Demosthenes was born in Athens in 384 BC, the same year as Aristotle. The son of a wealthy arms manufacturer, he was orphaned at seven and his guardians squandered his inheritance. When he came of age he took them to court and won: his first success as an orator.
The boy who could not speak
According to Plutarch, the young Demosthenes had a weak voice, short breath and a speech impediment. To overcome them he practised speaking with pebbles in his mouth, declaimed while running uphill or over the roar of the waves, and shut himself for months in an underground room with half his head shaved so he would not be tempted to go out. These stories, perhaps embroidered, made him a symbol of willpower.
Speechwriter and politician
Demosthenes began as a logographer, writing speeches for people defending themselves in court: Athens had no lawyers and everyone spoke for themselves. Then he entered politics, at a time when Athenian power was declining and the kingdom of Macedon was rising in the north.
The Philippics
Demosthenes saw before others that Philip II of Macedon meant to dominate Greece. In the Philippics and the Olynthiacs (in defence of Olynthus, Athens' ally) he accused the Athenians of being idle and divided and urged them to pay taxes and fight in person rather than rely on mercenaries. These speeches give us the word philippic, a bitter speech of accusation.
- 351 BCFirst Philippic.
- 349-348 BCOlynthiacs; Philip destroys Olynthus.
- 346 BCPeace of Philocrates between Athens and Macedon, reluctantly accepted by Demosthenes.
- 341 BCThird Philippic, the most famous.
- 339 BCDemosthenes secures an alliance between Athens and Thebes.
- 338 BCPhilip defeats Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea; Demosthenes fights as a hoplite.
- 330 BCOn the Crown: Demosthenes defeats Aeschines.
- 324-323 BCImplicated in the Harpalus affair, he goes into exile.
- 322 BCAfter a failed revolt against Macedon, he takes poison on Poros.
On the Crown
After the defeat at Chaeronea (338 BC), a friend proposed honouring Demosthenes with a gold crown for his services. His rival Aeschines, who favoured accommodation with Macedon, charged that the proposal was illegal. In 330 BC Demosthenes replied with On the Crown, a defence of his whole policy: defeat, he argued, does not diminish those who fought for freedom. He won by such a margin that Aeschines left Athens. It is considered the masterpiece of ancient oratory.
Death
After Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, Demosthenes backed the Greek cities' revolt against Macedon. When the Greeks were defeated, the Macedonian general Antipater demanded his surrender. Demosthenes took refuge in the sanctuary of Poseidon on the island of Calauria, today's Poros, and took poison by chewing the pen he was writing with, in 322 BC.
Legacy
Cicero considered him the model of the perfect orator and called his own speeches against Mark Antony Philippics. For centuries Demosthenes' speeches were studied in schools of rhetoric.
See also Alcibiades and ancient Greek literature.