ABSTRACT
The first half of the fourth century bc was a period of history on which it was very difficult to impose any overarching analysis as successive Greek city-states rose to prominence, only to be brought down again. Although the collective memory of the Persian Wars had always exerted a tremendous emotional pull on the Greeks, the reality during the fourth century was that Persian money rather than Persian soldiers had caused trouble in Greece. The speech in question may actually have been epideictic and written after Socrates' death, but the story still illustrates the pitfalls associated with hiring a logographer. The use of direct speech vividly characterises Euphiletus, who still cannot quite bring himself to believe that his wife's flagrant affair is real. The delicately judged opening casts the speaker as a demure, selfeffacing litigant whose chances of success are hampered by his lack of rhetorical talent.
