Demosthenes: On the Crown

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Demosthenes' speech On the Crown is one of the finest artistic achievements of Greek prose. Delivered in an Athenian court in 330 BCE, and circulated in written form soon afterwards, the speech made an immediate impression on contemporary Greeks and for centuries served the writers and speakers of antiquity as the primary model of forceful argument and vigorous style. In this volume Harvey Yunis presents a new edition of the speech. The book contains an introductory essay outlining the historical situation that gave rise to the speech, the nature of Demosthenes' rhetorical art, and the history of the text. A new Greek text of the speech is accompanied by a select textual apparatus. The greater part of the book consists of a commentary, which elucidates the text and makes clear how Demosthenes achieved his objectives.