During the Golden Age of ancient Greece, many
of the Greek city-states began experimenting with
representative forms of government. Rather than
being ruled by kings or tyrants, the citizens of
these city-states attempted to rule themselves in
the name of the common good. It was the birth of
democracy.
One of the keys to this new form of government
was the assembly,where the citizens of a city would
come together to debate and discuss political and
social issues. Differences of opinion were freely
aired, and each speaker was allowed the opportunity
to convince the audience to agree with his argument.
This gave birth to oratory (also know as
rhetoric), the art of speaking well and persuasively.
In addition to political matters, oratory was used
by lawyers to persuade the courts to find in favor of
their clients.
The city-state of Athens, which controlled the
region known as Attica (from which the Attic orators
take their name), was indisputably the most
powerful democracy in Greece, and the influence
of the Athenian Assembly was tremendous. The
fact that Athens was deeply involved in all the great
political, military, and diplomatic events of the day
meant there was a great deal for Athenian politicians
to discuss. The two centuries between 500
and 300 B.C. saw two Persian invasions of Greece,
the rise and fall of Athenian power, the disastrous
Peloponnesian War, the conquest of Greece by
Macedonia, and the astonishing career of Alexander
the Great. Through all these years, the politicians
and orators of Athens constantly debated and
discussed these events, attempting to decide what
to do. It is no surprise that many eminent orators
lived and worked in Athens during this time.
One of the first of the great Athenian orators
was Antiphon (ca. 480–411 B.C.), who was a lawyer
interested in murder cases. He did not take much
of an interest in politics until near the end of his
life, when he organized a revolt by oligarchs,
wealthy men who distrusted democracy. The revolt
failed, and Antiphon was executed for treason
against Athens. His most famous works are the
Tetrologies, four hypothetical paired speeches, and
surviving fragments of his speeches on law and
justice.
Another orator who favored the oligarchs was
Andocides (ca. 440–391 B.C.). He wrote his
speeches On the Mysteries, On His Return, On the
Peace with Sparta, and Against Alcibiades in defense
of charges brought against him for his involvement
in the defacing of the statues of Hermes
(considered religious monuments) and another religious
scandal relating to the revelation of the
Eleusinian Mysteries during the Sparta peace mission,
for which he was exiled once from 415 to 403,
and again in 392.
Not all the orators favored the oligarchs, however.
One such democrat was LYSIAS (459–380 B.C.),
who lived and worked mostly in the aftermath of
the Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War.
During this time, a continual struggle was being
waged between the oligarchs and the democrats.
Lysias, who was a foreigner, was granted Athenian
citizenship for his assistance in helping democracy
return to Athens. He was regarded as an outstanding
speaker and was knowledgeable on a wide variety
of subjects. His speech On the Murder of
Eratosthenes, about a peasant who murders Eratosthenes,
is perhaps his best-known work, but he
also wrote a speech in defense of SOCRATES that is
known for its simplicity and clarity.
During the fourth century B.C., as King Philip of
Macedonia began to encroach upon Greek independence,
the Athenians constantly debated how
to respond. One orator who favored accommodating
Philip was Aeschines (389–314 B.C.), who, as
DEMOSTHENES’ rival, spoke in favor of peace and
against opposing Macedonia. Three of Aeschines’
speeches survive: Against Timarchus, a sanction
against Timarchus for his homosexuality; On the
Embassy, a defense against Demosthenes’ charge
that he was accepting bribes; and Against Ctesiphon,
his opposition to Ctesiphon’s claim that
Demosthenes should be awarded the golden
crown. In the matter of King Philip’s rule,
Aeschines accepted the point of view of ISOCRATES
(436–338 B.C.), who states in his speech Philip that
he wanted King Philip to unite all of Greece under
a strong ruler. Isocrates is also known for having
trained many of the great Athenian orators of his
day, including Hyperides, ISAEUS, and Lycurgus.
Other orators, however, were bitterly opposed
to Macedonia and spoke out in favor of continued
resistance. One of these men was Hyperides (ca.
390–322 B.C.), who spoke out repeatedly against
King Philip, even after Athens had been defeated
by Macedonia at the Battle of Chaeroneia. He is
believed to have written more than 70 speeches,
all of which were lost until the latter half of the
19th century, when six were discovered in Egypt. In
the debate over Macedonia’s rule of Athens, Hyperides
was an ally of Demosthenes (384–322 B.C.),
who was bitterly opposed to peace with Macedonia,
as can be seen in his eloquent speeches known
as Philippics. Demosthenes is still regarded by
many as the greatest orator Athens has ever produced.
He is believed to have been a student of the
Attic orator Isaeus (fourth century B.C.), whose
speeches are valued for the legal, social, and cultural
information they provide on ancient Greece.
After Macedonia had ended Greek independence,
Athens’s political and military power declined.
Nevertheless, debates continued in the
Athenian assembly.An orator named Lycurgus (ca.
390–324 B.C.) sought to persuade the citizens of
Athens to become more religious and moral and
also attempted to make the city government more
efficient. He studied the art of rhetoric under
PLATO and Isocrates, but he is most remembered
for his efforts as a financier in increasing Athens’s
wealth.
The last of the great Athenian orators was Dinarchus
(ca. 360–after 292 B.C.),who actually came
to Athens from the city-state of Corinth, and who
wrote speeches seeking to prosecute many distinguished
Athenians for corruption, including
Demosthenes. His works mark the decline of Attic
oration in ancient Greece.
The Athenian tradition of oratory has had a
tremendous influence on history and the art of debate.
Today, in places like the United States Congress,
the British Parliament, the Sansad of India,
and the Diet of Japan, politicians debate and discuss
the great issues facing their nations, and in
city councils and town hall meetings across the
world, ordinary citizens do the same regarding local
issues facing their communities. But it was in the
city-states of ancient Greece, and in Athens in particular, that the art of oratory first came into being
through the efforts and skills of the Attic orators.
English Versions of Works by
the Attic Orators
Aeschines. Aeschines: Speeches. Translated by C. D.
Adams. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1992.
Andocides. On the Mysteries. Edited by Douglas M.
MacDowell. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1989.
Antiphon and Andocides. Translated by Michael
Gagarin and Douglass M. MacDowell. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1998.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes: On the Crown. Edited
by Harvey E.Yunis.New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2001.
Dinarchus,Hyperides, and Lycurgus. Translated by Ian
Worthington, et. al. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 2001.
Isaeus. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Edward
S. Forster. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1992.
Lysias. The Oratory of Classical Greece Series. Translated
by S. C. Todd. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1999.
Selections from the Attic Orators. Edited by E. E. Genner.
Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1955.
Works about the Attic Orators
Edwards,Michael. The Attic Orators. London: Bristol
Classical Press, 1994.
Gagarin, Michael. Antiphon the Athenian: Oratory,
Law, and Justice in the Age of the Sophists. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2002.
Harris, Edward Monroe. Aeschines and Athenian Politics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Jebb, Richard Claverhouse. The Attic Orators from Antiphon
to Isaeus. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 2003.
Too, Yun Lee. Rhetoric of Identity in Isocrates: Text,
Power, Pedagogy. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1995.
Worthington, Ian. Demosthenes: Statesman and Orator.
London: Taylor & Francis, 2001.
———. Historical Commentary on Dinarchus. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.