Against Leptinēs

Against Leptines was a speech give by Demosthenes in which he called for the repeal of a law which denied anyone a special exemption from paying public charges (leitourgiai). This law had been proposed by a man named Leptines, so the speech came to be known as Against Leptines. Although Dio Chrysostom (31.128-9) says that Demosthenes won the case, his account has been dismissed as inaccurate. An inscription shows that Ctesippus, son of Chabrias (whose inheritable exemption Demosthenes was arguing to preserve), performed a liturgy that "is unlikely to have been voluntary," and there is no evidence of any grants of exemption after the trial.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ Ernst Badian, "The road to prominence," in Ian Worthington (ed.), Demosthenes: Statesman and Orator (Routledge, 2000), p. 28.

External links

• Text of the speech at the Perseus Digital Library

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