Hyperides (more correctly Hypereides), the Greek orator who, on the whole, ranks next to Demosthenes, excelling him in grace though inferior to him in moral power, was probably born about the same time as Demosthenes. By birth belonging to the middle class, he became a professional advocate, and earned large sums of money, which he spent with a generous hand alike on his private (somewhat scandalous) pleasures and on patriotic purposes. His cisangelia against Philocrates assured his professional position and brought him on to the stage of politics, where he was destined to play a notable part (343 B.C.). From the first he was an opponent of the party which advocated peace with Philip, and a supporter of Demosthenes. The importance which attached to him as a politician at this time is shown by the fact that he was chosen by the Areopagus to represent the Athenian case before the Amphictyons in the dispute as to the control of the Delian temple. During all Demosthenes' manful struggles against Philip up to the fatal field of Chæronea, when, with the defeat of Athens, the political liberty of Greece practically came to an end and the supremacy of Macedonia was established, Hyperides was the trusty and valuable supporter of Demosthenes. Even after the death of Philip, and during the early portion of Alexander's career, the two orators continued to be faithful allies. Only when Demosthenes endeavoured to follow an impossible via media in the matter of Alexander's absconding minister, Harpalus, did Hyperides break with his former leader, and head that accusation of bribery against Demosthenes which not only resulted in the banishment of the great orator but committed Athens to the fruitless revolt against Macedon, known as the Lamiian war. The leaders of this revolt were Leosthenes and Hyperides; the former perished in battle, the latter was put to death by Antipater (322 B.C.). It is remarkable that although Hyperides was admired and studied in Roman times, although his works were not only known to Photius in the 9th century but actually preserved in MS. in the King's Library at Buda until 1526, when Buda was taken by the Turks, it was not until 1847 that we had any specimens of Hyperides' oratory by which to judge for ourselves of his powers. In that year Mr A. C. Harris of Alexandria purchased a papyrus at Thebes containing portions of Hyperides' speech against Demosthenes and of his speech for Lycophon. At the same time Mr J. Arden was offered a papyrus, while he was travelling in Egypt, which turned out to belong to the same volume as that bought by Mr Harris, and to contain the remainder of the speech for Lycophon, and also the whole of the speech for Euxenippus. In 1856 another traveller, Mr Stobart, obtained from the same neighbourhood another papyrus containing the Funeral Oration of Hyperides. And in 1889 M. Eug. Revillout announced that the Louvre had on his proposition purchased a papyrus which contains fragments of the first speech against Athenogenes, and is much better calculated to give us an idea of the skill of Hyperides than anything acquired by England (Revue des Études Grecques, January-March 1889).
What most impresses one in reading Hyperides is his grace, next his indolence, and always his urbanity. His grace is nothing affected or assumed, nor is it useless ornament. Hyperides is a practical, not an epideictic orator, and means business. His grace is that of a man performing a feat well within his powers, and that not a despicable feat. At the same time he is indolent, apparently because there is really no need to exert himself. He will not take the trouble to pick and choose words; he makes the one that comes first—obsolete, obsolescent, proverbial, conversational, or what not—do his work. He will not turn his sentences over mentally again and again before uttering them, so that they may roll out smooth, polished, balanced, and finished: he will rather let them come out at their own length, and as they list—he can pull them up at any time with effect and without effort. He is always transparent, never monotonous as is Demosthenes; he is witty to a degree, refined in his raillery, and his irony is delightful. Above all he never in his keenest attacks passes the bounds of good taste, as does Demosthenes. Finally, it must be remembered that what we possess cannot give us an adequate idea of the oratorical powers of Hyperides; of the speeches against Demosthenes and for Lycophon we only possess fragments; the speech for Euxenippus is indeed complete, but is never even mentioned by ancient critics, and therefore cannot have been one of his best productions. And as to the speech against Athenogenes, the anonymous writer of the treatise on the Sublime praises it indeed, but praises it as a pretty little speech. The best account of Hyperides is that given by Blass in his great work, Die Attische Beredsamkeit, III. ii. 1-72. Churchill Babington's original edition of the Oration for Lycophon and for Euxenippus (Cambridge, 1853) will always be valuable. The best text of Hyperides' works is that of Blass in the Teubner series. See Hager's Questiones Hyperideæ (Leip. 1870); and the Quarterly Review for April 1894.