Читать книгу Gesammelte Aufsätze zur romanischen Philologie – Studienausgabe. Herausgegeben und ergänzt um Aufsätze, Primärbibliographie und Nachwort von Matthias Bormuth und Martin Vialon онлайн

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I know of, at least, one classical apostropheApostrophe, linked with an address to the hearer, which seems comparable to DanteDante’s loftiest addresses as regards its sublimity and its urgency. It is due to a man who is himself comparable to DanteDante – both had the same psychagogical power, the same partiality, the same vindictiveness and cruelty toward their enemies; also, both experienced an utter failure of all their political aspirations. I am thinking of DemosthenesDemosthenes. In 330 B. C., when Philip of MacedonPhilipp v. Makedonien was dead and his son AlexanderAlexander d. Große far advanced in the conquest of Persia, Demosthenes had to defend his policy of resisting Philip’s power in the past. At the time when he made his famous speech on the Crown, everyone, including himself, knew that the policy of resistance had failed. The battle of Chaironeia (338) had decided against Greek independence and against the course of Demosthenes. In a certain passage of the speech (199ff.), he raised the question whether a policy worthy of the Athenian tradition of defending Greek independence should be condemned because fate had denied it victory. His answer was, no.