Not everyone, however, shared Isocrates’ vision of a united Greece or his favorable attitude toward
Philip. While Isocrates was making speeches and writing letters, encouraging Philip to “lead the way in
unifying the Greeks and attacking the barbarians,” another Athenian orator, Demosthenes, was reviling
Philip as an untrustworthy, power-hungry despot. Demosthenes (384–322 BC) was more than 50 years
younger than Isocrates, but because of the latter’s long life their careers overlapped for a quarter of a
century. Like Isocrates, Demosthenes made a name for himself initially in the Attic law courts, composing
speeches for various clients to use in their defense or (much more commonly) in their prosecution of
others. In addition, he himself initiated successful litigation against two relatives who, as his guardians
after his father died when he was a child, had squandered his inheritance. Demosthenes developed a
forceful and vigorous style very different from the refined urbanity of Isocrates, and he earned a
reputation as an aggressive and effective prosecutor. He did not share the idealism of Isocrates; rather, his
practical experience in the law courts, as well as his treatment at the hands of his guardians, made him
vigilant and suspicious of others’ motives. So, when Philip and the Macedonians began interfering in the
affairs of the Greek cities on the north coast of the Aegean, an area which was of economic and strategic
importance to Athens, Demosthenes delivered a series of speeches in the assembly, beginning around 350
BC, in which he tried to arouse the Athenians to defend their interests and to forestall by military action
the expanding power of the Macedonians. Among these speeches is a group called the Philippic
Orations, or “speeches dealing with Philip,” which are scathing denunciations of Philip’s imperialist
intentions. The title of these speeches has contributed the word “philippic,” meaning “verbal tirade,” to
the English language.
“In all other cases you Athenians think that freedom of speech should be so widely available to
everyone in the city that you even allow foreigners and slaves to share in it, and you can see any
number of slaves here speaking their minds with greater freedom than free men in some other poleis.
But when it comes to political deliberation, freedom of speech has been utterly banished. The result
of this is that the assemblies are filled with nothing but self-indulgent flattery designed solely for the
gratification of the listeners, while at the same time a clear and present danger threatens in the form
of urgent affairs of state. Well, if that is what you are interested in hearing, I have nothing to say. But
if you are willing to be given unvarnished advice, I stand ready to speak.” (Demosthenes, Third
Philippic 3–4)These and the other speeches of Demosthenes are of interest not only for their historic importance and
their literary merit, but because they provide us with a window into the workings of Athenian democracy
in the fourth century BC. Like all Attic orators, Demosthenes came from a family whose considerable
wealth enabled him to pursue the expensive and extensive training necessary to become proficient in
public speaking. But the aim of the orator who addresses the assembly is to convince the mass of Athenian
citizens to adopt this or that course of action, and his chances of success are greatly improved if he can
first impress on his audience that he is a “man of the people.” The same, of course, is true of modern
representative democracies, in which the cost of campaigning for major public office often keeps the
leadership in the hands of wealthy individuals, whose public addresses sometimes adopt a folksy, down-
to-earth tone. And, like many modern politicians, Demosthenes appealed to his audience’s patriotism,
their sense of uniqueness as, first, Athenians and, failing that, as Greeks. In his first Philippic, for
example, Demosthenes reminds his fellow Athenians of how well organized and how lavish are their
celebrations of the festivals of the Panathenaea and Dionysia, and he exhorts them to expend comparable
effort and resources in eliminating the threat that Philip poses to them. Ten years later, after Philip’s
influence in the affairs of Greece had become more dominant and more alarming, Demosthenes in his third