Demosthenes’ Early Career

Abstract

Chapter 2 begins the case studies by examining Demosthenes’ four speeches from the 350s BC: one for personal delivery (Against Leptines) and three for delivery by others (Against Androtion, Against Timocrates, and Against Aristocrates). The chapter argues that Demosthenes’ use of historical material in Against Leptines is part of a wide-ranging assault on what the orator constructs as an atrophied political consensus, whose members’ defective understanding of the Athenian past Demosthenes fashions as a cogent reason for the jurors to reject Leptines’ law. The project demonstrates that the young Demosthenes already had a sophisticated grasp of what the past could achieve when mobilized in a major public trial, and this is reflected in the other three speeches. Chapter 2.1 offers an introduction and an overview. Chapter 2.2 shows how Demosthenes deploys imagery of hypothetical takeover by tyrants or oligarchs (and the example of the Athenian tyrannicides) to expose the problems inherent in the opposition’s arguments and actions. Chapter 2.3 explores how Demosthenes’ arguments exploit the symbolic, rather than material significance of the aspects of the past under discussion. By the time of the Assembly speeches, this has become typical of his strategic conception of the world of the city’s past. Chapter 2.4 offers a conclusion.