Works of Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute the last significant expression of Athenian intellectual prowess and provide a thorough insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece. The Alexandrian Canon compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace recognized Demosthenes as one of the ten greatest Attic orators and logographers. Cicero acclaimed him as "the perfect orator" and the one who "has pre-eminence over all others", while Quintilian extolled him as lex orandi.
Manuscript tradition
Demosthenes must have written down and put into circulation most of his orations. In the next generation after his death, texts of his speeches survived in at least two places: Athens and the Library of Alexandria. During this period, Callimachus was responsible for producing the catalogue of all the volumes contained in the Library. Demosthenes' speeches were incorporated into the body of classical Greek literature that was preserved, catalogued and studied by scholars of the Hellenistic period. From then until the fourth century AD copies of his orations multiplied at a time when Demosthenes was deemed the most important writer in the rhetorical world and every serious student of rhetoric needed access to his writings. Texts of his speeches were in a relatively good position to survive the tense period from the sixth until the ninth century AD.Scholars have recorded 258 Byzantine manuscripts of Demosthenes' speeches and 21 of extracts. Modern editions of these speeches are based on four of these manuscripts:
- The tenth-century Venetus Marcianus 416, including the sixty-one orations, which finally survived. The Aldine edition was based on three manuscripts of the same family as F, though not on F itself; so the customary order of the speeches is of this family.
- The tenth- or eleventh-century Monacensis Augustanus 485, which includes fifty-four speeches. Those omitted are 12, 45, 46, 52, 60 and 61.
- The tenth- or eleventh-century Parisinus 2935, which includes twenty-nine speeches.
- The tenth- or eleventh-century Parisinus 2934 considered to be the most reliable by many scholars. It omits item 12 but includes the 60 speeches. A facsimile of the codex was published in 1892-93, in Paris, by H. Omont.
- Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 25, a third-century manuscript of De Corona;
- Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 26, a second-century manuscript of Prooimia Demegorica;
- Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 230, a second-century manuscript of De Corona;
- Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 231, a second- or third-century manuscript of De Corona.
Authorship
The authorship of many of the works attributed to Demosthenes have been disputed. Arnold Schaefer, for instance, accepted only 29 of Demosthenes' speeches as genuine.Some works are almost universally rejected. Most of the speeches given by Apollodoros, for instance, are widely considered to have been written by Apollodoros himself, though the first speech "Against Stephanos" has been considered authentic by many scholars.
Of these, at least two, "Against Callipus" and "Against Nicostratus", must have been composed by someone other than Demosthenes, as he would have been too young at the time they were composed. Similarly, "virtually everyone" believes that "On the Halonessus" was written and delivered by Hegesippus rather than Demosthenes.
At the other end of the spectrum, some works which have been doubted are now generally considered to be authentic. The third speech "Against Aphobos", for instance, is now generally accepted to be authentic. Still other speeches have been generally considered authentic but have had some sections considered to be later additions. The "Third Philippic", for instance, contains text which does not appear in all of the manuscript traditions; it has been suggested that this was a later addition by another writer.
Finally, one of the works which was transmitted as part of the Demosthenic corpus makes no claim to have been written by Demosthenes. This is number 12, the "Epistle of Philip", which claims to be the letter from Philip of Macedon to the people of Athens to which Demosthenes 11, the "Reply to Philip", is a response. Douglas MacDowell believes that this is authentically Philip's letter.