Demosthenes: On the False Embassy (oration 19)

384 Pages·2000·15.891 MB·English

by  Douglas Maurice MacDowell, Demosthenes

DEMOSTHENES
On the False Embassy
(Oration 19)
EDITED WITH
INTRODUCTION, TRANSLATION> AND COMMENTAH:Y
BY
Douglas M. MacDowell
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On the false embassy (orntion 19) /Demosthenes; edited with introduction, translation,
and cominent.iry hy Douglm; M. MacDowell.
p. cm.
Text in Greek and English; commentary in English.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1. Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek-Translations into English. 2. Speeches, addresses, etc.,
G!'cek-l·listor)' and criticism. I. MacDowcll, Douglas M. (Douglas Mnuricc) II. Title.
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Preface
DEMOSTI-IENEs' speech On the False Embassy is one of the n1ost
famous orntions of ancient times, but in modern times it has been widely
neglected. The text has of course been included in the editions of Demo
sthenes in the Oxford, ·rcubner, Loeb, and Budc series, but no commen
tary has been published for over a hundred years. In that time approaches
to ancient oratory have changed, and the historical circumstances of the
speech have come to be better understood, thanks to the work of such
distinguished historians as G. T. Griffith and G. L. CHwkwcll. So it is high
time for a fresh look at this text, which lies at the centre of Demosthenes'
career.
This volume, like my edition of Against l'vleidias, is intended for those
reading the speech in Greek. The translation which I have included is not
meant to be read independently, but to show how I interpret the Greek
text. The text itself is a long one, and I have therefore not tried to deal
exhaustively with every question which might be raised about it. There is
such a thing as overkill. The late Hermann Wankcl's commentary on the
oration On the Crown in 1,376 pages is a hugely impressive feat of scholar
ship, but I suspect that few people, even among professional scholars, have
read the whole of it. I have been more selective in my commentary, but I
hope I have at least said enough to guide readers towards more detailed
study of any topics which interest them particularly.
I am grateful for the courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society of
London nnd the assistance of Professor P. J. Parsons and Dr. R. A. Coles,
who have enabled me to include information about some papyrus
fragments of the speech in advance of their publication in the Oxyrhynchus
series. Professor lVI. It Dilts has helped me with information about some
of the medieval manuscripts. I also owe much to the support of Glasgow
colleagues and friends \-vho have either discussed Dcmosthcnic questions
with me, or undertaken teaching in my place, or helped me in other ways
during the writing of this book; among them I should like to mention
especially Alex Garvie, Ronald and Linda Knox, Kostas Kappnris, Costas
Panayotakis, nnd Jennifer iVlurray. To all, my thanks.
D.lVl.lVI.
Glasgow
4 Ottober r999

Contents
Abbreviations and bibliography
lX
C"hronology of events XVll
INTRODUCTION
I. The Peace of Philokrates
I
II. 'T'he prosecution of Aiskhines 14
II I. Demosthenes' speech
22
IV. Manuscripts and text 30
SIGLA
54
TEXT AND 'l'RANSLATION
57
COMlVIENTARY
204
APPENDIX: THE HYPOT'I-IESES
INDEXES
I. English
II. Greek

Abbreviations and Bibliography
ANCIENT TEX'T'S
Figures in bold type, e.g. 123, refer to sections of On the False Embassy. An
added n. refers to my commentary; thus 282 n. wpo<Ti/1<e1m1 eans 'sec my
note on npo(JijKev in section 282'.
References to other orations in the Demosthenic corpus arc in ordinary
type, e.g. I 8. I 23. The author,s name is not given unless it is needed to
avoid ambiguity after a reference to another author; when it is given, the
use of D. does not necessarily imply that Demosthenes himself is the
author of the oration concerned. Pr. and Ep. without an author's name
mean the proocmia and the epistles attributed to Demosthenes.
I: means the scholia on Demosthenes. I give first the reference to the
Demosthenic passage to which the scholium is attached (unless it is the
passage already under consideration) and then in brackets the number of
the scholium in the edition by 1\11R.. Dilts. Thus£ 4.46 (102b Dilts) means
the scholium on section 46 of the First Philippic to which Dilts assigns the
number 102b. I: (Patm.) refers to the Patmian scholia; sec p. 52 n. 114.
The abbreviations used for other ancient texts will be familiar to most
readers of this book. If help is needed, it may be obtained from the lists in
l.,iddell and Scott's Greel?.-English Lexicon, revised by Jones (which I
abbreviate to LSJ); but some of my abbreviations have a less Latinizcd
form than theirs. I list here a few which might cause doubt.
AB Anecdota Graeca ed. I. Bekker
Ais. Aiskhincs
Ant. Antiphon the orator
AP The Athenaion Pol£teia attributed to Aristotle
Lex. ("'ant. Lexicon Rhetorfrum Cantabrigiense ed. E. 0. 1-loutsma
(reprinted in Lexica Graeca Minora ed. K. Latte and
H. Erbsc)
Lex. R.het. Lexeis R.hetorilwi, cited by page and line of AB 1
Lyle Lykourgos the orator
ML A Selection <~{ Greeh 1-Iistorical Inscriptions ed. R.
l\lleiggs and D. lVI. Lewis, cited by inscription number
and line
Plu. Eth. Plutarch Ethilw (Moralia)
Abbr<miations and Bibliography
X
Pol. Polydcukcs (Pollux) Onomastilwn
X. Apom. Xenophon Apomnemoneunzata (Menwrabilia)
'I'hc Greek rhetoricians, used mainly for tcstimonia (sec p. 52), arc
generally cited by page and line, but for Anonymus Seguerianus and
Apsines I use the numbering of Dilts and Kennedy. The editor's name and
the number of the volume arc included in brackets when necessary. The
following editions are used, all except Walz, Dilts and Kennedy, and
Ballairn in the Teubner series.
Rhetores Graeci ed. C. Walz (1832-6)
Rhetores Graeci ed. L. Spcngel (1853-6)
Rhetores G·raeci .2 ed. C. Hammer ( 1894)
1
Proleg01nenon Sylloge ed. H. Rabe (1931), abbreviated as RHbc PS
Anonymus Seguerianus and Apsines ed. M. R. Dilts and G. A.
Kennedy (Two Gree!? Rhetorical Treatises froni the Roman Empire,
1997)
Aristides Libri Rhetorici ed. G. Schmid (1926)
1-Iermogenes ed. H. Rabe (1913)
Ioannes Sardianus Comrnentarius in Aphthoniurn ed. H. Rabe (1928)
Syrianus In Iiermogenenz Conunentaria ed. H. Rabe (1892-3)
Tiberius De Figuris Demosthenicis ed. G. Ballaira (1968), cited by
chapter and line
EDITIONS OF ON TI-IE FALSE EMBASSY
The following is a list of the printed editions of Ernbassy which I have
consulted. In this list (D.) indicates that the edition of Embassy forms part
of an edition of all or many of Demosthenes' orations (not necessarily all
by the same editor), T = text, V = translation, C = commentary. I refer to
these editions by the editor's surname without a title. Where no page
number is given, the reference is to the text or translation. or commentary
at the point under consideration.
Aldus Manutius (D.): T, Venice 1504.
Oporinus, Ioannes (D.): T, Basic 1532.
Felicianus, lo. Bernard.us (D.): T, Venice 1543.
Paulus lVfanutius (D.): T, Venice I 554.
Lambinus, Dionysius (D.): T, Paris 1570, incorporating notes by
Gulielmus lVIorelius.
'\tVolf, Hieronymus (D.): 'T'V, Frankfurt 1604.
Taylor, Ioannes (D.): TV, Cambridge 1757, including notes by
Palmer, Markland, and Iurinus.
Abbreviations and Bibliography
XI
Reiske, Ioanncs Iacobus (D.): TC, Leipzig 1770-5.
Bekker, Immanuel (D.): T, Oxford 1823.
Dobson, Guliclmus Stephanus (D.): TC, London 1827.
Baitet\ J. G., and Sauppe, H. (D.): T, Zurich 1839-43.
Shilleto, Richard: TC, London 1844, revised 1864.
Dindorf, Gulielmus (D.): TC, Oxford 1846-9.
Voemel, Johannes 'I'heodorus (D., revised by Diibner): TV, Paris
1849.
Bekker, Immanuel (D.): T, Leipzig 1854.
'1Vhiston, Robert (D.): TC, London 1868.
Heslop, G. I-I.: TC, London 1872.
Dindorf, Guliclmus (D.): T', Leipzig 1874.
Weil, Henri (D. Plaidoyers politiques): TC, Paris 1883.
Blass, Fridericus (D., Teubncr series): T, Leipzig 1884.
Butcher, S. I-I. (D., Oxford Classical Text): T, Oxford 1903.
I;-ulu, Carolus (D., Teubner series): 'I', Leipzig 1914.
J.
Vince, C. A., and Vince, H. (D., Loeb series): 'T'V, London and
Cambridge Mass. 1926.
lVlathicu, Georges (D. Plaidoyers politiques, Bude series): 'T'V, Paris
1946. .
Simnders, A. N. W. (Demosthenes and Aeschines, Penguin series): V,
1-Iarmondsworth 1 97 S
lVIODERN WORKS
If elucidation of the titles of periodicals is needed, it may in most cases be
obtained from the list printed in each volume of L 'Annee Philologique. A
few of the abbreviations which I use for periodicals and other volumes of
multiple authorship are listed here.
BSA Annual of the British School at Athens
CAfl The Cambridge Ancient liistory
[JCT A l-listorical Commentary on Thucydides by
A. vV. Gomme, A. Andrcwes, and K. J. Dover
llist.Mac.2 A Iiistory of Macedonia by N. G. L.
2
Hammond and G. 'I'. Griffith (1979)
Jb. Cl. Ph. Jahrbilcher fiir Classische Philologie
Mn. l, II, III, IV Mnernosyne series I, II, II I, IV
RE Paulys Real-Encydopiidie der Classischen Alter
tumswissenschaft
RJDA Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquite
series I II
Xll Abbreviations ami Bibliography
ZPE Zeitschrift fiir Papyrologie und Bpigraphih
ZSSR Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fiir Rechts{!t!schichte
(Romanistische A btci lung)
'l'hc following list of hooks and articles is not a complete bibliography,
but it includes works for which I use abbreviated references. Details of
other ·works, cited only once or twice, are given in the introduction and
commentary.
Arnott, W. Geoffrey. Alexis: Tlw Ftagments (Can1bridgc 1996).
Henseler, Gustavus Eduardus. De hiatu in oratonhus Attids et historicis
Graecis (Freiburg 1841).
Bers, Victor. Speech in Speedi: studies in incorporated onitio rccta in Attic
drama and oratory (Lanham 1997).
Blass, F'ricdrich. Die attische Beredsaml~eit volume 3. 1 (second edition,
Leipzig 1893).
Bonner, Robert J ., and Smith, Gertrude. The Administration of Justice
from lfomer to A1"istotle (Chicago x930-8).
Buckler, John. Philip II and the Sacred War, lVIncmosync Supp. 109
(Leiden, 1989).
Canfon1, I Juciano. bl'lJentario dei manoscritti greci di Demostene (Padua
1968).
Carlicr, Pierre. Demo::.·then(eP aris 1990).
Cawkwel1, G. L. 'Acschines and the Peace of Philocratcs\ RRG 73 (1960)
416-38.
-- 'Aeschincs and the ruin of Phocis in 346', REG 75 ( I 962) 453-9.
--'Demosthenes' policy after the Peace of Philocrates', CQ 13 (1963)
120-38, 200-I J,
--'The Peace of Philocratcs again', CQ 28 (1978) 93-104.
--Philip of J'vlacedon (L,ondon 1978).
Cobet, C. G. 1Vovae lectiones (Leiden 1858).
-- Variae lectiones (second edition, Leiden 1873).
--.IVIiscellanea critica (Leiden 1876).
Davies, J. K. Athenian Propertied Families (Oxford I 971 ).
Denniston, J. D. The Greelt Particles (second edition, Oxford 1954).
Dilts, lVI. R. 'Demosthenic scholia in lVIarcianus gr. 416 and lVlonaccnsis
gr. 85', Studia Codicologica (ed. K. 'T'rcu, Berlin 1977) 151-8.
Dobrce, P. P. Ad·versaria (Cambridge 1831).
Dorjahn, Alfred P. 'Some remarks on Aeschines' career as an actor',
Classical Journal 25 ( 1929) 223-9.
Dover, K. J. Gree/?, Popular JV/orality (Oxford 1974).
Drcrup, Engelbert. 'Anti kc Demosthcnesausgahen', Philologus Sup
plemcnthand 7 ( 1899) 531-88.