Lives Of The Attic Orators

This volume provides a complete translation of, and historical and historiographical commentary on, the lives of the ten Attic orators given by Pseudo-Plutarch, Photius, and the Suda. Assessing these works as important historical sources for the individual lives and careers of the orators whose works have survived, this systematic study explores how these literary biographies were constructed, the information they provide, and their veracity. In-depth commentary notes offer contextual information, explain references and examine individual rhetorical phrases, and a glossary of technical terms provides a quick reference guide to the more obscure oratorical and political terms. The volume also includes a detailed introduction which discusses the evolution of Greek oratory and rhetoric; the so-called Canon of the Ten Orators; the authorship, dates, and sources of the biographies provided by Pseudo-Plutarch, Photius, and the Suda; and a brief consideration of orators whose speeches were either falsely attributed to Demosthenes or may be referenced in the ancient lives.

This concise and informative introduction to the Attic orators, a volume in the well established Classical World series,is aimed at the late school and undergraduate student. It includes valuable comments on the orators' styles and a chronologically arranged catalogue of speeches.

The book offers a critical investigation of a wide range of features of religious discourse in the transmitted forensic, symbouleutic and epideictic orations of the Ten Attic Orators, a body of 151 speeches which represents the mature flourishing of the ancient art of public speaking and persuasion. Serafim focuses on how the intersections between such religious discourse and the political, legal and civic institutions of classical Athens help to shed new light on polis identity-building and the construction of an imagined community in three institutional contexts – the law court, the Assembly and the Boulē: a community that unites its members and defines the ways in which they make decisions. After a full-scale survey of the persistently and recurrently used features of religious discourse in Attic oratory, he contextualizes and explains the use of specific patterns of religious discourse in specific oratorical contexts, examining the means or restrictions that these contexts generate for the speaker. In doing so, he explores the cognitive/emotional and physical/sensory reactions of the speaker and the audience when religious stimuli are provided in orations, and how this contributes to the construction of civic and political identity in classical Athens. Religious Discourse in Attic Oratory and Politics will be of interest to anyone working on classical Athens, particularly its legal institutions, on ancient rhetoric, and ancient Greek religion and politics.

V.I. ANTIPHON of Athens, born in 480 B.C., spent his prime in the great period of Athens but, disliking democracy was himself an ardent oligarch who with others set up a violent short-lived oligarchy in 411. The restored democracy executed him for treason. He had been a writer of speeches for other people involved in litigation. Of the fifteen surviving works three concern real murder-cases, the others being exercises in speech-craft consisting of three 'tetralogies' whereof each tetralogy comprises four skeleton speeches: accuser's; defendant's; accuser's reply; defendant's counter-reply. ANDOCIDES of Athens, born c440 B.C., disliked the extremes of both democracy and oligarchy. Involved in religious scandal in 415 B.C., he went into a money-making exile. After at least two efforts to return, he did so under the amnesty of 403. In 399 he was acquitted on a charge of profaning the 'Mysteries' and in 391-390 took part in an abortive peace embassy to Sparta. Extand speeches are: 'On his Return' (a plea on his second attempt); "On the Mysteries' (a self-defence); 'On the Peace with Sparta'. The speech 'Against Alcibiades' (the notorious politician) is suspect.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.