Against Leptines is one of the most important speeches delivered by Demosthenes. In it he argues against the abolition of all honorific exemptions (ateleiai) from festival liturgies in Athens. An important source for Athenian history in the mid-fourth century BC, the speech broaches a number of issues vital to our understanding of classical Athenian society, politics, and legislation. The questions of public honours, Athenian democratic ideology, and the themes of expediency, justice and injustice, are central to the speech and have made it popular with audiences ever since the classical period. Kremmydas' volume is the first detailed commentary on this speech in any language since the 19th century. An extensive introduction, which covers key background issues, the addition of the Greek text (adapted from M. R. Dilts's Oxford Classical Text of Demosthenes 20), and a facing English translation make the commentary even more accessible to a wider scholarly audience. While the important historical and complex legal issues are given appropriate attention in the commentary section, a special emphasis is also given to the elucidation of Demosthenes rhetorical strategy and argumentation.

This volume brings together six papers relating to oratory and orators in public fora of Classical Greece and Rome. Edwards and Bers explore aspects of oratorical delivery in the Athenian courts and Assembly, including the demands placed on orators by the physical settings. Tempest examines the conceptions of oratorical competence and incompetence, particularly in respect of performance, as they are implied in Cicero's criticisms of the rival prosecutor in the trial of Verres. Papers by Karambelas and Powell look at evidence for the importance of advocacy in the Second Sophistic and the late Roman Empire respectively. In an introduction, the editors discuss recurrent themes connected with the orator's competence and performance, while the final paper of the volume, by Lord Justice Laws, reflects on the continuing relevance of rhetoric in the modern, highly professionalised practice of the law in England.

Hellenistic oratory remains an elusive subject as not one Greek speech has survived from the end of the fourth century BC until the beginning of the first century AD. This collection of fourteen interdisciplinary essays offers a wide-ranging study of the different ways in which Hellenistic oratory can be approached. Written by a team of leading scholars in the field, it examines the different kinds of evidence which shed light on the dynamic character of oratory during the Hellenistic period. All essays stress the pervasive influence of Hellenistic oratory and survey its different manifestations in diverse literary genres and socio-political contexts, especially the dialogue between the Greek oratorical tradition and the developing oratorical practices at Rome. The volume opens with a detailed introduction, which sets the study of Hellenistic oratory within the context of current trends in Hellenistic history and rhetoric, and closes with an afterword which underlines the vibrancy and sophistication of oratory during this period. It will appeal to all students and scholars of Hellenistic history, society, and the history of rhetoric.