Un discurso de demosthenes biography

Sealey, Demosthenes y Su Tiempo Kalitsounakis, Demosthenes Sealey, Demosthenes y Su Tiempo Blass, Die Attische Beredsamkeit3. Goldstein, Las Cartas de Demosthenes Blass, Friedrich Gibson, Graig A. University of California Press. ISBN Goldstein, Jonathan A. Las Cartas de Demosthenes. Columbia University Press. Kapparis, Konstantinos A.

Apollodoros Against Neaira. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN X. Long, Fredrick J. Ancient Rhetoric and Paul's Apology. Cambridge University Press. Schaefer, Arnold Sealey, Raphael Oxford University Press. Trapp, Michael Greek and Latin Letters. Weil, Henri Biography of Demosthenes in "Demosthenes' Orations". Longinus likened Demosthenes to a blazing thunderbolt and argued that he had "perfected to the utmost the tone of lofty speech, living passions, copiousness, readiness, speed.

Cicero said of him that inter omnis unus excellat "one exceeds among all"and also praised him as "the perfect orator" who lacked nothing. Demosthenes was born in BC, during the last year of the 98th Olympiad or the first year of the 99th Olympiad. Demosthenes was orphaned at the age of seven. Although his father provided for him well, his legal guardians, Aphobus, Demophon and Therippides, mishandled his inheritance.

Demosthenes started to learn rhetoric because he wished to take his guardians to court and because he was of "delicate physique" and could not receive gymnastic education, which was customary. In Parallel LivesPlutarch states that Demosthenes built an underground study where he practised speaking and shaving one half of his head so that he could not go out in public.

Plutarch also states that he had "an inarticulate and stammering pronunciation " that he overcame by speaking with pebbles in his mouth and by repeating verses when running or out of breath. He also practised speaking in front of a large mirror. As soon as Demosthenes came of age in BC, he demanded his guardians render an account of their management.

According to Demosthenes, the account revealed the misappropriation of his property. Although his father left an estate of nearly fourteen talents equivalent to about years of a labourer's income at standard wages, or 11 million dollars in terms of median U. The courts fixed Demosthenes' damages at ten talents. According to Pseudo-PlutarchDemosthenes was married once.

The only information about his wife, whose name is unknown, is that she was the daughter of Heliodorus, a prominent citizen. In his speeches, Aeschines uses pederastic relations of Demosthenes as a means to attack him. In the case of Aristion, a youth from Plataea who lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house, Aeschines mocks the "scandalous" and "improper" relation.

The slander that Demosthenes' wife also slept with the boy suggests that the relationship was contemporary with his marriage. Apparently, while still under Demosthenes' tutelage, Aristarchus killed and mutilated a certain Nicodemus of Aphidna. Aeschines accused Demosthenes of complicity in the murder, pointing out that Nicodemus had once pressed a lawsuit accusing Demosthenes of desertion.

He also accused Demosthenes of having been such a bad erastes to Aristarchus so as not even to deserve the name. His crime, according to Aeschines, was to have betrayed his eromenos by pillaging his estate, allegedly pretending to be in love with the youth so as to get his hands on the boy's inheritance. Nevertheless, the story of Demosthenes' relations with Aristarchus is still regarded as more than doubtful, and no other pupil of Demosthenes is known by name.

Between his coming of age in BC and the trials that took place in BC, Demosthenes and his guardians negotiated acrimoniously but were unable to reach an agreement, for neither side was willing to make concessions. According to a story repeated by Plutarchwhen Demosthenes was an adolescent, his curiosity was noticed by the orator Callistratuswho was then at the height of his reputation, having just won a case of considerable importance.

Jebba British classical scholar, "the intercourse between Isaeus and Demosthenes as teacher and learner can scarcely have been either very intimate or of very long duration". In the Illiterate Book-Fancier, Lucian mentions eight beautiful copies of Thucydides made by Demosthenes, all in Demosthenes' own handwriting. According to Plutarch, when Demosthenes first addressed himself to the people, he was derided for his strange and uncouth style, "which was cumbered with long sentences and tortured with formal arguments to a most harsh and disagreeable excess".

When he first left the ekklesia the Athenian Assembly disheartened, an old man named Eunomus encouraged him, saying his diction was very much like that of Pericles. As a boy Demosthenes had a speech impairment : Plutarch refers to a weakness in his voice of "a perplexed and indistinct utterance and a shortness of breath, which, by breaking and disjointing his sentences much obscured the sense and meaning of what he spoke.

Demosthenes undertook a disciplined programme to overcome his weaknesses and improve his delivery, including diction, voice and gestures. He seems to have been able to manage any kind of case, adapting his skills to almost any client, including wealthy and powerful men. It is not unlikely that he became a teacher of rhetoric and that he brought pupils into court with him.

However, though he probably continued writing speeches throughout his career, [e] he stopped working as an advocate once he entered the political arena. Judicial oratory had become a significant literary genre by the second half 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 set speeches; however, witnesses and documents were popularly mistrusted since they could be secured by force or briberythere 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 and memberscases depended largely on questions of un discurso de demosthenes biography motive, and notions of natural justice were felt to take precedence over written law—conditions that favoured artfully constructed speeches.

Since Athenian politicians were often indicted by their opponents, there was not 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. 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 BCa wealthy banker, and then communicated it to Apollodorus, who was bringing a capital charge against Phormion.

It has often been argued that the deception, if there was one, involved a political quid pro quowhereby Apollodorus secretly pledged support for unpopular reforms that Demosthenes was pursuing in the greater, public interest [ 44 ] i. Between and BC, Demosthenes continued practising law privately while he was becoming increasingly interested in public affairs.

During this period, he wrote Against Androtion and Against Leptinestwo fierce attacks on individuals who attempted to repeal certain tax exemptions. In Demosthenes' time, different political goals developed around personalities. Instead of electioneering, Athenian politicians used litigation and defamation to remove rivals from government processes.

The rancorous and often hilariously exaggerated accusations, satirised by Old Comedywere sustained by innuendo, inferences about motives, and a complete absence of proof; as J. Vince states "there was no room for chivalry in Athenian political life". In BC, Demosthenes delivered his first political oration, On the Navyin which he espoused moderation and proposed the reform of the symmoriai boards as a source of funding for the Athenian fleet.

In both speeches he opposed Eubulusthe most powerful Athenian statesman of the period to BC. The latter was no pacifist but came to eschew a policy of aggressive interventionism in the internal affairs of the other Greek cities. Although his early orations were unsuccessful and reveal a lack of real conviction and of coherent strategic and political prioritisation, [ 59 ] Demosthenes established himself as an important political personality and broke with Eubulus' faction, of which a prominent member was Aeschines.

In BC, Demosthenes felt strong enough to express his view concerning the most important foreign policy issue facing Athens at that time: the stance his city should take towards Philip. The theme of the First Philippic — BC was preparedness and the reform of the Theoric fund[f] a mainstay of Eubulus' policy. From this moment until BC, all of Demosthenes' speeches referred to the same issue, the struggle against Philip.

In the three OlynthiacsDemosthenes criticised his compatriots for being idle and urged Athens to help Olynthus. Almost simultaneously, probably on Eubulus' recommendation, they engaged in a war in Euboea against Philip, which ended in a stalemate. In BC a peculiar event occurred: Meidiasa wealthy Athenian, publicly slapped Demosthenes, who was at the time a choregos at the Greater Dionysiaa large religious festival in honour of the god Dionysus.

Demosthenes decided to prosecute his wealthy opponent and wrote the judicial oration Against Meidias. This speech gives valuable information about Athenian law at the time and especially about the Greek concept of hybris aggravated assaultwhich was regarded as a crime not only against the city but against society as a whole. In BC, Philip conquered Olynthus and razed it to the ground; then conquered the entire Chalcidice and all the states of the Chalcidic federation that Olynthus had once led.

Demosthenes was among those who favoured compromise. In BC, an Athenian delegation, comprising Demosthenes, Aeschines and Philocrates, was officially sent to 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 put Philip under oath, which was required to conclude the treaty, he was campaigning abroad. Philip swore to the treaty, but he delayed the departure of the Athenian envoys, who had yet to receive the oaths from Macedon's allies in Thessaly and elsewhere. Finally, peace was sworn at Pheraewhere Philip accompanied the Athenian delegation, after he had completed his military preparations to move south.

Demosthenes accused the other envoys of venality and of facilitating Philip's plans with their stance. For Edmund M. Burke, this speech heralds a maturation in Demosthenes' career: after Philip's successful campaign in BC, the Athenian statesman realised that, if he was to lead his city against the Macedonians, he had "to adjust his voice, to become less partisan in tone".

In BC Demosthenes travelled to the Peloponneseto detach as many cities as possible from Macedon's influence, but his efforts were generally unsuccessful. Nonetheless, Aeschines was acquitted by the narrow margin of thirty votes by a jury which may have numbered as many as 1, Because of this turbulence, the Athenian Assembly convened.

Demosthenes delivered On the Chersonese and convinced the Athenians not to recall Diopeithes. Also in BC, he delivered the Third Philippicwhich is considered to be the best of his political orations. He told them that it would be "better to die a thousand times than pay court to Philip". Thanks to Demosthenes' diplomatic manoeuvres, Abydos also entered into an alliance with Athens.

These developments worried Philip and increased his anger at Demosthenes. The Assembly, however, laid aside Philip's grievances against Demosthenes' conduct and denounced the peace treaty; so doing, in effect, amounted to an official declaration of war. In BC Philip made his last and most effective bid to conquer southern Greece, assisted by Aeschines' stance in the Amphictyonic Council.

During a meeting of the council, Philip accused the Amfissian Locrians of intruding on consecrated ground. The presiding officer of the council, a Thessalian named Cottyphus, proposed the convocation of an Amphictyonic Congress to inflict a harsh punishment upon the Locrians. Aeschines agreed with this proposition and maintained that the Athenians should participate in the Congress.

Philip decided to act at once; in the winter of — BC, he passed through Thermopylae, entered Amfissa and defeated the Locrians. After this significant victory, Philip swiftly entered Phocis in BC. He then turned un discurso de demosthenes biography down the Cephissus valley, seized Elateiaand restored the fortifications of the city.

At the same time, Athens orchestrated the creation of an alliance with EuboeaMegaraAchaeaCorinthAcarnania 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.

In any case, the alliance came at a price: Thebes' control 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 attempt to appease his enemies, proposing in vain a new peace treaty.

Demosthenes fought as a mere hoplite. However, the Athenian orator and statesman Demades is said to have remarked: "O King, when Fortune has cast you in the un discurso de demosthenes biography of Agamemnonare you not ashamed to act the part of Thersites [an obscene soldier of the Greek army during the Trojan War ]?

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. Greek cities like Athens and Thebes saw in this change of leadership an opportunity 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 put a garland on his head and white raiment on his body, and there he stood making thank-offerings, violating all decency.

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. In BC Alexander felt free to engage the Thracians and the Illyriansbut, while he was campaigning in the north, Demosthenes spread a rumour—even producing a bloodstained messenger—that Alexander and all of his expeditionary force had been slaughtered by the Triballians.

He did not attack Athens, but demanded the exile of all anti-Macedonian politicians, Demosthenes first of all. According to Plutarcha special Athenian embassy led by Phocionan opponent of the anti-Macedonian faction, was able to persuade Alexander to relent. Despite the unsuccessful ventures against Philip and Alexander, most Athenians still respected Demosthenes, because they shared his sentiments and wished to restore their independence.

This proposal became a political issue and, in BC, Aeschines prosecuted Ctesiphon on charges of legal irregularities. In his most brilliant speech, [ ] On the Crown, Demosthenes effectively defended Ctesiphon and vehemently attacked those who would have preferred peace with Macedon.

Un discurso de demosthenes biography

He was unrepentant about his past actions and policies and insisted that, when in power, the constant aim of his policies was the honour and the ascendancy of his country; and on every occasion and in all business he preserved his loyalty to Athens. In BC Harpalus, to whom Alexander had entrusted huge treasures, absconded and sought refuge in Athens.

He was imprisoned after a proposal of Demosthenes and Phocion, despite the dissent of Hypereidesan anti-Macedonian statesman and former ally of Demosthenes. Additionally, the ekklesia decided to take control of Harpalus' money, which was entrusted to a committee presided over by Demosthenes. When the committee counted the treasure, they found they only had half the money Harpalus had declared he possessed.

When Harpalus escaped, the Areopagus conducted an inquiry and charged Demosthenes and others with mishandling twenty talents. Among the accused, Demosthenes was the first to be brought to trial before an unusually numerous jury of 1, He was found guilty and fined 50 talents. Upon his return, he "received from his countrymen an enthusiastic welcome, such as had never been accorded to any returning exile since the days of Alkibiades.

Mogens Hansenhowever, notes that many Athenian leaders, Demosthenes included, made fortunes out of their political activism, especially by taking bribes from fellow citizens and such foreign states as Macedonia and Persia. Demosthenes received vast sums for the many decrees and laws he proposed. Given this pattern of corruption in Greek politics, it appears likely, writes Hansen, that Demosthenes accepted a huge bribe from Harpalus, and that he was justly found guilty in an Athenian People's Court.

However, Antipater, Alexander's successor, quelled all opposition and demanded that the Athenians turn over Demosthenes and Hypereides, among others. Following his order, the ekklesia had no choice but to reluctantly adopt a decree condemning the most prominent anti-Macedonian agitators to death. Demosthenes escaped to a sanctuary on the island of Kalaureia modern-day Poroswhere he was later discovered by Archias, a confidant of Antipater.

He died by suicide before his capture by taking poison out of a reed, pretending he wanted to write a letter to his family. But, O gracious Neptune, I, for my part, while I am yet alive, arise up and depart out of this sacred place; though Antipater and the Macedonians have not left so much as the temple unpolluted. Plutarch lauds Demosthenes for not being of a fickle disposition.

Rebutting historian Theopompusthe biographer insists that for "the same party and post in politics which he held from the beginning, to these he kept constant to the end; and was so far from leaving them while he lived, that he chose rather to forsake his life than his purpose". Polybius accused him of having launched unjustified verbal attacks on great men of other cities, branding them unjustly as traitors to the Greeks.

The historian maintains that Demosthenes measured everything by the interests of his own city, imagining that all the Greeks ought to have their eyes fixed upon Athens. According to Polybius, the only thing the Athenians eventually got by their opposition to Philip was the defeat at Chaeronea. Paparrigopoulos extols Demosthenes' patriotism, but criticises him as being short-sighted.

According to this critique, Demosthenes should have understood that the ancient Greek states could only survive unified under the leadership of Macedon. Chris Carey, a professor of Greek in UCLconcludes that Demosthenes was a better orator and political operator than strategist. The orator asked the Athenians to choose that which is just and honourable, before their own safety and preservation.

The fact that Demosthenes fought at the battle of Chaeronea as a hoplite indicates that he lacked any military skills. According to historian Thomas Babington Macaulayin his time the division between political and military offices was beginning to be strongly marked. Demosthenes dealt in policies and ideas, and war was not his business. George Grote [ ] notes that already thirty years before his death, Demosthenes "took a sagacious and provident measure of the danger which threatened Grecian liberty from the energy and encroachments of Philip.

Moreover, says Grote, "it was not Athens only that he sought to defend against Philip, but the whole Hellenic world. In this he towers above the greatest of his predecessors. The sentiments to which Demosthenes appeals throughout his numerous orations, are those of the noblest and largest patriotism; trying to inflame the ancient Grecian sentiment of an autonomous Hellenic world, as the indispensable condition of a dignified and desirable existence.

In Demosthenes' initial judicial orations, the influence of both Lysias and Isaeus is obvious, but his marked, original style is already revealed. However, at this early stage of his career, his writing was not yet remarkable for its subtlety, un discurso de demosthenes biography precision and variety of effects. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassusa Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, Demosthenes represented the final stage in the development of Attic prose.

Both Dionysius and Cicero assert that Demosthenes brought together the best features of the basic types of style; he used the middle or normal type style ordinarily and applied the archaic type and the type of plain elegance where they were fitting. In each one of the three types he was better than its special masters. According to the classical scholar Harry Thurston Peck, Demosthenes "affects no learning; he aims at no elegance; he seeks no glaring un discurso de demostheneses biography he rarely touches the heart with a soft or melting appeal, and when he does, it is only with an effect in which a third-rate speaker would have surpassed him.

He had no wit, no humour, no vivacity, in our acceptance of these terms. The secret of his power is simple, for it lies essentially in the fact that his political principles were interwoven with his very spirit. Kennedy believes that his political speeches in the ekklesia were to become "the artistic exposition of reasoned views".

Demosthenes was apt at combining abruptness with the extended period, brevity with breadth. Hence, his style harmonises with his fervent commitment. According to Jebb, Demosthenes was a true artist who could make his art obey him. He was also famous for his caustic wit. Besides his style, Cicero also admired other aspects of Demosthenes' works, such as the good prose rhythm, and the way he structured and arranged the material in his orations.

However, the use of physical gestures was not an integral or developed part of rhetorical training in his day. Demosthenes relied heavily on the different aspects of ethos, especially phronesis. When presenting himself to the Assembly, he had to depict himself as a credible and wise statesman and adviser to be persuasive. Sobre la Corona Muchos historiadores consideran que Sobre la Corona, un discurso pronunciado en el a.

Obtenido de lamenteesmaravillosa. Obtenido de elperiodico. Obtenido de biografiasyvidas. Obtenido de britannica.