The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes

Edited by Gunther Martin

Oxford Handbooks

Offers a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the many facets of Demosthenes' life, work, and time
Explores not only his oratory, but also his role as a politician in the last days of Athens' independence
Places particular focus on situating Demosthenes' rhetoric in its social and historical context, illustrating the interplay and mutual influence between his speeches and the environment from which they emerged
Comprises thirty-five chapters written by experts in the field, encompassing a wide range of scholarly traditions and demonstrating the richness and diversity of current work in Demosthenic studies

The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes

Edited by Gunther Martin

Description

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.

The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes

Edited by Gunther Martin

Oxford Handbooks

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

The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes

Edited by Gunther Martin

Oxford Handbooks

Author Information

Gunther Martin, SNSF-Professor, University of Zurich

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.

Contributors:

Alastair Blanshard is Paul Eliadis Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland.
Leonhard Burckhardt is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Basel.
Edmund M. Burke is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Coe College.
Mirko Canevaro is Reader in Classics at the University of Edinburgh.
Luciano Canfora is Emeritus Professor of Classical Literature at the University of Bari.
Pietro Cobetto Ghiggia is Professor of Greek History at the University of Molise at Isernia.
Brad L. Cook is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Mississippi.
Michael Gagarin is James R. Dougherty, Jr. Centennial Professor Emeritus in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Luigi Gallo is Full Professor of Greek history at l'Univerrsita degli studi di Napoli l'Orientale.
Edward M. Harris is Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at Durham University and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
S. C. Humphreys is Emeritus Professor of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Peter Hunt is Professor of Classics and History (courtesy) at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Kostas Kapparis is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Florida.
Christos Karvounis is Lecturer in Modern Greek at the University of Mainz.
Susan Lape is Professor of Classics at the University of Southern California.
Gottfried Mader teaches at Birkbeck, University of London.
Gunther Martin is SNSF-Professor at the University of Zurich.
Robert J. Nichols is Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.
Robin Osborne is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of King's College.
Thomas Paulsen is Professor of Classical Literature at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Karen Piepenbrink is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Giessen.
Sitta von Reden is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Freiburg.
P. J. Rhodes is Honorary Professor of Ancient History at Durham University.
Joseph Roisman is a Professor of Classics at Colby College.
Iris Samotta is a post-doctoral researcher at the Ruhr-Universitat-Bochum.
Noriko Sawada is Professor of History at Chiba University.
Adele C. Scafuro is Professor of Classics at Brown University.
Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Tubingen.
Winfried Schmitz is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bonn.
Jeremy Trevett is Associate Professor of History at York University, Canada.
Guy Westwood is Teaching Fellow in Classical Greek History and Language at the University of Birmingham.
Hannah Willey is a Lecturer in Ancient History in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College.
Katharina Wojciech is Lecturer at the Department of Ancient History at the University of Freiburg.
Cecil W. Wooten is Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ian Worthington is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney.