Demosthenes

Demosthenes was the greatest orator of ancient Athens and spent his career warning that Philip II of Macedon intended to end Greek independence. Born around 384 BC, he was orphaned at seven and left a substantial estate that his guardians embezzled; at twenty he prosecuted them himself, recovering little but establishing his method. Ancient tradition holds that he had a weak voice and a speech impediment, and trained himself by declaiming with pebbles in his mouth, reciting verses while running uphill, and practising against the noise of the sea. He worked first as a logographer, writing speeches for others to deliver in court. From 351 BC he devoted himself to the Macedonian question. The three Philippics and the three Olynthiacs argue that Philip was not a conventional Greek rival but a threat to the polis itself, that Athenian inaction and reliance on mercenaries were fatal, and that citizens must fund and serve in their own campaigns. His name has since become a byword for such warnings. His policy failed in practice. Olynthus fell in 348 BC, the Peace of Philocrates in 346 BC conceded much, and the coalition he assembled with Thebes was destroyed at Chaeronea in 338 BC, where he fought and, according to his enemies, fled. He was nonetheless chosen to deliver the funeral oration for the dead. In 330 BC he answered Aeschines' attack with On the Crown, generally regarded as the finest speech surviving from antiquity, and won overwhelmingly. He was exiled in 324 BC over the Harpalus affair, recalled after Alexander's death, and condemned again when Athens lost the Lamian War. He took poison in 322 BC.

• Lived: 384 BCE – 322 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: orator, statesman