The origin and meaning of ‘demagogue’: overlooked evidence from Xenophon

Abstract

Recent scholarly debates about the origin and meaning of the term ‘demagogue’ in Classical Greece have overlooked an important passage of Xenophon’s Hellenica. The debate between Critias and Theramenes allows us to see that even oligarchs made a distinction between ‘populist’ orators, called demagogues, whose policies harmed the interests of the elite, and democratic politicians who were inoffensive to the kaloi k’agathoi. With this distinction in mind, we see that the fifth-century sources present a uniformly negative view of the ‘demagogue’, a critical picture largely accepted by fourth-century and later authors.