Antyfont, Dejnarchos i Likurg

Abstract

This study brings together three canonical Greek orators from different periods. Antiphon, chronologically the first in the canon, takes us to the latter part of the 5th century BC, to the Peloponnesian war, echoes of which are heard in his speeches, and which ultimately brought about his downfall and death. Dinarchus on the other hand, the last of the canon, made a name for himself at the end of the Classical period, and lived on to witness the upheavals of the early Hellenistic age. Lycurgus finally whose life and work to some extent chronologically overlaps with Dinarchus provides a glimpse into the traumatic memory of Chaeronea (338 BC) which marked the end of Athens’ imperial ambitions. In this book the reader will find a Polish translation of the extant speeches of the three orators along with a selection of the preserved fragments of their work. The speeches in question all belong to the forensic genre. Their translations are generously annotated and prefaced with an introduction dealing with the authors’ biographies, an outline of the historical moment in which they lived, and a handful of observations about their style and idiolect. In addition, each of the speeches is also provided with more specific remarks which concern the nature of the case at hand, its legal underpinning, and a prosopography of the parties involved in the dispute.