Scope and Rationale of the Demosthenic Spuria

Abstract

Since the Hellenistic period, scholars have long debated the substantial number of dubious and spurious speeches transmitted within the Demosthenic corpus. While some forgeries were introduced at a later stage of transmission (e.g. [Dem.] Against Aristogeiton I–II), others were likely composed and inserted during the corpus’s earliest Athenian compilation. This chapter argues that these early forgeries provide significant evidence for an Athenian origin of the corpus, since such interventions are most plausibly explained within that context. It further demonstrates that Callimachus cannot have been responsible for the formation of the corpus in the shape in which it has survived, challenging the hypothesis of an Alexandrian editorial initiative. Finally, the chapter offers a systematic analysis of [Demosthenes] 17 On the Treaty with Alexander, arguing, in line with ancient criticism, that the speech is spurious and was plausibly composed in the early third century bce.