Pax duello mixta: Demosthenes and the rhetoric of war and peace

• Gottfried Mader ^[1]
  1. [1] University of South Africa

     University of South Africa

     City of Tshwane, Sudáfrica

     
• Localización: Classical journal, ISSN 0009-8353, Vol. 101, Nº 1, 2005, págs. 11-35
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Definition and perception-structuring are key themes in Demosthenes' polemic against the Athenian "peace party," represented schematically as playing down the Macedonian threat and playing treacherously into Philip's hands. In both the theoric and Peace debates he deconstructs their populist rhetoric to re-frame the situation from "patriotic" perspective: first the theorikon is criticized as a political instrument used to distort perceptions and encourage denial by deliberately blurring the line between war and peace; then in an acrimonious "language war" Demosthenes scrutinizes and disentangles the contested notions of "war" and "peace" to validate his own interventionist line against their rhetoric of quiescence.