ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns Demosthenes’ reputation as an orator in antiquity. Hellenistic biographers who wrote about his life were less concerned with Demosthenes’ political achievements than with his literary accomplishments. They wanted to know about his early childhood and education, his training regimen and the works he left behind. Political events were mentioned but they were incidental to the real story: Demosthenes the orator. This Demosthenes was very much the product of Alexandrian scholarship and Peripatetic research to which these biographers were deeply indebted. It was not until Plutarch composed his own biography that Demosthenes was treated as a real political figure.
