Against Meidias (Oration 21)

Demosthenes was punched in the face by Meidias in the theater at Athens in 348 B.C. His prosecution speech for this offence is one of the most intriguing texts in Greek literature. It tells the story of his long feud with Meidias and gives much valuable information about Athenian law and festivals, and about the concept of insolent behavior which the Greeks call hubris. This edition presents a larger number of manuscripts than earlier editors have used, and is supplemented with a double apparatus criticus giving testimonia and variant readings. It also provides a full introduction on historical, legal, literary, and textual matters, a complete translation of the speech, and a more detailed commentary than any previously published.