Interpreting a classic

the long version

"Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.) was an Athenian statesman and a widely read author whose life, times, and rhetorical abilities captivated the minds of generations. Sifting through the rubble of a mostly lost tradition of ancient scholarship, Craig A. Gibson tells the story of how one group of ancient scholars helped their readers understand this man's writings. This book collects for the first time, translates, and offers explanatory notes on all the substantial fragments of ancient philological and historical commentaries on Demosthenes. Using these texts to illuminate an important aspect of Graeco-Roman antiquity that has hitherto been difficult to glimpse, this book gives a detailed portrait of a scholarly industry that touched generations of ancient readers from the first century B.C. to the fifth century and beyond."--BOOK JACKET.