INTRODUCTION


Demosthenes, the son of Demosthenes of Paeania in Attica, a rich and highly
respected factory-owner, was born in or about the year 384 B.C. He was early
left an orphan; his guardians mismanaged his property for their own advantage;
and although, soon after coming of age in 366, he took proceedings against them
and was victorious in the law-courts, he appears to have recovered comparatively
little from them. In preparing for these proceedings he had the assistance of
Isaeus, a teacher and writer of speeches who was remarkable for his knowledge of
law, his complete mastery of all the aspects of any case with which he had to
do, and his skill in dealing with questions of ownership and inheritance.
Demosthenes' speeches against his guardians show plainly the influence of
Isaeus, and the teacher may have developed in his pupil the thoroughness and the
ingenuity in handling legal arguments which afterwards became characteristic of
his work.

Apart from this litigation with his guardians, we know little of Demosthenes'
youth and early manhood. Various stories have come down to us (for the most part
not on the best authority), of his having been inspired to aim at an orator's
career by the eloquence and fame of Callistratus; of his having overcome serious
physical defects by assiduous practice; of his having failed, nevertheless,
owing to imperfections of delivery, in his early appearances before the people,
and having been enabled to remedy these by the instruction of the celebrated
actor Satyrus; and of his close study of the _History_ of Thucydides. Upon the
latter point the evidence of his early style leaves no room for doubt, and the
same studies may have contributed to the skill and impressiveness with which, in
nearly every oration, he appeals to the events of the past, and sums up the