The early political speeches of Demosthenes: Elite bias in the response to economic crisis

The centrality of Demosthenes' role in Athenian politics subsequent to the Peace of Philocrates in 346 BCE is well established. The coherence of his political views and positions earlier, however, from his entrance into Athenian politics at the end of the Social War to the time of the Peace, is less certainly affirmed. The article argues for a coherence in fact, and its thesis is grounded in features of the debate about the character of the Athenian economy in the classical era. In the aftermath of the Social War, a number of political factions in the city sought to address the complex and serious economic difficulties occasioned by the crippling of the Second Confederacy. In key ways, these efforts reflected the varied and divided ideological views concerning what constituted appropriate economic conduct that had been a feature of the city's political life since the mid-fifth century. The most successful of the recovery efforts were those of the Eubulus faction which were aimed at bringing about longer- term economic recovery, chiefly through the encouragement of investment in the Laurium concessions and by restoring Piraeus traffic. But in their implementation these efforts had the revolutionary effect of formally undercutting certain core features of the traditional socioeconomic ideology. In the extant political speeches of his early career, Demosthenes exhibits a bias in defense of the traditional ideology, explicitly in behalf of traditional elite interests and responsibilities but more pointedly in opposition to those policies of Eubulus and others that would undercut the traditional ethic. Demosthenes' general lack of success in the ecclesia and the courts during these years may be attributable in part to the dissonance occasioned by his adherence to core features of the traditional ethic and the adherence by his audiences to socioeconomic practices and ideological views of a different sort. The political crisis in the wake of the Peace of Philocrates produced change in Demosthenes. In the face of a now more immediate Macedonian threat, the orator moved from ideological partisan to political leader within the city, of elite and demos both, and in so doing adjusted his voice.