book ReviewS 175

Ian Worthington Demosthenes of Athens and the fall of classical Greece (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). pp. xxiv + 382, $35.00. ISBN 9780199931958 (hbk).

During the period between the accession of Philip II to the throne of Macedonia in 359 BC and the death of Demosthenes in 322 BC, Macedonia grew in size and power and eventually dominated the Greek peninsula. From the point of view of the major city-states there, this result was indeed the ‘Fall of Classical Greece’. In an important part of this development, the Macedonians fought Athens repeatedly and eventually put an end to Athens’ independence and its democracy. The Athenian statesman Demosthenes is famous for his eloquent speeches and especially for those in which he roused the Athenians to the struggle against Macedonia, speeches that are paragons of patriotism and of the love of freedom. Thus Ian Worthington’s decision to combine a treatment of the defeat of the traditional Greek city-states with a historical biography of Demosthenes, Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece, was a natural and almost obvious one. Indeed, a well-known biography of the early twentieth century carried a similar title, Demosthenes and the Last Days of Greek Freedom, by A. W. Pickard-Cambridge (1914). The intervening genera- tions of historians, however, have tended to view Macedonian expansion more in Macedonian terms and hence as a great success story; many historians have turned a cynical eye on Athenian foreign policy and Demosthenes’ rhetoric of freedom. They contrast the high professions both of the city-state and of its famous orator with their self-interested motives. In the light of these opposed angles of approach, Worthington aims to take a balanced view of Demosthenes and asks ‘Was he indeed Greece’s greatest patriot, or did he cynically exploit the danger of Philip for his own political agenda, capitalizing on his rhetorical prowess to uphold a policy that ruined his city and Greece?’ (p. 8). Worthington’s previous scholarship makes him well suited for such a two-sided and even-handed project. Not only has he pub- lished works on Alexander the Great and his father, Philip II – the bête noir of Demosthenes – but he has also written articles and edited volumes on Athenian oratory and rhetoric, including an outstanding collection, Persuasion: Greek Rhetoric in Action. He is obviously well informed on this subject and this book is a replete with reasoned analysis and up-to-date bibliography. Except for an engaging start in medias res, the book is arranged in fifteen chapters mainly in chronological order. Worthington first treats Demosthenes’ childhood and the many hurdles he had to overcome as an orphan with unscru- pulous guardians and as an aspiring orator with poor delivery – although the famous story that he stuttered and practiced speaking with pebbles in his

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi 10.1163/20512996-12340010 176 book ReviewS mouth may reflect later embellishments (p. 132 n. 142). Worthington then dis- cusses Demosthenes’ early career as a writer of law-court speeches, but given his theme, his account becomes more detailed as he considers Demosthenes’ early forays into inter-state politics. A handful of early speeches on various for- eign policy questions have been preserved. This variety may indicate that Demosthenes was not yet concerned with Philip and Macedon (p. 97), but it may just reflect the sundry business before the assembly on which an aspiring politician needed to speak – and historians may easily make false inferences since so few speeches have been preserved over a period of several years. Worthington argues persuasively that Demosthenes was not terribly successful as a speaker and states dramatically: ‘Demosthenes’ career now appeared all but over. Then Philip unwittingly came to its rescue’ (p. 132). From this point on, Demosthenes’ story is closely tied to the great political events of his time and especially Athens’ several wars with Macedonia and its attempts to unite the Greek city-states against the northern monarchy. Worthington throughout alternates between sections focused more narrowly on Demosthenes – based mainly on the speeches, our main sources of information from which he quotes extensively – and background sections on the history of his time. Worthington adopts a lively, cynical, and hence often witty voice: ‘He [Demosthenes] later said the people’s vote “caused the danger then encompassing the city to pass by like a cloud”. That was exaggeration: no cloud over either Athens or Greece ever dissipated’ (p. 243). This tone in combination with the historical back- ground and analyses of individual speeches makes the book a lively and largely self-sufficient introduction for the general reader. From the start Worthington emphasizes that he will focus his judgments on Demosthenes’ intentions: ‘ “intention” is potentially the most objective means to assess Demosthenes’ career and his role in Greek history – and that is the intention of this book’. (p. 8) This focus has a drawback as well as an advantage, however. On the one hand, Demosthenes failed to accomplish his goal, pre- venting the domination of Greece by Macedonia – and indeed Demosthenes himself eventually died as the result of this failure. The causes of Macedonia’s rise and Athenian inability to prevent it were complex and many of them were not under Demosthenes’ control: for example, the long-standing hostilities and mutual suspicions that made it hard to unite southern Greece against the Macedonians. So judging Demosthenes on the basis of what he tried to do, his intentions, is certainly better than dismissing him on the grounds that he did not accomplish them, something that may, after all, have been impossible. Indeed, this approach is akin to Demosthenes’ own criterion for judging Athens’ struggle against Macedonia: even if we knew how things were going to

polis, The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought 31 (2014) 169-190