'Even if everyone else succumbs to slavery, we must still fight for our freedom.'
Admired by many in the ancient world as the greatest of the classic Athenian orators, Demosthenes was intimately involved in the political events of his day. As well as showing a master orator at work, his speeches are a prime source for the history of the period, when Athens was engaged in a doomed struggle against the rising power of Macedon under the brilliant father and son, Philip and Alexander. Demosthenes wrote for the courts, both for political trials in which he was involved and for other cases in which he acted as ghost-writer for plaintiff or defendant, and his lawcourt speeches give an unrivalled glimpse of the daily life of ancient Athens. He also played a central role in education in Greece and Rome from the Hellenistic period onward, and was imitated by the greatest of Roman orators, Cicero.
This selection includes the fullest range of Demosthenes' speeches, for trials both public and private and for the assembly, in a single volume.
Introduction Translator's Note Select Bibliography Chronology Deliberative Speeches 1. First Olynthiac 2. Second Olynthiac 3. Third Olynthiac 4. First Philippic 5. On the Peace 8. On the situation in the Chersonese 9. Third Philippic Trials in Public Cases 18. On the Crown 19. A Case of Ambassadorial Misconduct 21. Against Meidias, on the Punch 23. Against Aristocrates 59. Apollodorus, Against Neaera Private and Ghost-written Speeches 27. First Speech against Aphobus, on Trusteeship 28. Second Speech against Aphobus, on Trusteeship 35. Against Lacritus 36. For Phormion, a Counter-Plea 39. First Speech against Boeotus, on the Name 54. Against Conon 55. Against Callicles Explanatory Notes Textual Notes Glossary Index of Proper Names
Robin Waterfield was a university lecturer and publisher before becoming a full time writer. His translations for Oxford World's Classics include Plato's Republic and five other editions of Plato's dialogues, Herodotus, Plutarch, two volumes of Euripides' plays, Xenophon's The Expedition of Cyrus and The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists. His other books include Dividing the Spoils: the War for Alexander the Great's Empire (OUP, 2011). He lives in Greece. Chris Carey has previously taught at Cambridge, St Andrews, and Royal Holloway before moving to UCL. He has published widely Greek oratory and law, including Democracy in classical Athens (Bristol Classical Press, 2000) and Trials from classical Athens (Routledge, 2/e 2011).
Reviews for Selected Speeches
[Demosthenes' speeches] impress with their emotional intensity, brilliance and variety of argument (dishonest or not), irony, forceful imagery, wit and general sense of mastery of the spoken word, in Robin Waterfields fine new translations. Peter Jones, Classics for All
