[THEME]

After Achilles was deprived of Briseis he withdrew into his own hut enraged. Agamemnon sent ambassadors to him, offering him back the girl along with very many gifts. But his embassy, with Briseis and the gifts, proved unsuccessful. In the short intervening time there were also many further misfortunes for the Greeks. Patroclus took notice of this and shared in their suffering; and with both tears and admonitions he tries to reconcile Achilles with the Greeks. Let us take the part of Patroclus.

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

[1] For what reason is Patroclus now troubled along with the Greeks, though the Thessalian [Achilles] does not at all feel this way? For the two are intimates and friends, and the maxim does require that “friends have all things in common.” For what reason, although he had earlier shared Achilles' anger, did he not maintain with him to the end that partnership of wrath? The poet resolved the difficulty, I think, by presenting to us the one as mild and easily brought to compassion – for he calls him “gentle” – but the other as rough and violent and also “lion-hearted,” as he adds in his poetry. [2] Therefore, given this lack of humane feeling it was necessary for the gentle one to be a counselor to the one who was not so. Consequently he stands beside him, shedding tears before him like a fountain, but [Achilles], the son of Peleus, did not know the cause for the lamentation.

[THEME]

The Persian king Cyrus made a prisoner of the Lydian ruler Croesus. When he discovered that the Lydians were plotting to regain their kingdom, he ordered them to be stripped of their weapons, to put on women's clothing, and to sing and play music and teach such things to their children. He devised this as a means of curbing their pride. Later, when his expedition against the Massagetae was under way, he summoned the Lydians and offered them their former equipment; they opposed the offer. Let us take the part of the Lydians.

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

[1] At first sight it may be thought strange for the Lydians to object in favor of a form of dress which demeans their reputation and shames their masculinity. They should be absolutely delighted about Cyrus' order to take off those disgraceful clothes and take up their familiar armor. [2] This is actually what the Lydians want; but they want to appear otherwise. For if they were enticed by Cyrus' change of heart into letting their faces show their delight and ran to their weapons clapping their hands, they would startle him into suspecting a fresh uprising. [3] They anticipate such a reaction, and to suit their purpose they figure their speech as a rejection of Cyrus, pretending that their experiences have deprived them of their virility and considering his intention, in case he is simply devising a way of testing them.

[THEME]

When ugly girls were being born in Lacedaemon, Lacedaemonians came to Delphi to seek a cure for the affliction. The god [Apollo] proclaimed that the disease had fallen on Sparta because of the anger of Aphrodite, who was outraged at some recent event. The goddess would cease from her anger when honored by a statue. They commissioned the statue from Praxiteles, who practiced this art. Having completed a statue modeled on the courtesan Phryne, his paramour, he inscribed it with the name “Aphrodite.” An assembly convened to consider the matter. Praxiteles urges the statue to be accepted, while a certain Spartan citizen speaks against it. Let us declaim the part of the Spartan.

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

[1] Why on earth, they say, did the speech invent this theme with its Spartan setting, and why does it imagine convening a Laconian assembly and enjoy describing their customs? A statue of a lewd woman is being rejected, and the Spartans are the most modest of all Greeks; hence the speech blames all the more the lover of Phryne, comparing him to the decency of Lacedaemon. [2] In a similar spirit long ago, Demosthenes also elaborated a rather bitter attack on the licentiousness of Aeschines. For after gathering a tyrannical drinking party and introducing Aeschines to the feast and then making the man drunk and, while he was in a drunken state, inciting him to a passion for an Olynthian woman, Demosthenes' account brings Iatrocles to the party, a man devoted to self-control, providing proof of the shamelessness of Aeschines by introducing that man's decency; for to a temperate observer, drunkenness is a demonstration of extreme lack of self-control.

[I]: THIS PRELIMINARY TALK, BOLDER THAN USUAL, OPPORTUNELY SEEKS THE GOODWILL OF THE AUDIENCE

[1] Since the occasion allows us to be somewhat playful – for we are having a festival, and a single pleasure and cheerfulness are diffused over the whole crowd – well, I myself shall make a display [of my oratory] before those I love. [2] Come, then, O eloquence, for splendor befits feasts: if you have ever taken pride in me at another contest, come forth all the more on this occasion, very well crowned, gracefully garbed, and ready to serve up a manifold feast. [3] For when it is not a public festivity that banqueters are attending, they tolerate even bad food, I think. If a host has been negligent, every guest keeps his criticisms to himself; those who eat the host's food do not show their disapproval. But as it is, this is a lavish [public] festival, and the tables everywhere are laden with delicacies, so we will need many cooks and many wine-pourers to pour the wine in a refined and elegant manner.

[4] Now at Sparta, when the Hyacinthia is celebrated – for the citizens of Sparta honor the youth [Hyacinthus] – a chorus of individuals of the same age as the honorand sing to the accompaniment of lyre and pipe, and maidens dance to the rhythm of the song; for people who live a martial life are not well versed in celebrating by means of oratory.

[THEME]

<There is a law that a war-hero be memorialized in a painting with the clothing he wore. A general who put on a woman's clothing and defeated his enemies during the night asked that he not be memorialized, even though the other general – the one who had already been defeated by them – speaks in opposition. Let us take on the role of the war-hero. >

<DECLAMATION>

[1] When they are defeated, freedom of speech usually leaves men…

[2] The whole world is a likeness of illustrious men…

[3] Without good planning, power is not naturally of any help; but good judgment, even if it is not accompanied by might, often contrives many things…

[4] Just as those bearing the heaviest loads are released from their burdens somehow by singing whatever comes to them, so even for those sick from envy argument and counterargument offer a brief comfort…

[5] <If someone asked him what> the aim of the law was that ordained that a war-hero be memorialized with the clothing he wore, he would have answered that a person is glad to see himself presented in the way he became famous. And suppose he asked him again: “If anyone were to turn aside such a commemorative painting – whether for putting on women's clothing or for some other reason – since it seemed best to him not to be memorialized, do you set down in the law that this man take the prize against his will?

[THEME]

Let us now take the part of Priam. The preliminary explanatory comment is based on the fact that the audience, at the epilogue of the preceding speech, demanded a speech on the opposite side and cried out, “Don't let the old man be forced!”

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

[1] Like all of you, I sympathized with the old man and thought it scandalous to give the girl to Achilles, who “made Priam bereaved of many brave sons.” [2] So what shall I do? How shall I help the old man by putting the right issues at each point? The man with whom he is unwilling to make peace has acquired an almost invincible strength and is therefore much wanted by the Trojans. [3] Where shall we find an appropriate technique? The orator who is great in all things again serves us well: not being able to denigrate Philip's preparations, he finds fault with his way of life, adducing drunkenness, lewd dances, and other terms suggestive of incontinence. [4] Similarly, having no means of disparaging Achilles' power, we have collected material for an attack on his character: boastfulness, sexual exploits, instability, insolence to rulers, the overthrow of respect for the dead shown by his insulting treatment of Hector. [5] Since men do not care long about what is once done, however, but think more about their future safety, the Trojans therefore come rather to favor the son of Peleus for the sake of their future salvation than to hate him for his former wicked deeds.

[THEME]

A wealthy miser had a son whom he wished to marry off to a rich but ugly girl. The young man rejected the arrangement. Meanwhile, there was a festival, and, in the course of it, the young man saw and fell in love with another girl, beautiful but poor. He applied to his father to be allowed to marry her, but failed in his request. War broke out. He became a war-hero and, being allowed by the laws to choose his reward, asked to be given the woman he loved. His father opposes his plea. Let us take the part of the young man.

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

[1] The laws of our art find space even for sons in dispute with fathers. Imaginary cases in fact reflect all the types of case which real life offers. [2] The young man has many opportunities for attracting the favor of the people. He has routed the invading enemy, he has rescued his country from danger, he has the law on his side, he is asking for a modest reward, a girl from a poor family. Yet, despite this wealth of justification, he is not yet free of anxiety and has no great confidence in winning his case without effort. For this is a conflict between child and father, between poverty and wealth; and wealth is dear to all, and particularly highly valued by a miser. [3] We must expect him therefore to exhibit some youthful arrogance, but sometimes also to court favor.

[THEME]

The law allows anyone who kills a tyrant to claim whatever reward he wishes. Someone went up to the acropolis armed with a dagger to kill the tyrant. Finding him absent, he killed the tyrant's son, his parent's only child. When the father saw what had happened he was overcome by emotion to such an extent that he killed himself. Hence the man who killed the youth claims the reward on the grounds that he was responsible for the tyrant's death. Someone else opposes. Let us take the role of the claimant.

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

[1] Clearly, those who want to indulge a taste for contentiousness are not bereft of occasions for dispute! A man who has freed his whole fatherland from tyranny is prevented from receiving the reward prescribed by the laws. And yet he has two ways to enhance his request's appearance, having destroyed the tyrant in respect of his intention, his offspring in respect of his achievement. [2] This convergence of valor and fortune allows him to persist in holding no ordinary opinion of himself. If Pericles son of Xanthippus, deflecting mere abuse, worked his way through every mode of commendation in his own self-praise, who could criticize this man for using the same means to ward off a challenge that is trying to deprive him of the reward he deserves? In the same way, Demosthenes' victory over the son of Atrometus brought him the proper reward, his crown.

[THEME]

After the barbarians' [i.e., the Persians'] flight from Marathon, Miltiades asked the Athenians for a fleet, promising, if he received it, to provide the city with a large sum of money from a certain country. This is how he put it, concealing the name of the country, and he took all the ships he asked for and sailed to the island of Paros, which had sided with the barbarians. He placed the Parians under siege; but when he wished to force an entrance [into the town], he was maimed in the leg. Xanthippus accuses him of deceiving the people by charging that he made the Parians a gift of his withdrawal. <Let us take the part of the defendant.>

<EXPLANATORY COMMENT>

[1] Marathon was not enough to free Miltiades of suspicion, and despite that famous battle he was haled into court, scarcely able to walk because of the pain of his injury. The Athenian democracy took the view that not even the foremost citizen should escape investigation. This is why I come here and guide the man's steps. [2] He is represented by Herodotus as a silent character who only indicates his injury with his hand. But for my part, I wanted to hear Miltiades' tongue, and it distressed me to see such an orator remaining speechless.

[THEME]

A tyrant demanded a beautiful girl from a neighboring city with a view to marriage. She was the daughter of a man who was a leader among the inhabitants, who had other children as well as her. The tyrant demanded her, threatening war if he did not get her. They chose to accept the onset of war rather than to give the appearance of a cowardly attitude by subservience to a tyrant's order. When they were besieged and concern was mounting, the father took the girl up on to the city wall and killed her in full view of the enemy. When the tyrant saw this, he withdrew in failure, without either winning the girl he loved or sacking the city. However, a young citizen who was madly in love with this young woman was unable to bear his grief and committed suicide. The young man's father is prosecuting the girl's father as guilty with his own hand of his daughter's murder and of causing the young man's death. Let us take the role of the girl's father.

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

[1] Even a father is often constrained by concern for the public interest to neglect his children. This is what killed the daughters of Leos; this handed Agamemnon's child over to slaughter in Aulis. [2] So no one should think that the girl's father was unloving.