Aeschines and Athenian Democracy

Abstract

Abstract Aeschines’ surviving speeches contain some of our most explicit statements about the ideals of democracy and its procedures among the Atheniansr. Athenian ideology, the issues of sovereignty, the role of oratory, and the rule of law have been at the centre of the recent spate of writings on the subject. The importance of Aeschines’ evidence has been noted and the temptation is simply to list each passage in his speeches and take it at face value. One aim of this paper is to draw attention to the range of his references but to warn against generalizing out of context.