Démosthène, Sur les forfaitures de l’ambassade

Demosthenes is famous for his relentless fight against Philip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander, using his exceptional oratory to help Athens and other Greek cities defend their freedom against the threat posed by Macedonian ambitions. One of the most striking features of that fight is the rivalry between Demosthenes and Aeschines which lasted more than fifteen years and was born of the “false embassy” case.

The speech On the False Embassy (343 B.C.) is one of Demosthenes’ best-known orations and was most admired in Antiquity. However, Demosthenes failed to convict Aeschines, whom he accused of having sold himself to Philip. As a result, that speech has not been studied as much as the famous oration On the Crown which was composed thirteen years later and which represents a symbolic triumph for Demosthenes and his policy, even though by then the Macedonian kings had already achieved a complete victory on the field. So the time has come to devote a new critical edition to this masterpiece of Greek oratory.

The Greek text has been systematically revised using the best manuscripts and comes with a critical apparatus and a new translation, precise and elegant. The introduction and commentary provide details about the historical context, the work’s complex structure, Demosthenes’ unique style and all the grammatical and rhetorical features of the speech. This new bilingual edition is aimed at a large audience comprised not only of specialists, who will find within all the scholarly ressources they may require, but also of all those interested in classical Greek rhetoric and in Demosthenes’ legendary struggle against the Macedonian conquests.