This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

In the turbulent political landscape of fourth-century Athens, where the fate of Greek independence hung in the balance between rising Macedonian power and the fading glory of the city-states, one man emerged whose voice would echo through history as the greatest orator of the ancient world. Demosthenes, born in 384 BCE into a prosperous Athenian family, would overcome personal adversity and physical limitations to become the most powerful advocate for Greek freedom and democratic values, his speeches serving as both masterpieces of rhetorical art and passionate defenses of the political ideals that had made Athens the envy of the Mediterranean world.

The circumstances of Demosthenes' early life shaped both his character and his destiny in ways that would profoundly influence his later career as Athens' premier political orator. His father, also named Demosthenes, was a wealthy manufacturer of swords and furniture who had built a successful business that employed over thirty slaves and generated substantial income from military contracts and luxury goods. This prosperity provided the family with social status and educational opportunities that would prove crucial to young Demosthenes' intellectual development, while also exposing him to the commercial and political networks that connected Athens to the broader Mediterranean world.