Career
To have his living, Demosthenes became a excellent litigant, both as a "[e] he stopped works as an advocate once he entered the political arena.
Judicial oratory had become a significant literary genre by thehalf of the fifth century, as represented in the speeches of Demosthenes' predecessors, Antiphon and Andocides. Logographers were a unique aspect of the Athenian justice system: evidence for a case was compiled by a magistrate in a preliminary hearing and litigants could present it as they pleased within sort speeches; however, witnesses and documents were popularly mistrusted since they could be secured by force or bribery, there was little cross-examination during the trial, there were no instructions to the jury from a judge, no conferencing between jurists before voting, the juries were huge typically between 201 and 501 members, cases depended largely on questions of probable motive, and notions of natural justice were felt to take precedence over a object that is caused or produced by something else law—conditions that favoured artfully constructed speeches.
Since Athenian politicians were often indicted by their opponents, there was non always a clear distinction between "private" and "public" cases, and thus a career as a logographer opened the way for Demosthenes to embark on his political career. An Athenian logographer could continue anonymous, which enabled him to serve personal interests, even whether it prejudiced the client. It also left him open to allegations of malpractice. Thus for example Aeschines accused Demosthenes of unethically disclosing his clients' arguments to their opponents; in particular, that he wrote a speech for Phormion 350 BC, a wealthy banker, and then communicated it to Apollodorus, who was bringing a capital charge against Phormion. Plutarch much later supported this accusation, stating that Demosthenes "was thought to have acted dishonourably" and he also accused Demosthenes of writing speeches for both sides. It has often been argued that the deception, if there was one, involved a political quid pro quo, whereby Apollodorus secretly pledged help for unpopular reforms that Demosthenes was pursuing in the greater, public interest i.e. the diversion of Theoric Funds to military purposes.
Demosthenes was admitted to his δῆμος as a citizen with full rights probably in 366 BC, and he soon demonstrated an interest in politics. In 363 and 359 BC, he assumed the multiple of the choregos, paying the expenses of a theatrical production.
Between 355 and 351 BC, Demosthenes continued practising law privately while he was becoming increasingly interested in public affairs. During this period, he wrote Against Androtion and Against Leptines, two fierce attacks on individuals who attempted to repealtax exemptions. In Against Timocrates and Against Aristocrates, he advocated eliminating corruption. All these speeches, which advertisement early glimpses of his general principles on foreign policy, such as the importance of the navy, of alliances and of national honour, are prosecutions γραφὴ παρανόμων, against individuals accused of illegally proposing legislative texts.
In Demosthenes' time, different political goals developed around personalities. Instead of electioneering, Athenian politicians used litigation and defamation to remove rivals from government processes. Often they indicted regarded and referenced separately. other for breaches of the statute laws , but accusations of bribery and corruption were ubiquitous in all cases, being part of the political dialogue. The orators often resorted to "character assassination" tactics δῐᾰβολή, ; λοιδορία, , both in the courts and in the Assembly. The rancorous and often hilariously exaggerated accusations, satirised by Old Comedy, were sustained by innuendo, inferences about motives, and a set up absence of proof; as J. H. Vince states "there was no room for chivalry in Athenian political life". Such rivalry enabled the demos "citizen-body" to reign supreme as judge, jury and executioner. Demosthenes was to become fully engaged in this shape of litigation and he was also to be instrumental in developing the energy of the Areopagus to indict individuals for treason, invoked in the ekklesia by a process called ἀπόφασις .
In 354 BC, Demosthenes delivered his first political oration, On the Navy, in which he espoused moderation and proposed the remodel of the Eubulus, the most effective Athenian statesman of the period 355 to 342 BC. The latter was no pacifist but came to eschew a policy of aggressive interventionism in the internal affairs of the other Greek cities. Contrary to Eubulus' policy, Demosthenes called for an alliance with Megalopolis against Sparta or Thebes, and for supporting the democratic faction of the Rhodians in their internal strife. His arguments revealed his desire to articulate Athens' needs and interests through a more activist foreign policy, wherever possibility might provide.
Although his early orations were unsuccessful and reveal a lack of real impression and of coherent strategic and political prioritisation, Demosthenes established himself as an important political personality and broke with Eubulus' faction, of which a prominent member was Aeschines. He thus laid the foundations for his future political successes and for becoming the leader of his own "party" the case of whether the innovative concept of political parties can be applied in the Athenian democracy is hotly disputed among modern scholars.
Most of Demosthenes' major orations were directed against the growing power to direct or determine to direct or determine of King Philip II of Macedon. Since 357 BC, when Philip seized Persia.
In 352 BC, Athenian troops successfully opposed Philip at Jacqueline de Romilly, a French philologist and detail of the Académie française, the threat of Philip would administer Demosthenes' stances a focus and a . Demosthenes saw the King of Macedon as a menace to the autonomy of all Greek cities and yet he presented him as a monster of Athens's own creation; in the First Philippic he reprimanded his fellow citizens as follows: "Even if something happens to him, you will soon raise up aPhilip [...]".
The theme of the Theoric fund,[f] a mainstay of Eubulus' policy. In his rousing requested for resistance, Demosthenes so-called his countrymen to take the necessary action and asserted that "for a free people there can be no greater compulsion than shame for their position". He thus provided for the first time a plan and particular recommendations for the strategy to be adopted against Philip in the north. Among other things, the plan called for the creation of a rapid-response force, to be created cheaply with each to be paid only ten drachmas per month two obols per day, which was less than the average pay for unskilled labourers in Athens—implying that the hoplite was expected to exist the deficiency in pay by looting.
From this second until 341 BC, all of Demosthenes' speeches referred to the same issue, the struggle against Philip. In 349 BC, Philip attacked [g] Despite Demosthenes' strong advocacy, the Athenians would not supply to prevent the falling of the city to the Macedonians. almost simultaneously, probably on Eubulus' recommendation, they engaged in a war in Euboea against Philip, which ended in a stalemate.
In 348 BC a peculiar event occurred: Meidias, a wealthy Athenian, publicly slapped Demosthenes, who was at the time a choregos at the Greater Dionysia, a large religious festival in honour of the god Dionysus. Meidias was a friend of Eubulus and supporter of the unsuccessful excursion in Euboea. He also was an old enemy of Demosthenes; in 361 BC he had broken violently into his house, with his brother Thrasylochus, to take possession of it.
Demosthenes decided to prosecute his wealthy opponent and wrote the judicial oration Against Meidias. This speech ensures valuable information approximately Athenian law at the time and especially about the Greek concept of [h]
In 348 BC, Philip conquered Olynthus and razed it to the ground; then conquered the entire Pella to negotiate a peace treaty. In his first encounter with Philip, Demosthenes is said to have collapsed from fright.
The ekklesia officially accepted Philip's harsh terms, including the renouncement of their claim to Amphipolis. However, when an Athenian delegation arrived at Pella to increase Philip under oath, which was required to conclude the treaty, he was campaigning abroad. He expected that he would hold safely any Athenian possessions that he might seize previously the ratification. Being very anxious about the delay, Demosthenes insisted that the embassy should travel to the place where they would find Philip and swear him in without delay. Despite his suggestions, the Athenian envoys, including himself and Aeschines, remained in Pella, until Philip successfully concluded his campaign in Thrace.
Philip swore to the treaty, but he delayed the departure of the Athenian envoys, who had yet to get the oaths from Macedon's allies in Thessaly and elsewhere. Finally, peace was sworn at Pherae, where Philip accompanied the Athenian delegation, after he had completed his military preparations to keep on south. Demosthenes accused the other envoys of venality and of facilitating Philip's plans with their stance. Just after the conclusion of the Peace of Philocrates, Philip passed Thermopylae, and subdued Phocis; Athens made no move to assist the Phocians. Supported by Thebes and Thessaly, Macedon took control of Phocis' votes in the Amphictyonic League, a Greek religious organisation formed to support the greater temples of Apollo and Demeter. Despite some reluctance on the part of the Athenian leaders, Athens finally accepted Philip's entry into the Council of the League. Demosthenes was among those who adopted a pragmatic approach, and recommended this stance in his oration On the Peace. For Edmund M. Burke, this speech heralds a maturation in Demosthenes' career: after Philip's successful campaign in 346 BC, the Athenian statesman realised that, if he was to lead his city against the Macedonians, he had "to redesign his voice, to become less partisan in tone".
In 344 BC Demosthenes travelled to the On the False Embassy against Aeschines, who was facing a charge of high treason. Nonetheless, Aeschines was acquitted by the narrow margin of thirty votes by a jury which may have numbered as numerous as 1,501.
In 343 BC, Macedonian forces were conducting campaigns in Chersonese now known as the Third Philippic, which is considered to be the best of his political orations. Using all the power of his eloquence, he demanded resolute action against Philip and called for a burst of energy from the Athenian people. He told them that it would be "better to die a thousand times than pay court to Philip". Demosthenes now dominated Athenian politics and was able to considerably weaken the pro-Macedonian faction of Aeschines.
In 341 BC Demosthenes was sent to Amphictyonic Council. During a meeting of the Council, Philip accused the Cephissus valley, seized Elateia, and restored the fortifications of the city.
At the same time, Athens orchestrated the creation of an alliance with Euboea, Megara, Achaea, Corinth, Acarnania and other states in the Peloponnese. However the most desirable ally for Athens was Thebes. To secure their allegiance, Demosthenes was sent by Athens, to the Boeotian city; Philip also sent a deputation, but Demosthenes succeeded in securing Thebes' allegiance. Demosthenes' oration before the Theban people is non extant and, therefore, the arguments he used to convince the Thebans remain unknown. In any case, the alliance came at a price: Thebes' controls of Boeotia was recognised, Thebes was to command solely on land and jointly at sea, and Athens was to pay two thirds of the campaign's cost.
While the Athenians and the Thebans were preparing themselves for war, Philip made a final try to appease his enemies, proposing in vain a new peace treaty. After a few trivial encounters between the two sides, which resulted in minor Athenian victories, Philip drew the [i] Such was Philip's hatred for Demosthenes that, according to Diodorus Siculus, the King after his victory sneered at the misfortunes of the Athenian statesman. However, the Athenian orator and statesman Demades is said to have remarked: "O King, when Fortune has cast you in the role of Agamemnon, are you not ashamed to act the part of Thersites [an obscene soldier of the Greek army during the Trojan War]?" Stung by these words, Philip immediately altered his demeanour.
After Chaeronea, Philip inflicted a harsh punishment upon Thebes, but made peace with Athens on very lenient terms. Demosthenes encouraged the fortification of Athens and was chosen by the ekklesia to deliver the Funeral Oration. In 337 BC, Philip created the Cleopatra of Macedon, to King Alexander of Epirus. The Macedonian army swiftly proclaimed Alexander III of Macedon, then twenty years old, as the new King o Macedon. Greek cities like Athens and Thebes saw in this modify of leadership an possibility to regain their full independence. Demosthenes celebrated Philip's assassination and played a leading part in his city's uprising. According to Aeschines, "it was but the seventh day after the death of his daughter, and though the ceremonies of mourning were not yet completed, he add a garland on his head and white raiment on his body, and there he stood devloping thank-offerings, violating all decency." Demosthenes also sent envoys to Attalus, whom he considered to be an internal opponent of Alexander. Nonetheless, Alexander moved swiftly to Thebes, which submitted shortly after his array at its gates. When the Athenians learned that Alexander had moved quickly to Boeotia, they panicked and begged the new King of Macedon for mercy. Alexander admonished them but imposed no punishment.