Demosthenes, the greatest orator of Athens and of Greece, was born about 383 B.C. He lost his father at an early age. The considerable inheritance bequeathed to him was reduced by the neglect or the fraud of his guardians, and when he came of age he proceeded to prosecute them. The litigation was long and complicated, and though he gained verdicts in his favour, most of his inheritance was irretrievably lost. The importance of this litigation was that it compelled Demosthenes to the study of the law, gave the first exercise to that doggedness and strength of will which was to mark him through life, and by reducing him to poverty, drove him to the pursuit of law as a means of living. At Athens the parties to a suit were compelled to plead their cause themselves, but they could not be prevented from getting their speeches composed for them by a professional 'speech-writer' or 'logographer.' Demosthenes became a logographer, and soon acquired a lucrative practice. Up to the age of thirty Demosthenes confined himself to 'speech-writing,' and gained considerable reputation as a constitutional lawyer. His most famous constitutional law speech is one which he delivered personally in support of Ctesippus against Leptines (354 B.C.). He seems to have lacked by nature all the physical qualifications of a great orator, and to have acquired them solely by indefatigable self-discipline and training. At about the age of thirty he made his first appearance as a politician; he continued to practise as a logographer until he was about forty, by which time he had made a fortune sufficient to enable him to devote himself exclusively to political life until he died, at the age of about sixty-one.
At the beginning of his political career danger threatened Greece from the north, from Macedonia, a country which though at that time considered by the Greeks as semi-barbarous, and of no account in Greek politics, was destined within the lifetime of Demosthenes to destroy the liberties and the political existence of Greece. Demosthenes' claim to fame as a statesman rests on the fact that he foresaw the danger threatened by Philip of Macedon from the beginning, and that he from the outset advocated a policy which might have saved Athens and Greece. The three cardinal features of his policy were that the rich should submit to direct taxation for the purposes of the war; that the poor should submit, for the same purposes, to a diminution of the public expenditure on national festivals; and that rich and poor alike should render personal military service instead of employing mercenaries. Intelligent as was the Athenian democracy, it was not intelligent enough to see that Demosthenes' forecast was right, and his opponents' wrong; and, consequently, it was only when events justified Demosthenes, that is to say, when it was too late, that his policy was adopted. Philip's attack on the state of Olynthus gave occasion to the Olynthiacs, which, with the orations against Philip, the Philippics, are the greatest speeches made by Demosthenes. Athens made war with Philip on behalf of Olynthus, but having failed to save the city, found peace expedient. During the next few years (346-340) Demosthenes was engaged in forming an anti-Macedonian party, and in indicting Æschines for betraying Athens in the negotiations for the peace just concluded with Philip. War again broke out in 340, ending in the fatal battle of Chæronea (338). But Athens, having learned to trust Demosthenes, did not withdraw her confidence. The philo-Macedonian party, however, were encouraged to seize on a proposal to present Demosthenes with a public crown as an occasion for his political destruction. The trial was at length held in 330, when in the famous speech On the Crown Demosthenes gloriously vindicated himself against Æschines. In 324 Harpalus, the treasurer of Alexander the Great (who had succeeded Philip), absconded to Athens with an enormous sum of money. This money was placed in the state treasury, under the care of Demosthenes and others, and when Alexander demanded it, half was missing. Demosthenes was accused, condemned, and escaped from prison into exile. The evidence does not seem to have warranted the verdict, which was probably given on political grounds, Demosthenes having offended both the Macedonian party and the extreme patriots. In 323 Alexander died, and Demosthenes was recalled from exile to head a fruitless attempt to throw off the Macedonian yoke. The battle of Crannon ended the revolt. Demosthenes fled to Calauriea, and being there captured by Macedonian troops, poisoned himself, 322 B.C.
Demosthenes began life with a nervous, timid nature, and, unfortunately, as a boy was allowed by his mother to shirk the physical exercises and gymnastic training which formed part of the ordinary education of the young Athenian. He grew up with a tendency to effeminacy, which showed itself in an affection for luxurious clothing, and still more in his conduct as a citizen soldier; for although at Chæronea he may have displayed no more cowardice than did the other Athenians who ran away, he was far from exhibiting the heroic bearing which distinguished Socrates at Delium. His timidity made him unsocial, and his water-drinking habits cut him off still more effectually from society. His luxury may have reached the point of extravagance: he was certainly lavishly generous in the discharge of all claims on him, public and private. Whether his effeminacy amounted to immorality, as was charged against him, is a question which cannot be answered off-hand in the negative. The natural defects which were to be seen in his private life may be traced in his public career; but here it is their conquest by force of will and determined adherence to a lofty purpose which has rightly given him his great name. His nervousness and timidity disqualified him for political life and public speaking; these defects he combatted till he conquered them. His natural incapacity for amiability rendered him unsympathetic to the pleasure-loving Athenians; he compelled their respect by his intellectual power and the purity of his patriotism. The want of sympathy, however, he never overcame, and so he never obtained the hold over the Athenians which it would have been good for them that he should possess. In all democracies every politician who has led the masses at his own good-will has known on occasion how, if not to flatter, at least to say the thing that is pleasant; but Demosthenes' nature did not permit him to say pleasant things. Even this serious practical deficiency could not prevent his contemporaries from eventually recognising his force of character and steadiness of noble purpose. Still less has it weighed with posterity.
In the oratory of Demosthenes it is not difficult to trace the character of the man reflected. His resolute hard work and his infinite capacity for taking pains are seen in the high finish which distinguished his speeches above those of every orator. His moroseness is mirrored in the abuse of which he was too great a master; his want of amiability in the absence of humour. His nervousness betrays itself in his over-anxiety to argue, in his lack of ease and flow. But as in his life so in his speeches, all faults are blotted out by his unaffected earnestness, his entire devotion to his country, his intel- lectual loftiness, and his high political morality. These great qualities are the source of the dignity, the pathos, the might, majesty, and dominion of his political orations. Even these qualities, however, would not have raised him to the highest pinnacle in the fane of eloquence had he not possessed the ear and the mind of the artist in words, the former of which gave to his speeches the marvellous melody they possess, the latter the variety of vocabulary, which is one of Demosthenes' characteristics. Nor must it be forgotten that the way for Demosthenes had been paved by great predecessors. The summit on which he stands rests on the labours of Lysias, Isocrates, and others. Finally, oratory, to be great, must have great themes, and it is not in every age that they are forthcoming. Demosthenes had the lot, tragic but triumphant, of saving, though all else was lost, the honour of his country.
For the life of Demosthenes, A. Schäfer's Demosthenes und seine Zeit (2d ed. 1882) eclipses all other works, good as are the hand-books of Brodribb (1877) and Butcher (1881). The most exhaustive literary criticism is contained in Blass's Attische Beredsamkeit (1877). The best text is that of Bekker (1854). Kennedy's English translation (5 vols. 1852-63) is a monument of scholarship.