El Panatenaico de Isócrates: 2.- Tema y finalidad del discurso

Abstract

Isocrates began to write the Panathenaicus in the year 342 b.C. When he had reached paragraph 199, illness forced him to give up the writing of his work for three years. He revised and finished it in 339. The orator, who had already composed the Philippus in 346, never thought of addressing a second speech to the Macedonian king in 342, just when the city was clearly against Philippus. Isocrates' aim was actually to defend his own idea of education and his record as statesman in order to reject his adversaries' attacks. Therefore he chose as a subject for his speech a praise of Archaic Athens, a choice which allowed him to vindicate his patriotism and, at the same time, to be critical of the contemporary politics of his home town.