Demosthenes is recognized as a defender of Athenian democracy and freedom, particularly in voicing his concern about the growth of Macedonian power. While the defence of democracy is a recurring theme in his speeches, Demosthenes did not develop a theory of democracy. Rather, he tended to idealize the Athenian democratic experience. Further, in his defence of democracy and the ethos of the democratic citizen, Demosthenes references oligarchy, though again not from a theoretical perspective. The objective of this paper is to analyse Demosthenes’s use of the democratic and oligarchical forms of government in his defence of Athens, with a focus on his construction of an antithesis between them and his deployment of the Athenian experiences with oligarchy in 411 and 404 BC in his oratory.
Federal University of Paraíba, Brazil - ORCID: 0000-0003-2616-7186
Chapter Title
Forms of government and rhetoric: perceptions of democracy and oligarchy in Demosthenes
Authors
Priscilla Gontijo Leite
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-612-4.08
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2022
Copyright Information
© 2022 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Crises (Staseis) and Changes (Metabolai)
Book Subtitle
Athenian Democracy in the Making
Editors
Breno Battistin Sebastiani, Delfim Ferreira Leão
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
140
Publication Year
2022
Copyright Information
© 2022 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-612-4
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-611-7
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-612-4
eISBN (epub)
978-88-5518-613-1
eISBN (xml)
978-88-5518-614-8
Series Title
Studi e saggi
Series ISSN
2704-6478
Series E-ISSN
2704-5919