Demosthenes (384–322 BCE), orator at Athens, was a pleader in law courts who later became also a statesman, champion of the past greatness of his city and the present resistance of Greece to the rise of Philip of Macedon to supremacy. We possess by him political speeches and law-court speeches composed for parties in private cases and political cases. His early reputation as the best of Greek orators rests on his steadfastness of purpose, his sincerity, his clear and pungent argument, and his severe control of language. In his law cases he is the advocate, in his political speeches a castigator not of his opponents but of their politics. Demosthenes gives us vivid pictures of public and private life of his time.
The Loeb Classical Library edition of Demosthenes is in seven volumes.
- General Introduction vii
- Bibliography x
- Order of The Orations According To Blass’s Text xi
- Table of Athenian Money xiv
- Volume I: Orations 1-17 and 20 LCL 238
- Volume II: Orations 18-19 LCL 155
- Volume III: Orations 21-26 LCL 299
- Volume V: Orations 41-49 LCL 346
- Volume VI: Orations 50-59 LCL 351
- Volume VII: Orations 60-61. Exordia. Letters LCL 374