Demosthenes: On the Crown

by Demosthenes , Edited by Harvey Yunis

• ISBN13: 9780521620925
• ISBN10: 0521620929
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-07-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Demosthenes’ speech On the Crown is one of the finest artistic achievements of Greek prose. Delivered in an Athenian court in 330 BCE, and circulated in written form soon afterwards, the speech made an immediate impression on contemporary Greeks and for centuries served the writers and speakers of antiquity as the primary model of forceful argument and vigorous style. In this volume Harvey Yunis presents a new edition of the speech. The book contains an introductory essay outlining the historical situation that gave rise to the speech, the nature of Demosthenes’ rhetorical art, and the history of the text. A new Greek text of the speech is accompanied by a select textual apparatus. The greater part of the book consists of a commentary, which elucidates the text and makes clear how Demosthenes achieved his objectives.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
List of abbreviations	xi
Map of Greece, Macedon, and the Aegean	xiii
Introduction
Athenian politics in response to Macedonian expansion	1	(6)
The graphe paranomon and the trial on Demosthenes' crown	7	(5)
Explaining Chaeronea	12	(5)
Demosthenes' rhetorical art	17	(9)
Speech, text, transmission	26	(9)
ΔHMOΣΘENOYΣ YΠEP KTHΣIΦWNTOΣ ΠEPI TOY ΣTEΦANOY	35	(70)
Commentary	105	(192)
Appendices
1 Synopsis of the argument	292	(2)
2 Timeline of major events	294	(3)
Bibliography	297
Indexes
Greek words	310
General	311