Demades: pacis suasor, belli dissuasor

Abstract

The article examines the activities of Demades, an Athenian orator and politician of the late classical period, especially as a conciliator and negotiator to handle conflicts between Athens and Macedonia. The results of his peacekeeping missions can be aссessed as quite successful, having in mind the minimization of consequences of the Athenian defeat or erroneous decisions. As a politician, Demades was quite flexible and ready to compromise; the content of his activities as a mediator was varied: proposals of honorary decrees, drafting psephisma, secret diplomacy (correspondence), negotiation, performance and public speech before kings and other powerful persons. Demades’ tireless peacemaking (though not always unselfish) allows one to view him not just as a greedy and cynical wit or a ‘direct hireling of Macedonia’. Rather he can be called a realist and a pragmatist whose pro-Macedonian position stemmed not from any special sympathy with Macedonian kings, but was determined by his belief that the best way to secure Athenian interests and to ensure peaceful coexistence and prosperity of the polis was the cooperation with a power that the Greeks could not overcome. Refs 30.