Extract

The greatest Athenian orator. When Demosthenes was 7 years old his father died, leaving the management of his estate to his brothers, Aphobus and Demophon, and a friend, Therippides. The trustees mismanaged the business, and Demosthenes at the age of 18 found himself almost without resources. He claimed his patrimony from his guardians, who spent three years in attempts to compromise. In the mean-time, he was studying rhetoric and legal procedure under *Isaeus (1) and at 21 he brought a successful action against his guardians, but two more years elapsed before he received the remnants of the property. By now he was engaged in the profession of logographos (speech-writer) and the reputation gained in private cases led to his being employed as an assistant to prosecutors in public trials.From 355/4 onwards he came more and more to devote himself to public business. It is not clear how far Demosthenes' sympathies were engaged in his first public trials, the prosecutions of *Androtion and Leptines in 355 and of Androtion's associate, Timocrates, in 353: Against Androtion and Against Timocrates he wrote for a Diodorus, and in any case the political tendency of the trials is unsure; Against Leptines Demosthenes did deliver himself, and, since Leptines' law was defended by *Aristophon, it is possible that all three trials centred on his policy and that Demosthenes was one of his opponents.