Yet many Athenians continued to believe that Philip’s threat was transitory. The Philippics. Early in 351 Demosthenes delivered a speech against Philip, the so-called “ First Philippic,” that established him as the leader of the opposition to Macedonian imperial ambitions.
In 336–335 BC, the king of Macedon crippled any attempt of the Greek cities at resistance and shattered Demosthenes's hopes for Athenian independence. After Chaeronea, Philip inflicted a harsh punishment upon Thebes, but made peace with Athens on very lenient terms.
In 336 BC, Philip was assassinated at the wedding of his daughter, Cleopatra of Macedon, to King Alexander of Epirus. The Macedonian army swiftly proclaimed Alexander III of Macedon, then twenty years old, as the new King of Macedon.
During a meeting of the Council, Philip accused the Amfissian Locrians of intruding on consecrated ground. The presiding officer of the Council, a Thessalian named Cottyphus, proposed the convocation of an Amphictyonic Congress to inflict a harsh punishment upon the Locrians.
Demosthenes saw the King of Macedon as a menace to the autonomy of all Greek cities and yet he presented him as a monster of Athens's own creation; in the First Philippic he reprimanded his fellow citizens as follows: "Even if something happens to him, you will soon raise up a second Philip [...]".
Demosthenes (c. 384 - 322 BCE) was an Athenian statesman who famously stood against Macedonian king Philip II and whose surviving speeches have established him as one of the greatest patriots and powerful orators from ancient Greece. He is not to be confused with the 5th century BCE Athenian general of the same name.
demosthenes. Demosthenes means of the people or man of the people.
What does Demosthenes predict? If the Athenians ignore Philip, there will be disaster.
But at the approach of Antipater, Alexander's successor, Demosthenes and other orators again fled the city. His former friend Demades then persuaded the Athenians to sentence Demosthenes to death. While fleeing Antipater's soldiers, he killed himself by taking poison.
In Ender's Game, Locke is the guy who thinks we all can talk out our political differences, while Demosthenes is the one who calls for war between the countries.
Answer: Demosthenes' father left him a fortune but his guardians did not take care of his money. They lost some of it and spent some on themselves. So, in the end, they did not have enough money to give Demosthenes good education and that is why Demosthenes did not trust his guardians.
Demosthenes (384–322 bc), Athenian orator and statesman, who according to Plutarch overcame an initial stammer by training himself to speak with pebbles in his mouth.
Demosthenes had many physical defects to overcome. His health was fragile, and he was constantly getting sick. But his most serious condition was his stammering.
Demosthenes learned rhetoric by studying the speeches of previous great orators. He delivered his first judicial speeches at the age of 20, in which he argued effectively to gain from his guardians what was left of his inheritance.
What evidence does Demosthenes give that Philip is a threat? He robbed and insulted them. According to Demosthenes, what will happen to the Greeks if they fail in their duty? They can expect disaster.
Just off the side of the Statue of Athena in Athens is Demosthenes.
In 356 Philip had captured an Athenian possession in Thrace, after hoodwinking the Athenians with promises to protect the city, and in 354 he took another Athenian possession. By 353 both Sparta and Arcadia were asking Athens for military assistance against Philip.
His famous speech in 354 “On the Navy Boards” was addressed to the threat from the East. Meanwhile, in Macedonia, to the north, the young king Philip, almost the same age as Demosthenes, was gradually annexing Greek cities south of his borders.
From this point on (354), Demosthenes’ career is virtually the history of Athenian foreign policy . It was not very long before his oratorical skill made him, in effect, the leader of what today might be called the democratic party. Some interests, especially the wealthy, would have preferred an oligarchy instead of a democracy; many merchants would have preferred peace at almost any price. While they agreed that the Macedonians were barbarians, most Athenian citizens distrusted other Greek city-states such as Thebes and Sparta. The Athenian Assembly was a loosely organized, often tumultuous body of up to 6,000 male citizens; it was capable of shouting down a speaker it did not like or of routing him with laughter. Any citizen could speak, but the criteria were so high that only the best orators survived for long. In this turbulent arena Demosthenes stood out. Contemporaries refer to him as “a water drinker”; that is, a severe and perhaps forbidding personality. Although name-calling was common practice in the Assembly, Demosthenes’ wit was exceptionally caustic; when defending himself in his speech “ On the Crown ” against the attacks of his lifelong rival, Aeschines, he did not scruple to call him “sly beast,” “idle babbler,” “court hack,” and “polluted.” Demosthenes was not merely better at abuse than most; he also realized the advantage of making an audience lose respect for his opponent.
He constantly asked the Athenians to recall their own history, to remember their past belief in democracy, and to remind themselves how much they hated tyrants. His love of democracy gives his speeches a humanistic breadth that makes them interesting even today. Demosthenes was also extremely industrious.
His father died when he was seven, leaving a large inheritance, but the boy’s unscrupulous guardians took advantage of their position, and when he came of age Demosthenes received very little of his estate. His strong desire to sue his guardian, Aphobus, in the courts, coupled with a delicate physique that prevented him from receiving ...
In his Parallel Lives Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer, relates that Demosthenes built an underground study where he exercised his voice, shaving one half of his head so that he could not go out in public.
Demosthenes as speech writer. At the age of 20 the young Demosthenes found himself without his fortune, without a trade or profession, and with seemingly little prospect for success in any field. But his rhetorical skill had been noticed.