Demosthenes Democracy's Defender

The tragic story of ancient Greece's last democratic leader and his doomed fight to save Athens from Macedonian dominationIn the spring of 340 BCE, news arrived that Philip of Macedon had seized a town in central Greece, a base from which he could march on Athens. In the fierce debates about how to respond to the rising threat in the North, Demosthenes, the greatest orator of his day, goaded the Athenian Assembly into confronting Philip on the field of battle. Though that effort failed and Athens fell under the grip of Alexander the Great, Philip's son and successor, Demosthenes had established himself as one of history's most eloquent defenders of democracy.In this thrilling biography of the man who led the charge for Greek freedom, James Romm follows Demosthenes from his early career as a legal speech writer through his rise in politics, his fall from grace in a corruption scandal, and his desperate flight to the island of Calauria-where he took his own life rather than submit to Macedonian forces. As he brings to life the bare-knuckle, insult-filled verbal brawls of Athenian orators, Romm not only explores the mind of the man who took on the challenge of saving Greek freedom but also shows how democracies can be destroyed by infighting and internal division.

Product details

• Authors: Romm James, James Romm
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Content: Book
• Product form: Hardback
• Publication date: 25.11.2025
• Subject: Non-fiction book; Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity
• EAN: 9780300269383
• ISBN: 978-0-300-26938-3
• Pages: 208
• Series: Ancient Lives
• Subjects: European History, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political, Biography: historical, political & military, Plutarch, Ancient Greece, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, Greece, Political leaders & leadership, Epaminondas, Orator, Ancient History, Suicide, Poison, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Biography: historical, political and military, Political leaders and leadership, Thebes, politician, Athens;Greece;Philip of Macedon;Battle of Chaeronea;Alexander the Great;Plutarch;Thebes;Epaminondas;The Peace of Philocrates;The Battle of Chaeronea;On the Crown;Calauria;Hellenic War;suicide;poison;orator;politician, Alexander the Great, Hellenic War, Calauria, The Peace of Philocrates, The Battle of Chaeronea, On the Crown, Philip of Macedon, Battle of Chaeronea