Demosthenes and His Time: A Study in Defeat

ISBN-13: 9780195079289 / Angielski / Twarda / 1993 / 352 str.

Raphael Sealey

Opis

This book draws on a wide range of evidence to study the history of Athens from 386 to 322 B.C. Taking a sympathetic view of the Second Athenian League, Sealey focuses on the career of Demosthenes to provide important insights into Athenian politics and policies. Demosthenes experienced repeated setbacks in his early attempts at public activity, but found his mission as a statesman in the conflict with Macedon and subsequently became the leading man in Athens. Sealey rejects theories that assume programmatic divisions among Athenian statesmen into pro- and anti-Macedonians, and argues that all Athenians active in politics resented Macedonian ascendancy but recognized the necessity of accommodation to superior power. His account concludes with the defeat of Athens and its allies and the suicide of Demosthenes, presenting new insights not only into the life of Demosthenes and the turbulent years of his political career, but also the social and international factors bearing on Athenian political activity in general.

Recenzje

'There is much to be pondered upon in the book and peppered through it are new and provocative ideas ... O.U.P. has produced a book with hardly any typographical errors (which cannot be said of all Presses).' Ian Worthington, University of Tasmania, The Classical Review, Vol. XLIV, No. 2, 1994