Olynthiacs
Sign in to saveThe Olynthiacs were three political speeches, all delivered by the Athenian statesman and orator Demosthenes. In 349 BC, Philip II of Macedon attacked Olynthus, which at the time was an ally of Athens. In the Olynthiacs, delivered in 349 BC, Demosthenes urged Athens to help Olynthus.
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- Author
- Demosthenes
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- language of work or name
- Ancient Greek
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Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Historical framework
- Content of the orations
- Assessments
- Olynthiac Summaries
- Olynthiac One
- Olynthiac Two
- Olynthiac Three
- See also
- References
- Further reading
The Olynthiacs were three political speeches, all delivered by the Athenian statesman and orator Demosthenes. In 349 BC, Philip II of Macedon attacked Olynthus, which at the time was an ally of Athens. In the Olynthiacs, delivered in 349 BC, Demosthenes urged Athens to help Olynthus.
==Historical framework== When Philip was enthroned, he cajoled the Chalkidian League, but, after the seizure of Amphipolis and the Macedonian expansion in Thrace, Philip sought for the elimination of the Chalkidian League and for the destruction of its most powerful city, Olynthus. The Olynthians foresaw the danger and struck a deal with the Athenians, who had been their enemies. In 350 BC, Philip had already seized thirty-two cities of the Chalkidike. The next year Olynthus sent successive delegations to Athens, asking desperately for military support, but the Athenians displayed no willingness for a military operation far away from their city.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Olynthiacs” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.