2500 Years of Democratic Speech

You may have noticed a new arrival amongst the plaster casts of ancient sculptures in Klarman Atrium this year: a portrait of the Greek statesman Demosthenes, dressed in the cloak of an Athenian citizen and holding a papyrus scroll. Celebrated for his supreme rhetorical skill, Demosthenes overcame physical challenges including a stammer to become one of the leading voices of democratic Athens. His oratory was forged in the intense legal and political debates of the Classical polis and sharpened in the face of the encroaching tyranny of Philip of Macedon. An important model for Cicero in his ow