Rational persuasion and appeal to an audience's emotions are
elements of most literature, but they are found in their purest
form in oratory. The speeches written by the Greek Orators for
delivery in law-courts, deliberative councils and assemblies
enjoyed an honoured literary status, and rightly so, for the best
of them have great vitality. There is no crude, primitive stage
of development: the earliest speeches are perfect in form and
highly sophisticated in technique. They inform the reader about
aspects of Greek society and about their moral values, in a
direct and illuminating way not paralleled in other literature.

Text with translation, commentary and notes.