Editing Demosthenes (section)

==Early years and personal life==
===Family and personal life===
[[File:Bust Demosthenes BM 1840.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of Demosthenes ([[British Museum]], London), Roman copy of a Greek original sculpted by Polyeuktos.]]
Demosthenes was born in 384 BC, during the last year of the 98th&nbsp;[[Olympiad]] or the first year of the 99th&nbsp;Olympiad.<ref name="Weil1">H. Weil, ''Biography of Demosthenes'', 5–6.</ref> His father—also named Demosthenes—who belonged to the local tribe, Pandionis, and lived in the [[deme]] of [[Paeania]]<ref name="AischIII171">Aeschines, ''Against Ctesiphon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D171 171.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520143158/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D171 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> in the Athenian countryside, was a wealthy sword-maker.<ref>E. Badian, "The Road to Prominence", 11.</ref> [[Aeschines]], Demosthenes' greatest political rival, maintained that his mother [[Kleobule|Kleoboule]] was a [[Scythia]]n by blood<ref name="Aisch2">Aeschines, ''Against Ctesiphon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D172 172.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520155153/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D172 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref>—an allegation disputed by some modern scholars.{{Ref label|A|a|none}} He was also the uncle of the Athenian Orator Demochares. Demosthenes was orphaned at the age of seven. Although his father provided for him well, his legal guardians, Aphobus, Demophon and Therippides, mishandled his inheritance.<ref name="Thomsen">O. Thomsen, ''The Looting of the Estate of the Elder Demosthenes'', 61.</ref>

Demosthenes started to learn rhetoric because he wished to take his guardians to court and because he was of "delicate physique" and could not receive gymnastic education, which was customary. In ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', [[Plutarch]] states that Demosthenes built an underground study where he practised speaking and shaving one half of his head so that he could not go out in public. Plutarch also states that he had "an [[Speech impediment|inarticulate and stammering pronunciation]]" that he overcame by speaking with pebbles in his mouth and by repeating verses when running or out of breath. He also practised speaking in front of a large mirror.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Demosthenes-Greek-statesman-and-orator|title=Demosthenes – Greek statesman and orator|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=7 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309202141/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Demosthenes-Greek-statesman-and-orator|archive-date=9 March 2018}}</ref>

As soon as Demosthenes came of age in 366&nbsp;BC, he demanded his guardians render an account of their management. According to Demosthenes, the account revealed the misappropriation of his property. Although his father left an estate of nearly fourteen [[Attic talent|talents]] (equivalent to about 220 years of a labourer's income at standard wages, or 11 million dollars in terms of median U.S. annual incomes).<ref name="Aph4">Demosthenes, ''Against Aphobus 1'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0074%3Aspeech%3D27%3Asection%3D4 4] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520104442/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0074%3Aspeech%3D27%3Asection%3D4 |date=20 May 2012 }}<br />* D. M. MacDowell, ''Demosthenes the Orator'', ch. 3.</ref> Demosthenes asserted his guardians had left nothing "except the house, and fourteen slaves and thirty silver {{Lang|la|minae}}" (30 {{Lang|la|minae}} = ½ talent).<ref name="Aph6">Demosthenes, ''Against Aphobus 1'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0074%3Aspeech%3D27%3Asection%3D6 6.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520104603/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0074%3Aspeech%3D27%3Asection%3D6 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> At the age of 20 Demosthenes sued his trustees to recover his patrimony and delivered five orations: three ''Against Aphobus'' during 363 and 362&nbsp;BC and two ''Against Onetor'' during 362 and 361&nbsp;BC. The courts fixed Demosthenes' damages at ten talents.<ref name="AphIII59">Demosthenes, ''Against Aphobus 3'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0074%3Aspeech%3D29%3Asection%3D59 59] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520154959/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0074%3Aspeech%3D29%3Asection%3D59 |date=20 May 2012 }}<br />* D. M. MacDowell, ''Demosthenes the Orator'', ch. 3.</ref> When all the trials came to an end,{{Ref label|B|b|none}} he only succeeded in retrieving a portion of his inheritance.<ref>E. Badian, "The Road to Prominence", 18.</ref>

According to [[Pseudo-Plutarch]], Demosthenes was married once. The only information about his wife, whose name is unknown, is that she was the daughter of Heliodorus, a prominent citizen.<ref name="pseudo13">Pseudo-Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', 847c.</ref> Demosthenes also had a daughter, "the only one who ever called him father", according to Aeschines in a trenchant remark.<ref name="Ctesiphon77">Aeschines, ''Against Ctesiphon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D77 77.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520104423/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D77 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> His daughter died young and unmarried a few days before Philip II's death.<ref name="Ctesiphon77" />

In his speeches, Aeschines uses [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|pederastic]] relations of Demosthenes as a means to attack him. In the case of Aristion, a youth from [[Plataea]] who lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house, Aeschines mocks the "scandalous" and "improper" relation.<ref>Aeschines, ''Against Ctesiphon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D162 162.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520154950/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D3%3Asection%3D162 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> In another speech, Aeschines brings up the pederastic relation of his opponent with a boy called Cnosion. The slander that Demosthenes' wife also slept with the boy suggests that the relationship was contemporary with his marriage.<ref>Aeschines, ''On the Embassy'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D149 149] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520151813/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D149 |date=20 May 2012 }}; Athenaeus, ''Deipnosophistae'', XIII, 63<br />* C. A. Cox, ''Household Interests'', 202.</ref> Aeschines claims that Demosthenes made money out of young rich men, such as Aristarchus, the son of Moschus, whom he allegedly deceived with the pretence that he could make him a great orator. Apparently, while still under Demosthenes' tutelage, Aristarchus killed and mutilated a certain Nicodemus of Aphidna. Aeschines accused Demosthenes of complicity in the murder, pointing out that Nicodemus had once pressed a lawsuit accusing Demosthenes of desertion. He also accused Demosthenes of having been such a bad {{Lang|el|[[Erastes (Ancient Greece)|erastes]]}} to Aristarchus so as not even to deserve the name. His crime, according to Aeschines, was to have betrayed his {{Lang|el|[[eromenos]]}} by pillaging his estate, allegedly pretending to be in love with the youth so as to get his hands on the boy's inheritance. Nevertheless, the story of Demosthenes' relations with Aristarchus is still regarded as more than doubtful, and no other pupil of Demosthenes is known by name.<ref>Aeschines, ''On the Embassy'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D148 148–150] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520154942/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D148 |date=20 May 2012 }}, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D165 165–166] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520143146/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D165 |date=20 May 2012 }}<br />* A.W. Pickard, ''Demosthenes and the Last Days of Greek Freedom'', 15.</ref>

===Education===
Between his coming of age in 366&nbsp;BC and the trials that took place in 364&nbsp;BC, Demosthenes and his guardians negotiated acrimoniously but were unable to reach an agreement, for neither side was willing to make concessions.<ref name="HeliosMacD">D. M. MacDowell, Demosthenes the Orator, ch. 3 (''passim''); {{cite encyclopedia|title=Demosthenes|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia The Helios]]|year=1952}}</ref> At the same time, Demosthenes prepared himself for the trials and improved his oratory skill. According to a story repeated by [[Plutarch]], when Demosthenes was an adolescent, his curiosity was noticed by the orator [[Callistratus of Aphidnae|Callistratus]], who was then at the height of his reputation, having just won a case of considerable importance.<ref name="Pl5">Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D1 5.1–3.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520153326/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D1 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> According to [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], a German [[philology|philologist]] and philosopher, and [[Constantine Paparrigopoulos]], a major modern Greek historian, Demosthenes was a student of [[Isocrates]];<ref name="Nietzsche233-235">F. Nietzsche, ''Lessons of Rhetoric'', 233–235; K. Paparregopoulus, Ab, 396–398.</ref> according to [[Cicero]], [[Quintillian]] and the Roman biographer Hermippus, he was a student of [[Plato]].<ref>Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D5 5.5.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520155026/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D5 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> [[Lucian]], a Roman-Syrian rhetorician and [[satire|satirist]], lists the philosophers [[Aristotle]], [[Theophrastus]] and [[Xenocrates]] among his teachers.<ref name="Lucian1">Lucian, ''Demosthenes, An Encomium'', 12.</ref> These claims are nowadays disputed.{{Ref label|C|c|none}} According to Plutarch, Demosthenes employed [[Isaeus]] as his master in rhetoric, even though Isocrates was then teaching this subject, either because he could not pay Isocrates the prescribed fee or because Demosthenes believed Isaeus' style better suited a vigorous and astute orator such as himself.<ref>Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D4 5.4.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520153410/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D4 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> [[Ernst Curtius|Curtius]], a German [[archaeologist]] and historian, likened the relation between Isaeus and Demosthenes to "an intellectual armed alliance".<ref name="Jebb">R. C. Jebb, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0077%3Achapter%3D19%3Asection%3D4 The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520155017/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0077%3Achapter%3D19%3Asection%3D4 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref>

It has also been said that Demosthenes paid Isaeus 10,000&nbsp;[[Ancient drachma|drachma]]e (somewhat over 1½&nbsp;talents) on the condition that Isaeus withdraw from a school of rhetoric he had opened and instead devote himself wholly to Demosthenes, his new pupil.<ref name="Jebb" /> Another version credits Isaeus with having taught Demosthenes without charge.<ref name="Suda">Suda, article [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?login=guest&enlogin=guest&db=REAL&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=Iota,620 Isaeus.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924122152/http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?login=guest&enlogin=guest&db=REAL&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=Iota,620 |date=24 September 2015 }}</ref> According to [[Sir Richard C. Jebb]], a British [[Classics|classical]] scholar, "the intercourse between Isaeus and Demosthenes as teacher and learner can scarcely have been either very intimate or of very long duration".<ref name="Jebb" /> [[Konstantinos Tsatsos]], a Greek professor and [[academician]], believes that Isaeus helped Demosthenes edit his initial judicial orations against his guardians.<ref name="Tsatsos83">K. Tsatsos, ''Demosthenes'', 83.</ref> Demosthenes is also said to have admired the historian [[Thucydides]]. In the ''Illiterate Book-Fancier,'' Lucian mentions eight beautiful copies of Thucydides made by Demosthenes, all in Demosthenes' own handwriting.<ref name="Lucian2">Lucian, ''The Illiterate Book-Fancier'', 4.</ref> These references hint at his respect for a historian he must have assiduously studied.<ref name="Weil11">H. Weil, ''Biography of Demothenes'', 10–11.</ref>

===Speech training===
[[Image:DemosthPracticing.jpg|thumb|right|''Demosthenes Practising Oratory'' by [[Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy]] (1842–1923). Demosthenes used to study in an underground room he constructed himself. He also used to talk with pebbles in his mouth and recited verses while running.<ref>Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D11%3Asection%3D1 11.1.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520143207/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D11%3Asection%3D1 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> To strengthen his voice, he spoke on the seashore over the roar of the waves.]]
According to Plutarch, when Demosthenes first addressed himself to the people, he was derided for his strange and uncouth style, "which was cumbered with long sentences and tortured with formal arguments to a most harsh and disagreeable excess".<ref name="Pl6">Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D3 6.3.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520110438/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D3 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> Some citizens, however, discerned his talent. When he first left the [[Ecclesia (ancient Athens)|ekklesia]] (the Athenian Assembly) disheartened, an old man named Eunomus encouraged him, saying his diction was very much like that of [[Pericles]].<ref>Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D4 6.4.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520153422/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D4 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> Another time, after the ekklesia had refused to hear him and he was going home dejected, an actor named Satyrus followed him and entered into a friendly conversation with him.<ref name="Pl7">Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D7%3Asection%3D1 7.1.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520153427/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D7%3Asection%3D1 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref>

As a boy Demosthenes had a [[speech impairment]]: Plutarch refers to a weakness in his voice of "a perplexed and indistinct utterance and a shortness of breath, which, by breaking and disjointing his sentences much obscured the sense and meaning of what he spoke."<ref name="Pl6" /> There are problems in Plutarch's account, however, and it is probable that Demosthenes actually suffered from [[Rhotacism (speech impediment)|rhotacism]], mispronouncing ρ (r) as λ (l).<ref>H. Yunis, ''Demosthenes: On the Crown'', 211, note 180.</ref> Aeschines taunted him and referred to him in his speeches by the nickname "Batalus",{{Ref label|D|d|none}} apparently invented by Demosthenes' pedagogues or by the little boys with whom he was playing<ref name="AischI126">Aeschines, ''Against Timarchus'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D1%3Asection%3D126 126] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520153404/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D1%3Asection%3D126 |date=20 May 2012 }}; Aeschines, ''The Speech on the Embassy'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D99 99.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520160744/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D99 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref>—which corresponded to how someone with that variety of rhotacism would pronounce "''[[Battaros#History|Battaros]]''," the name of a legendary Libyan king who spoke quickly and in a disordered fashion. Demosthenes undertook a disciplined programme to overcome his weaknesses and improve his delivery, including diction, voice and gestures.<ref name="Pl6-7">Plutarch, ''Demosthenes'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D1 6–7.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520153415/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0039%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D1 |date=20 May 2012 }}</ref> According to one story, when he was asked to name the three most important elements in oratory, he replied "Delivery, delivery and delivery!"<ref>Cicero, ''De Oratore'', 3.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0120%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D213 213] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520110451/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0120%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D213 |date=20 May 2012 }}<br />* G. Kennedy, "Oratory", 517–18.</ref> It is unknown whether such vignettes are factual accounts of events in Demosthenes' life or merely anecdotes used to illustrate his perseverance and determination.<ref name=Bad16>E. Badian, "The Road to Prominence", 16.</ref>