The Subversive Oratory of Andokides: Politics, Ideology and Decision-Making in Democratic Athens

by: Missiou, A.

Price: 79,00 EURO

1 copy in stock

By analyzing a selection of speeches of the Athenian orator Andokides and the decisions reached by his audience on each occasion, Dr. Missiou demonstrates that the orator had divergent perceptions, values and attitudes from those of his audience on a number of basic issues. By this means she challenges the criticism, frequently aimed at Athenian democracy, that the decisions of the Assembly during this period were irresponsible and irrational. In particular she ascribes the rejection of Andokides' proposals for peace with the Spartans in 391 BC to the incompatability between the subversive character of his speech, aimed at spreading pro-Spartan and anti-war feelings, and the socio-political needs and demands of his audience.

Andokides was an Athenian orator in about 420–390 BC, at the time of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta
This book could be described as a psychological examination of several of his speeches - reading between the lines to reveal his antidemocratic feelings
An original approach to a Greek orator - a combined historical and literary approach

Table of Contents
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Civic virtue in the eyes of an oligarch
3. The anti-imperialistic argument
4. Sparta's moral superiority
5. Andokides, Athenian foreign policy and the principle of gratitude
6. Rational argument and emotional appeal in the deliberation of 391
7. The rhetoric of subversion
Bibliography
General index
Index of passages cited.

The Subversive Oratory of Andokides: Politics, Ideology and Decision-Making in Democratic Athens

by: Missiou, A.

• ISBN-13: 9780521360098 / 978-0-521-36009-8
• ISBN-03: 0521360099 / 0-521-36009-9
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992

Price: 79,00 EURO

1 copy in stock