| As one of the most famous orators in ancient Greece,Demosthenes left large number speeches containing rich history information.These speeches have always been attracting the attention of scholars both at home and abroad,for they reveal a lot about Athens’ political operation,ethics,legal system,social economy and so on.Scholars have carried out many fruitful research work revolving around the authenticity,style,rhetorical theory and the relationship between speech and democracy reflected in these speeches.However,the use of the past in the speeches of Demosthenes has not received enough attention.This paper focuses on Demosthenes’ public speeches,in hope of revealing the orator’s historical rhetoric strategy through a systematic analysis of the historical materials and methods applied in his public speeches.The thesis consists of three parts: introduction,text and conclusion,in which the text is divided into four chapters.The first chapter mainly focuses on the glorious past of Athens narrated by Demosthenes.It shows Demosthenes’ eulogizing of Athenian history from two aspects of funeral speech and assembly speech,and discusses the differences of his purposes and methods when using the glorious history of Athens in these two different contexts.The second chapter analyzes how Demosthenes describes Philip II ’s image as a tyrant by reviewing,distorting and belittling the history of Macedonia and Philip II in his Philippic Cycle,in order to seek support for his anti-Macedonian policy.The third chapter illustrates the “historical” method adopted by Demosthenes when attacking his political opponent Aeschines.Starting from Aeschines’ birth,then recounting his deeds during the peace of Philocrates and the meeting of Amphictyony,Demosthenes tries to portray him as a traitor.The fourth chapter focuses on Demosthenes’ defeat rhetoric.It expounds in detail,in the face of pro-Macedonia politicians’ attack after Chaeronea,how Demosthenes achieves the success of defense by using the past of Athens and himself sophisticatedly,by breaking the old defense pattern and by working out the bold innovation.Meanwhile,this chapter analyzes the cause of Demosthenes’ rhetoric innovation.Through the investigation of the above four aspects,Demosthenes’ use of the past in public speeches is comprehensively displayed and analyzed.Moreover,when exploring the cause of his historical rhetoric,we can perceive some historical cognition of the Athenians at that time.It should be noted that there are evidences that Demosthenes’ use of the past and his innovation were influenced by the historical expressions of other contemporary orators.As for the breadth and depth of this influence,it is necessary to further research the historical rhetoric characteristics of the group of orators in classical Athens. |
