Dinarchus
- an Attic orator, an imitator of Demosthenes, Cic. de Or. 2, 23, 94; id. Brut. 9, 36.
(Δείναρχος). One of the ten Greek orators, for the explanation of whose orations Harpocration compiled his lexicon. (See Canon Alexandrinus.) He was a Corinthian by birth, but settled at Athens and became intimate with Theophrastus and Demetrius Phalereus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus fixes his birth at B.C. 361. The time of his highest reputation was after the death of Alexander, when Demosthenes and other great orators were dead or banished. He seems to have made a living by writing speeches for those who were in need of them. Having always been a friend to the aristocratic party, he was involved in a charge of conspiracy against the democracy and withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea. He was allowed to return to Athens after an absence of fifteen years. On his arrival, Dinarchus lodged with one Proxenus, an Athenian, a friend of his, who, however, if the story be true, robbed the old man of his money. Dinarchus brought an action against him, and, for the first time in his life, made his appearance in a court of justice. The charge against Proxenus, which is drawn up with a kind of legal formality, is preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Of the numerous orations of Dinarchus, only three remain, and these are not entitled to any very high praise. One of them is against Demosthenes, touching the affair of Harpalus. The best MSS. of Dinarchus are the Codex Cripsianus and the Codex Oxoniensis. The extant orations of Dinarchus are found in the usual collections of the Attic orators, especially Baiter and Sauppe's Oratores Attici; and an edition by Thalheim (1887); elaborate commentary by Mätzner (1842).
Dinarchus (c. 360-c. 290 BC), the youngest of the ten Attic Orators, was an Athenian metic, or foreign resident, who was asked to help in the prosecutions surrounding the Harpalus affair (324 BC), since many of the other leading orators were implicated themselves. After 322 he made a very profitable career as a logographer, writing speeches for others.
life and WorksDinarchus was born in Corinth and moved to Athens to study with Theophrastus. As a metic he could not have a political role himself, and so he worked as a logographer with enough success that when the Athenians needed help with prosecutions during the Harpalus affair, he was selected. All three of his surviving speeches are connected with this affair, including a rather mediocre Against Demosthenes. The affair boosted his reputation, and after 322, when all the other leading Attic orators were dead, his services as a logographer were much in demand and he became extremely wealthy. In 307 he retired to Chalcis in order to safeguard his wealth. He returned to Athens in 292 and died sometime thereafter.
SignificanceDinarchus has had a generally low reputation in antiquity and today. The main characterization of his style is that he does a poor imitation of Demosthenes: one ancient critic calls him “small-beer Demosthenes.” Although Worthington has recently urged a higher assesment of Dinarchus’ ability, he is usually seen as exemplifying the decline of oratory after the great age of Demosthenes and his contemporaries.
Blass, Friedrich, Die attische Beredsamkeit.. 3rd ed. vol. 3.2 Leipzig 1898. Conomis, Nicos C. Dinarchus, Orationes cum Fragmentis. Leipzig 1975. Jebb, R. C. The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus, vol. 2. London 1893. Kennedy, George, The Art of Persuasion in Greece. Princeton 1963. Kennedy, George, “Oratory” in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature. Ed. by P. E. Easterling and B. M. W. Knox (Cambridge 1985), pp. 498-526. Worthington, Ian, A Historical Commentary on Dinarchus: Rhetoric and Conspiracy in Later Fourth-Century Athens. Ann Arbor 1992. Michael Gagarin- Aeschines
- Demosthenes
- Hyperides