Demosthenes the Great Orator

Demosthenes was an amazing Orator in his time, but really struggled to get there. He was born around 384 B.C. and died 322 B.C. in Athens, Greece. He showed us that we can do anything that we set our minds to do, with his great achievements, and with making and writing speeches. Demosthenes tried very hard, with his speeches, to save Greece from enemies.

Demosthenes was orphaned at the tender age of seven years old when his father died. His father left a good amount of money and Demosthenes was well cared for. His guardians stole most of his inheritance and were later brought to court by Demosthenes himself. It was his first speech in court and was his worst because of a speech impediment he had since he was a little boy. Because of getting cheated out of money, he soon overcame it with much discipline. It is said that he put rocks in his mouth to help him pronounce words and it might be a legend of how he was so determined to get over it. He also practiced speaking loudly in front of a mirror because there were no microphones or megaphones. Once he got better at speaking and writing he went back to court and convinced them to make his former guardians give back the money that was left. He started writing speeches for men and women who were going to court and did not have the amazing talent that he did. Back then men had to speak for themselves not like today when we have lawyers to speak for us. Women on the other hand had to go find a man to speak for them in court because they were not aloud to speak for themselves. When he was speaking he’d use his hands to emphasize his point. After he was well known as an orator he made a speech against Phillip of Macedon saying he was going try to take over Greece. He made three amazingly written speeches about going to war with him so he wouldn’t attack them first. Today Philippic means “a fiery, damning speech delivered to condemn a particular