The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes

by Gunther Martin (Editor)

Overview

As a speechwriter, orator, and politician, Demosthenes captured, embodied, and shaped his time. He was a key player in Athens in the twilight of the city's independence, and is today a primary source for its history and society during that period. The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes sets out to explore the many facets of his life, work, and time, giving particular weight to elucidating the settings and contexts of his activities, as well as some of the key themes dealt with in his speeches, and thereby illustrating the interplay and mutual influence between his rhetoric and the environment from which it emerged. The volume's thirty-five chapters are authored by experts in the field and offer both comprehensive coverage and an up-to-date reference point for the issues and problems encountered when approaching the speeches in particular: they not only showcase how Demosthenes' rhetoric was profoundly influenced by Athenian reality, but also explore its reception from Demosthenes' own day right up until the present and how his presentation of his world has subsequently shaped our view of it. The wide range of expertise and the different scholarly traditions represented are a vivid demonstration of the richness and diversity of current Demosthenic studies and the contribution the volume makes to enriching our knowledge of the life and work of one of the most prominent figures of ancient Greece will be of significance to a wide readership interested in Athenian history, society, rhetoric, politics, and law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191022975
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	11/15/2018
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	456
File size:	900 KB

About the Author

Gunther Martin is SNSF-Professor at the University of Zurich; educated at the universities of Munich and Oxford, he has previously held posts at Oxford, Nottingham, and Berne. He is the author of books on Demosthenes, Euripides, and the historian Dexippus, and his work focuses on textual scholarship, the study of communication, and the relationship between historical reality and its representation in literary texts.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Abbreviations and Conventions
List of Contributors
Tables
0. Introduction, Gunther Martin
Part I. General Matters
1. Demosthenic Scholarship, Thomas Paulsen
2. Literary Readings of Oratory, Gottfried Mader
3. Historical Readings of Oratory, Adele C. Scafuro
4. The Place of Oratory in Fourth-Century Politics and Culture, Katharina Wojciech
Part II. The Institutional Context of Oratory
5. Public Opinion and the Arenas of Debate, Karen Piepenbrink
6. Law and Justice, Mirko Canevaro
7. Court Procedures and Arbitration, Michael Gagarin
8. Political Elites, Susan Lape
9. Diplomacy, Peter Hunt
Part III. The Political Context
10. Athenian Foreign Policy, P. J. Rhodes
11. Athenian State Finances, Edmund M. Burke
12. Military, Leonhard Burckhardt
13. Corruption, Robert J. Nichols
14. Views on the Past, Guy Westwood
15. Visions of Attica, Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner
Part IV. The Social and Cultural Context
16. Trade and Credit, Sitta von Reden
17. The Social and Legal Position of Metics, Foreigners, and Slaves, Kostas Kapparis
18. The Rhetoric of Social and Political Values, Joseph Roisman
19. Local Communities, Neighbourhoods, Winfried Schmitz
20. Kinship, S. C. Humphreys
21. Religion, Hannah Willey
22. City and Countryside, Robin Osborne
Part V. Demosthenes' Life
23. The Biographic Tradition, Brad L. Cook
24. Family, Formation, Extra-Political Activities, Iris Samotta
25. Political Career, Christos Karvounis
26. Allies and Foes (I): Aeschines, Hyperides, Lycurgus, Noriko Sawada
27. Allies and Foes (II): Politicians without Transmitted Speeches, Luigi Gallo
Part VI. The Corpus Demosthenicum
28. Speeches to the Assembly and in Public Prosecutions (Dem. 1 24), Edward M. Harris
29. Speeches in Private Prosecutions, Pietro Cobetto Ghiggia
30. The Epitaphios, Erotikos, Prooimia, and Letters, Ian Worthington
31. Rhetorical Technique, Cecil W. Wooten
32. Authenticity, Composition, Publication, Jeremy Trevett
33. Afterlife (Antiquity and Byzantine Era), Luciano Canfora
34. Afterlife (Modern Era), Alastair Blanshard
35. Transmission of the Corpus Demosthenicum, Gunther Martin
Endmatter
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The first thing to be said about a publication like this is that a comprehensive book on Demosthenes, an indispensable figure in the history of Greek literature and history, should always be well received." — Felipe G. Hernández Muñoz, GNOMON 95

From the Publisher