Greek Political Oratory

Here are the most famous speeches ofThucydides, Lysias, Andocides, Isocrates and of course, that prince οf orators, Demosthenes.

The fifth century B.C. saw the birth and flowering οί Greek prose ίη the form οf forensic and political oratory. For speech-making in classical Athens was both a regular practice and an organized art- an art that became increasingly reiined during the course οf the century and one that has exercised a lasting intIuence οη the rhetorical tradition οf the West.
Between them, the greatest Athenian speeches also provide an important record οί that city’s politics, and those included in this volume have all been selected for their political significance. ΑΙΙ are masterpieces οf rhetorical technique; and ίη his introduction A.N.W. Saunders brilliantly demonstrates their importance in connection with Greek history and philosophy, and in particular with the rise οf Sophistry and the decline οί the city state.