Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece by Ian Worthington

206 PHOENIX the Spartans at the battle of Knidos. She argues persuasively (274–280) that a dialogue was created between these statues and the nearby statues of the tyrannicides, all four men being regarded as democratic liberators. Chapter Ten deals with the creation of rituals of remembering and reintegration: an annual procession and thank-offering to Athena, and the granting of the same honours to the sons of Athenians who had died in overthrowing the oligarchy as were granted to war orphans. More generally, Shear argues, both in public documents and in other texts of the period the civil war was either passed over as if it never happened, or else reinterpreted as a virtuous struggle against an external enemy. Shear has written a rich and wide-ranging study of Athens’ collective responses to oligarchy. Her central methodological contention, that historians of the demoratic restorations should pay attention to communal decisions and actions, and to the material evidence that resulted from these, is surely correct. Her handling of epigraphic and archaeological evidence is assured: there are particularly convincing discussions of the reinscription and siting of the stelai recording the city’s laws in the Stoa Basileios. Shear is also good on the topography of the city, for example in her discussion of the ways in which different monuments related to each other. The main themes of the book—public decision-making, monuments and civic space, and ceremonies and rituals—all connect with and reinforce each other very effectively. In some respects the main arguments of the book are pushed rather hard. For example , Shear is more confident than many scholars would be that public inscriptions were regularly read and reread by interested citizens. She addresses this issue quite briefly (12–14), arguing that there was no point to publishing documents unless it was intended that people read them. This is true enough, but it does not follow that texts actually were read to a significant extent. Again, despite her acknowledgement of the contested nature of the democratic restorations, at times her focus on the demos as a collective leads to formulations such as “the demos had to decide consciously . . . ” (313), which obscures the importance of political debate and persuasion, and indeed of politics and political leadership, in this period. More broadly, the Athenians’ (collective) intentions generally have to be inferred, in the absence of direct evidence. Thus, for example, Shear makes much of the politically contested nature of public space, but how confident can we be that the Athenians thought of their city in these terms, and that we are not discerning in the fragmentary evidence more of a pattern than is justified? All of which is only to say that this book is unlikely to be the last word on the subject. The book, nominated for the 2012 Runciman Award, is not only clearly written and well produced, but also contains a number of tables which present complex material with exemplary clarity. It is a stimulating read, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of classical Athens and Athenian democracy. York University Jeremy Trevett Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece. By Ian Worthington . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 2013. Pp. xxiv, 382. Demosthenes has been the subject of two substantial monographs in recent years, one dealing with his life, the other with his work, and thus perfectly complementing each other. While the book of D. M. MacDowell (Demosthenes the Orator [Oxford 2009]) BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 207 deals with every aspect of the orator’s work, this volume by Ian Worthington is more of a biography, discussing in considerable detail the political career, rise, and fall of the great statesman. This volume, however, is not only about Demosthenes; it is also about Philip ii and the final days of the Greek polis. In a truly gripping narrative Worthington brings to life the titanic struggle between the two men over the freedom of Greece. The presentation of the material is chronological and mostly linear, while the style is simple and elegant, which makes the book easy to follow and enjoyable to read. The table of contents (v–vi) leaves something to be desired. While...

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