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The translations included in this volume were written at various timesduring the last ten years for use in connexion with College Lectures,and a long holiday, for which I have to thank the Trustees of theBalliol College Endowment Fund, as well as the Master and Fellows ofBalliol College, has enabled me to revise them and to furnish them withbrief introductions and notes. Only those speeches are included whichare generally admitted to be the work of Demosthenes, and the spuriousdocuments contained in the MSS. of the Speech on the Crown are omitted.The speeches are arranged in chronological order, and the severalintroductions to them are intended to supply an outline of the historyof the period, sufficient to provide a proper setting for the speeches,but not more detailed than was necessary for this purpose. Nodiscussion of conflicting evidence has been introduced, and the viewswhich are expressed on the character and work of Demosthenes mustnecessarily seem somewhat dogmatic, when given without the reasons forthem. I hope, however, before long to treat the life of Demosthenesmore fully in another form. The estimate here given of his character asa politician falls midway between the extreme views of Grote andSchäfer on the one hand, and Beloch and Holm on the other.
I have tried to render the speeches into such English as a politicalorator of the present day might use, without attempting to impart tothem any antique colouring, such as the best-known English translationseither had from the first or have acquired by lapse of time. It is ofthe essence of political oratory that it is addressed tocontemporaries, and the translation of it should therefore be intocontemporary English; though the necessity of retaining some of themodes of expression which are peculiar to Greek oratory and politicallife makes it impossible to produce completely the appearance of anEnglish orator's work. The qualities of Demosthenes' eloquencesometimes suggest rather the oratory of the pulpit than that of thehustings or that of Parliament and of the law-courts. I cannot hope tohave wholly succeeded in my task; but it seemed to be worthundertaking, and I hope that the work will not prove to have beenaltogether useless.
I have made very little use of other translations; but I mustacknowledge a debt to Lord Brougham's version of the Speeches on theChersonese and on the Crown, which, though often defective from thepoint of view of scholarship and based on faulty texts, are (togetherwith his notes) very inspiring. I have also, at one time or another,consulted most of the standard German, French, and English editions ofDemosthenes. I cannot now distinguish how much I owe to each; but I amconscious of a special debt to the editions of the late Professor HenriWeil, and of Sir J.E. Sandys, and (in the Speech on the Crown) to thatof Professor W.W. Goodwin. I also owe a few phrases in the earliestspeeches to Professor W.R. Hardie, whose lectures on Demosthenes Iattended twenty years ago. My special thanks are due to my friend Mr.P.E. Matheson of New College, for his kindness in reading theproof-sheets, and making a number of suggestions, which have been ofgreat assistance to me.
The text employed has been throughout that of the late Mr. S.H. Butcherin the Bibliotheca Classica Oxoniensis. Any deviations from this arenoted in their place.