 with a dedication
to the Tzar of Russia and a comparison of Philip
to Napoleon Bonaparte. The same comparison in-
spires the preface to the contemporary translation
of all the public speeches by Jacobs. At Berlin in
September 1813 Boeckh discoursed dc Demosthenis
Philippicae primae loco (4 , 7, 8), pmese'nti patriae
statui aptissimo, and, after translating the passage in
question, he adds 2---
ex huiusmodi orationibus intell'igas, quantum apud
Britannos, Germanorum afines nostrosque mmc socios, ad
formandns o'ratm-es et rims reipubh'cae ge'rendae aptos Demo-
sthenis lectio studiosa cowferat.
Turning to our own country, I may add that
Lord Brougham's criticisms on Demosthenes are
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? x PREFACE
familiar to leading scholars abroad ; and, in a speech
delivered in Edinburgh on 18th January 1854, the
first Lord Lytton observes :--
'All men in modern times, famous for their eloquence,
' have taken Demosthenes as their model. Many speakers
in our own country have literally translated passages from
his orations, and produced electrical effects upon sober
English senators by thoughts first uttered to passionate
Athenian crowds. '
While Demosthenes, in his First Philippic (4 ? 25),
describes the military officers of Athens as most of
them staying at home, and only marching in festal
processions through the marketplace, the elder Pitt,
in his speech on the reduction of the Land Forces
(4th Feb. 1738), says in a similar spirit :--
'As for the soldiers, I believe it may be said of at
least three-fourths of them, that they never went under
any fatigue except that of a review. '
In the course of a speech in the debate on the
Russian armament (1st March 1792) we find the
effective reply of Fox to an 'honourable gentleman '
(Mr. Grant), who ' to illustrate the value of Oczakow '
at the mouth of the Dnieper, then regarded as the
key of Constantinople, 'went back . . to the days of
Philip and Demosthenes' by referring to a passage
in the Fourth Philippio 8), in which
'Demosthenes, urging the Athenians to make war on
Philip, reproached them with inattention to a few towns
he had taken, the names of which they scarcely knew,
telling them that those towns were the keys by which he
would in time invade and overcome Greece. '
Passages of a thoroughly Demosthenic type, though
too long to quote, may be found in the speeches of
the younger Pitt, on the motion for augmenting the
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? PREFA CE xi
national force in case of invasion (18th Oct. 1796;
Pitt's Parliamentary Speeches ii 195); on the general
defence bill (2nd June 1801 ; iii 301 f); and on the
volunteer regulation bill (27th Feb. 1804 ; iii 307 f).
Even in recent times the orator's description of the
weakness, and his expectation of the impending fall,
of a dominion 'founded' (like that of Macedonia)
' on oppression and falsehood and perjury ' (OZ. 2 ? 9)
--language which may possibly have been partially
justified by the facts, but was certainly not con-
firmed by subsequent events--finds its closest verbal
parallel in the repeated criticisms of English states- ,
men on the 'crumbling fabric' of the Turkish
Empire. Lastly, as recently as 28th October 1896,
at the opening of a Unionist club at Gateshead, the
Marquis of Londonderry, in speaking of the ' necessity
of political education,' concluded by commending,
as a text upon which Unionists might appeal to the
people, the words of Demosthenes, 'In God's name,
I beg of you to think' (Thde Philippa; ? 43 Myl-
{ean 81" 1. 7069 666v).
CAMBRIDGE,
)llarch 1 897
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? ---q_--|----I-----I~I---=--
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? CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION erE
I Life of Demosthenes from 384 to 351 B. C. xv--xxvii
II illacedonia before the reign of Philip . xxvii--xxxiv
III The reign of Philip, down to 351 13. 0. . xxxiv--xlv
IV The First Philipptc of Demosthenes . xlv-lii
V The Olyn/thiacs of Demosthenes . . lii--lxiii
VI The order of the Olynthiaes . . . lxiii--lxvii
VII The close of the Olynthian war . . lxvii--lxix
VIII 0n the evidence for the Tent . . . lxix--lxxiv
IX Select List of Editions, Dissertations, and
Books of Reference . . . . lxxiv-lxxviii
X List of the principal abbreviations used
in the Notes . . . . . lxxx
GREEK TEXT wrrn CRITICAL NOTES . . . 1--69
EXPLANATORY NOTES . . . . . . 71-224
GREEK INDEX . . . . . . . 225-239
ENGLISH INDEX . . . . . . . 241-246
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? INTRODUCTION
I Life of Demosthenes from 384 to 351 13. 0.
DEMOSTHENES was born in the year 384 8. 6. His
father, who bore the same name, was a man of con-
siderable wealth, which was invested Demosthenes,
in a cutlery and upholstery business.
"113843"
The future orator was in the eighth year of his
age when he lost his father (376) and thus fell
under the care of guardians who for ten years
(37 6--366) mismanaged the estate. His bodily frame
was weak, his health delicate, and his physical
training imperfect; but, even in his youth, he
aspired to become a public speaker. His young
ambition was first fired by a famous speech delivered
in open court by the orator Callistratus on the
affair of Oropus. Hearing some of his instructors
arranging to be present, he persuaded one of them
to take him, and was provided with a place where
he might sit unseen, and hear all that was said.
He was struck by the enthusiastic congratulations
which the orator afterwards received on the success
of his cause, and still more by the powerful effect
of an eloquence which seemed capable of carrying
everything before it. Casting aside all other kinds
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? xvi LIFE OF DEMOSTHENES FROM 384 T0 861 13. 0.
of learning, he concentrated all his endeavours on
training himself as a speaker (Plutarch Dem. c. 5).
On completing his eighteenth year he came of
age (366), and prepared to seek redress for the
wrongs he had suffered at the hands of his guardians.
For this purpose he secured the aid of Isaeus, the
ablest man of his time as an authority on the law
- of inheritance, and the influence of that expert may
be traced in the speeches Against Aphobus, delivered
, by Demosthenes in suing his guardians
misfigfiw in 363 (07-. 27, 28, etc. ) Although
successful in his suit, all that he had
practically gained was a wider reputation and a
higher degree of confidence in public speaking.
He had happily tasted something of the fame
which could be won by success in forensic pleading,
and he now began to 100k forward to playing a
part as a political speaker. But, on the first
occasion on which he addressed the Assembly,
he was received with derision. His timid bearing,
his involved style, together with the weakness of
his voice, the shortness of his breath, and the in-
distinctness of his articulation, had made it difficult
for his audience to understand him. He left the
place of assembly and went down to the Peiraeus,
where he was wandering about disconsolately, when
an old man, who in his boyhood had listened to
Pericles, came up to him and assured him that his
style was really Periclean ; at the same time he
upbraided him for his faintheartedness in not facing
his audience boldly, and for his neglect of his general
health and his bodily powers (Plut. Dem. c. 6).
Demosthenes himself, in his old age, told a younger
orator, Demetrius of Phalerum, how he had mastered
the defects of an indistinct pronunciation by
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? SPEECHES AGAINST APHOBUS, ETC. xvii
reciting long passages with pebbles in his mouth,
and how he had trained his voice by declaiming
when he was out of breath, either with running, or
with walking up a steep ascent (c. 11). On another
occasion, in his early days, when he had failed to
win the ear of the Assembly, and was going home
disconcerted, he was met by the actor Satyrus who
drew his attention to the weak points in his delivery,
and made him see by his own rehearsal the vast
importance of action. In complete seclusion he
daily devoted himself to the improvement of his
delivery (c. 7). He also gave himself constant
practice in writing down, rearranging and repeating
arguments suggested in conversation with others,
changing and modifying the form of expression in
every possible way. This laborious method gave
rise to an impression that he had no great natural
aptitude for speaking, and there is no doubt as to
his general reluctance to speak without due pre-
meditation (0. 8), although, on the few occasions when
he broke this rule, he did so with the most brilliant
success. His usual reserve, and his indifference to
any distinction that might be attained by these
sudden outbursts of unpremeditated speech, were,
no less than his style and delivery, inspired by a
desire to follow in the footsteps of Pericles (c. 9).
His own delivery was much admired in the popular
Assembly, though cultivated people, like Demetrius,
considered it inelegant and unmanly, while one of
his own contemporaries contrasted his artificial
manner and his forced pathos with the reserve and
the self-possession of older speakers who discoursed
with the multitude in a stately and magnificent
way; admitting, however, that his speeches, when
read, appeared far superior to those of others in
b
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? xviii SPEECH ON THE TRIERARC'HIO' GROWN
point of construction and in force (0. 11 ? ? 3, 4).
While Pericles was the orator's great exemplar, he
also owed much to the historical associations by
which he was surrounded. To the future statesman
the monuments of art that crowned the Acropolis
were eloquent memorials of the greatness of Athens
in the Periclean age. He was also much indebted
to the literature of his country. With the published
masterpieces of Isocrates he was undoubtedly familiar,
and their influence may be traced in some of the
smoother and more flowing portions of the Philippics. 1
To Thucydides his debt was still deeper, as may be
seen not only in the matter of some of his speeches,
but also in the style of all. He resembles Thucydides
in his brevity, conciseness and energy, in his
occasional harshness and roughness, and his power of
arousing the emotions, though he is certainly no
slavish follower of the historian's manner, nor does
he emulate his archaic and unfamiliar diction, or his
anacoluthic constructions, or his far too frequent
obscurity. 2
Next to the speeches against his guardians, the
earliest extant speech delivered by the orator himself
mp1 1. 0;, appears to be that On the Trierarchic
1222121395 Crown (Or. 51). In 359 B. C. Demo-
- 359 no sthenes went to the Hellespont as trier-
arch under Cephisodotus, and it was probably in the
same year that he delivered this speech. He here
claims the crown promised to the trierarch who was
the first to have his ship ready for sea. It is the
1 OZ. 3 ? ? ~23--9. Blass Attischc Beredsamlceit In i 892 notices
the Isocratean use of the Plural of abstract words, such as
repiouaia. and eziropla in Dem. 3 ? 33, 5 ? 8.
2 Dionysius Hal. Time. 53, 55. Blass Le. 87 f2. Cp. Introd.
to Cicero's Orato'r pp. xxiv--xxix.
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? AGAINST SPUDIAS, C'ALLIOLES, CONON xix
only extant speech delivered by Demosthenes before
the Council of the Five Hundred. 1
Before embarking on his public career, he devoted
much of his time to the not unprofitable profession
of a Ao-yoypdqtos, or writer of speeches to be delivered
by litigants on either side in the law-courts of
Athens. The earliest place among these 'Private
Speeches' has been assigned, on grounds of style, to
the speech Against Spudias on a ques-
tion of dowry (Or. 41) and to that ? 11522? "
Against Callicles in a claim for damages KGKKi'EMG
caused by cutting off an alleged water-
. s-
course (Or. 55). The speech Against
Conon in a case of assault and battery is sometimes
ascribed to this period (Or. 54). 2
A second period of the orator's career opens
with the close of the Social War in 355. At the
beginning of this period stands the KM-'Avspm
speech Against Androtion (Or. 22), TWWS 355 "-
written for one Diodorus, attacking as illegal Andro-
tion's proposal to confer a golden crown on the out-
going Council in spite of the fact that in its year of
office it had added no new ships to the navy. The
importance to Athens of an effective navy is here
emphasised by an appeal to the experience of the
past; and, although large portions of the speech
are solely concerned with points of law, the closing
passage 67--7 8) has the same lofty tone that is
attained in the great deliberative speeches of subse-
quent years. In particular, the fine allusion to
"the former achievements' of Athens, and to 'the
splendour of the sacred edifices raised to commemorate
1 Blass m i 2422 f. _
2 ASchaefer Dem. and swim Zeit iii B 251. Clinton sug-
gests 341 no. Op. Select Private Oratiorts ii3 pp. lxiii, 242.
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? xx AGAINST ANDROTION, AGAINST LEPTJNES
them, yonder Propylaea, the Parthenon, the porticos
and arsenals ' (22 ? 76) is repeated three years later
in the speech Against Aristocrates (23 207), and
finds an echo six years later in the Third Olgnthiae :--
The public works (of our forefathers) are edifices and
ornaments of such beauty and grandeur, in temples and
in dedicated offerings, that posterity has no power to
surpass them (3 ? 25).
To the followmg year, 354, belongs the first
speech delivered by Demosthenes himself in a forensic
Mb; Ayn-TL cause of public interest, the speech
"I" 354 "- Against the Law of Leptines (Or. 20).
The law in question abolished the hereditary privi-
leges bestowed on public benefactors and made it illegal
to grant such privileges for the future. Demosthenes
attacks this law as unconstitutional, inexpedient, and
dishonourable, as involving a breach of public faith
and a slur on the good name of Athens. The tone
of the speech, delivered (it will be remembered) by
the orator himself, as contrasted with the scathing
invective directed against the life of Androtion in a
speech written for another, is marked by a studious
moderation, and even by courtesy towards the orator's
opponents. He here appears as 'a sound constitu-
tional lawyer, or rather a sagacious politician, warning
his countrymen against the dangers of an unwise
measure of legislation. ' 1 He dwells in glowing
terms on the exploits of the Athenian commanders,
Conon 68--74) and Chabrias 75-86) ; and he
refers, for the first time, to Philip of Macedon, to his
capture of Pydna (in 357) and Poteidaea (in 356), and
1 CRKennedy Dem. against Leptines etc. p. 235. Cp. Introd.
to Leptines p. xxxviii.
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? ON THE S Y MM ORIES xxi
to the bounties which were the source of his influence
over his adherents 61, 63).
To the latter part of the same year belongs the
first deliberative, or parliamentary, speech of Demo-
sthenes that has come down to us,-- mp, my
the speech 0n the Symmories, which erup- OpLGW
is also the first of his three Hellenic B'c'
orations (Or. 14). The debate is on war with Persia,
and the orator seizes the opportunity to lay down some
leading principles of foreign policy and to propose a
measure for the reform of the navy. The proposal is
connected with the recent application to the trier-
archy of the system of 'symmories' already applied
to the war-tax. 1 It aims at ensuring greater prompti-
tude in naval preparations by means of a better
organisation, by breaking up the larger boards into
smaller groups, and by assigning to each group a
corresponding portion of the fleet and its proper
share of the funds. 2 The reform is introduced in
terms that form a forecast of the tone of the
Philtmaies.
The first and foremost point in our preparations is
for every citizen to be willing and eager to do his duty.
Whenever you have all had a common wish and every
man has thereupon deemed that its accomplishment
depended on himself, nothing has ever escaped you. On
the other hand, whenever you have wished only, and
then looked at one another, each expecting to be idle,
while his neighbour did the work, nothing has ever come
to pass (14 15).
Though actual foes of Athens in Greece, as
contrasted with contingent enemies such as Persia,
1 See note on 2 ? 29 l. 270.
2 14 ? ? 16--23 ; Butcher's Demosthenes pp. 37 f.
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? xxii A GA INS T TIM OGRA TES
are vaguely indicated, there is no real reference to
Philip 11). For the present, the orator seems
hardly conscious of the distant cloud that is destined
ere long to darken the Hellenic horizon.
In the following year the client for whom
Demosthenes had composed the speech Against
mm Androtion, secured his services for a
TLpoxpd'rovg similar speech Against Timocrates.
353 B'c' Androtion had been acquitted, but he
had since been required to refund certain public
moneys which he had embezzled, and, in default, he
was liable to imprisonment as a debtor to the State.
In the interest of Androtion and others in the same
position, Timocrates proposed and carrieda measure for
extending the period during which payment of public
debts might be made, and for this measure he was
indicted by Diodorus. Large portions of the speech
are almost identical with that Against Androtion,
many of the arguments are merely verbal and
technical, some of them even captions and sophistical.
A higher level, however, is reached in the appeal to
the public interests which would be imperilled if the
State were prevented from enforcing payment of its
dues.
Even without such a law as this, we might congratulate
ourselves if we could meet the sudden emergencies of war ;
but, with it, supposing you should be summoned to arms
in your own defence, do you suppose that the enemy will
await the dilatory subterfuges of miscreants at home?
(? ? 94--5). The defendant has deluded you into passing
a law which not merely opens but actually destroys our
prison-house, and makes our courts of justice useless (? 209).
It is the laws that are the morals of the State (? 210).
It is the laws that preserve and consolidate all our
advantages 216).
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