Thebes had been top dog for 10 years before Philip took over. Demosthenes was the diplomatic representative of Thebes in Athens. He wouldn't have wanted to be allied with Thebes if they were oligarchy. But against that, and if I'd been one of them, he's going to come down anyway. We're going to get smashed. That's what a sane Theban would have thought.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the speeches that became a byword for fierce attacks on political opponents. It was in the 4th century BC, in Athens, that Demosthenes delivered these speeches against the tyrant Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, when Philip appeared a growing threat to Athens and its allies and Demosthenes feared his fellow citizens were set on appeasement. In what became known as The Philippics, Demosthenes tried to persuade Athenians to act against Macedon before it was too late; eventually he succeeded in stirring them, even if the Macedonians later prevailed. For these speeches prompting resistance, Demosthenes became famous as one of the Athenian democracy’s greatest freedom fighters. Later, in Rome, Cicero's attacks on Mark Antony were styled on Demosthenes and these too became known as Philippics.
The image above is painted on the dome of the library of the National Assembly, Paris and is by Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863). It depicts Demosthenes haranguing the waves of the sea as a way of strengthening his voice for his speeches.
With
Paul Cartledge
A. G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, University of Cambridge
Kathryn Tempest
Reader in Latin Literature and Roman History at the University of Roehampton
And
Jon Hesk
Reader in Greek and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews
Producer: Simon Tillotson