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THE CLASSICAL REVIEW
One minor yet remarkably useful feature is that W. & K. have placed all cross-references to speeches included in the collection in bold typeface. This allows the reader to know immediately whether he need only flip the pages to see the passage in question or must reach for another volume. It is hoped that this will encourage busy undergraduates to take the trouble to follow up a cross-reference.
The introduction truly shines. Without getting bogged down in debatable minutiae, it provides a remarkably detailed and clear account of the law and oratory of ancient Athens. Divided into five sections, it begins with an account of Athenian legal development from the Draconian and Solonian periods to the fourth century. It then tackles Athenian politics and society, the court system (a particularly helpful section), the Attic orators (with a substantial biographical sketch of each orator whose speeches appear in the volume), and rhetorical technique and style. The introduction could even be used in a course where no speeches are read but students need to be given a quick, solid initiation into the legal culture of the classical period.
A couple of quibbles: W. & K. claim there was a story that Demosthenes decided . . . to become an orator after he had heard Isaeus speak (p. xxiii). According to Plutarchs Life of Demosthenes and the biography of the orator in Pseudo-Plutarchs Lives of the Ten Orators, it was Callistratus of Aphidna whose oratory inspired Demosthenes to pursue the work for which he would become so famous. Also, W. and K. write that, after losing the crown litigation, Aeschines left Athens and went to Samos, where he taught rhetoric (p. xxv). The ancient lives give Rhodes as the location of Aeschines rhetorical school; Pseudo-Plutarch adds that, after having taught there, he sailed to Samos and died shortly after arriving.
The book has a bibliography and index and a useful glossary of various legal and political terms. As with G.s volume, there is a preview version available on Google Books.
Both these collections are useful and well crafted, with G. providing greater breadth of coverage and W. & K. providing greater depth. This difference in approach, as well as the relatively few speeches they...