 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
Born the son of a wealthy sword-maker, Demosthenes was orphaned at the age of seven. His father left him well-provided-for, but his legal guardians defrauded him and squandered his inheritance, causing him to seek retribution through the courts when he came of age.
As a boy Demosthenes suffered from a speech impediment and he worked at a series of self-designed exercises to overcome it. A common story tells of his talking around mouthfuls of rocks to improve his diction, but it is unknown whether this is fact or merely a legendary example of his perseverance and determination. Either way, Demosthenes became a prominent political orator (speech-maker), making his living through his ability to write and make speeches. He is best-known for his Philippic Orations , urging the populace to rise up and defend their country against Philip II of Macedon, who was steadily gaining power and territory for the Macedonian state.
Demosthenes's speaking style was relatively straightforward and generally without rhetorical flair. It was considered somewhat vulgar by the standards of the day, but was nevertheless very popular. He also made use of his body to accentuate his words, and as a result was able to project his ideas and arguments much more forcefully (later famous orators like Henry Clay would mimic this technique). Although Demosthenes's arguments were the products of careful study and preparation -- he often declined to comment on subjects he had not studied beforehand -- he was famous for his sharp wit, and his name has been used to imply a particularly venomous rejoinder.
In 346 BC Demosthenes was one of many envoys sent to Philip II of Macedon to create a peace treaty. Upon their return, Demosthenes led the potentially fatal prosecution of his fellow envoys based on the ill reception of the treaties terms and Philip II's actions immediately prior to its agreement. The prosecution was discredited when politician and envoy Aiskhines disenfranchised Demosthenes' fellow, possibly lead, prosecutor, Timarkhos, by convincing the jury he had prostituted himself to another male while young. Demosthenes was also accused of sexual and gender inpropriety. Aiskhines attributed Demosthenes nickname, Batalos ("arse"), to his "unmanliness and kinaidiā" and frequently commented on his "unmanly and womanish temper", even criticising his clothing: "If anyone took those dainty little coats and soft shirts off you ... and took them round for the jurors to handle, I think they'd be quite unable to say, if they hadn't been told in advance, whether they had hold of a man's clothing or a woman's." (Dover, 1989)
Demosthenes is also implicated in passive homosexuality and the prostitution of youth (Aiskhines iii 162): "There is a certain Aristion, a Plataean..., who as a youth was oustandingly good-looking and lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house. Allegations about the part he was playing [lit., 'undergoing or doing what'] there vary, and it would be most unseemly for me to talk about it." (Dover, 1989)
Demosthenes was exiled after a convoluted affair involving money taken by one of the lieutenants of Alexander the Great. He was recalled to Greece after Alexander died, where he attempted once again to rally the Grecian people against Macedonia, but he was unsuccessful and took poison rather than face capture and punishment.
The historian Plutarch drew attention in his Life of Demosthenes to the strong similarities between the personalities and careers of Demosthenes and Marcus Tullius Cicero:
| Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about . |
Demosthenes, the son of Alcisthenes, was also an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War, responsible for the victories at the Battle of Olpae, Battle of Pylos, and Battle of SphacteriaThe Battle of Sphacteria was a battle of the Peloponnesian War in 425 BC, between Athens and Sparta. It was an important part of the longer Battle of Pylos. The Athenian land forces in Pylos had successfully driven back the Spartan attempts to land from t. He was executed in 413 BCCenturies: 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC Decades: 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 418 BC 417 BC 416 BC 415 BC 414 BC 413 BC 412 BC 411 BC 410 BC 409 BC 408 BC Events Battle of Syracuse after being captured during the Sicilian ExpeditionThe Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian expedition to Sicily from 415 BC to 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. It was an unmitigated disaster for the Athenian forces. As Thucydides recounts wryly in his History of the Peloponnesian War the generals lea.
Demosthenes (a conscious nod to Demosthenes) was used as an online pseudonym by Peter WigginIn the science fiction story Ender's Game and its sequels, Peter Wiggin is Ender's (or Andrew's) older brother. He is cruel to Ender but is intelligent enough to go to battle school, as is the middle child Valentine; but Peter is deemed too harsh and Vale and Valentine WigginValentine Wiggin is a fictional character in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series of novels. She is the older sister of Ender Wiggin. Valentine was born because the International Fleet decided that the eldest child, Peter, was too brutal for the possibl in the Ender's GameBattle School space station. Ender's Game ( 1985) is the best-known novel by Orson Scott Card. It originated as a science fiction short story in Analog Magazine ( 1977) and is set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien soc series of books by Orson Scott CardOrson Scott Card (born August 24 1951) is a prolific and best-selling author of numerous genres. Overview Card's launch in the publishing industry was with science fiction Hot Sleep and Capitol and later fantasy Songmaster . He remains best known for the. (see LockeLocke is the name of several places in the United States. Locke, California, a town in Sacramento County, California Locke Township, Michigan, is a township located in Ingham County, Michigan Locke, New York, a town in Cayuga County, New York Locke is als)
Demosthenes is the namesake of the Demosthenian Literary Society at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. The Demosthenian Literary Society was founded in 1803, making it the oldest literary society in the United States.
Ancient Athenians| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|