The new Hyperides' "In Diondam": introduction, translation and notes

Abstract

The discovering and publication (in 2005 and 2008) of Hyperides’ discourses In Timandrum and In Diondam, included in Archimedes’ Palimpsest, have rekindled the interest in this fourth-century BC. Athenian author. These two discourses add twenty percent of new material to the corpus we already knew and cast some Light on several of Hyperides’ personal and political matters, some of which remain unfamiliar or even completely unknown to scholars. In addition, new pieces of information about a key-period of the Greek history are now available, i. e., the years between the Athenian defeat in Chaeronea (338 BC) and the beginning of Alexander’s conquest of Asia (334 BC). Besides, on the latter, In Diondam is the fi rst contemporary political work we have. In my paper, I will leave aside In Timandrum, to focus on In Diondam. Firstly, I will study the lawsuit and the historical context; secondly, I will analyze one of the essential aspects regarding the discourse: its amazing resemblance to Demosthenes’ De Corona, performed four years later than Hyperides’ In Diondam. Finally, my paper will end with a translation from the edition I am working on, together with some exegetic notes.