Editing Demosthenes (section)

===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>