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This book draws on a wide range of evidence to study the history of Athens from 386 to 322 B.C. Taking a sympathetic view of the Second Athenian League, Sealey focuses on the career of Demosthenes to provide important insights into Athenian politics and policies. Demosthenes experienced repeated setbacks in his early attempts at public activity, but found his mission as a statesman in the conflict with Macedon and subsequently became the leading man in Athens. Sealey rejects theories that assume programmatic divisions among Athenian statesmen into pro- and anti-Macedonians, and argues that all Athenians active in politics resented Macedonian ascendancy but recognized the necessity of accommodation to superior power. His account concludes with the defeat of Athens and its allies and the suicide of Demosthenes, presenting new insights not only into the life of Demosthenes and the turbulent years of his political career, but also the social and international factors bearing on Athenian political activity in general.
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Demosthenes and His Time This page intentionally left blank Demosthenes and His Time A Study in Defeat RAPHAEL SEALEY New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1993 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland Madrid and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright© 1993 by Raphael Sealey Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sealey, Raphael. Demosthenes and his time : a study in defeat / Raphael Sealey. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-507928-0 1. Athens (Greece)—Politics and government. 2. Greece—Politics and government—To 146 B.C. 3. Demosthenes. I. Title DF277.S315 1993 938'.5—dc20 92-18540 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To Dorte-Freyja Sealey Windund Regen sind mir oft entgegen. Ich ducke mich, lass es voriibergahn; Das Wetter will seinen Willen han. Georg von Derfflinger Preface From 1951 until 19541 was supported by the generosity of the Craven Committee in the University of Oxford and of University College. The gratitude I now tender is late but in consequence deep. For since 1954 I have learned to recognize increasingly the benefit I derived from the wayward reading which those patrons allowed. Thanks to them I made first acquaintance with the speeches of Demosthenes. I dreamed of writing a work to cover every Demosthenic question. But after a time I found good reason to put that desire aside. Many Demosthenic questions have been treated so well by Schaefer and Blass that their work cannot be surpassed, or at least I cannot surpass it. Even so I continued hoping to write in moderately extensive form about the career of Demosthenes. But an obstacle arose to check me; my attention was diverted repeatedly into questions about the authenticity, date, and mode of composition of particular speeches. At last I recognized that many of these questions are not susceptible to definitive solutions. One can only delineate the limits within which speculation is possible. Once I had seen this, I set to work in 1983. It is a pleasure to thank G. L. Cawkwell for kindnesses of more than one type. As my teacher he introduced me to the study of ancient history. Later, by publishing extensively on Demosthenes a