Euboean Oration

The Euboean Oration or Euboicus (Ancient Greek: Εὐβοϊκὸς λόγος ἢ κυνηγὸς, romanized: euboikos logos e kynegos, lit.

It has been treated as an important historical source for the state of the countryside and civic life in Greece under the Roman Empire.

The first half (sections 1-79) recounts how the speaker was shipwrecked on Euboea and met a rustic hunter, who tells him of his one journey to the city, where he successfully defended himself before the Assembly on charges of failing to contribute financially to city life, and offers the speaker hospitality.

The narrative implicitly establishes the hunter as virtuous despite his poverty, comparing his life to that of the ideal state presented by Plato in The Republic.

After a bridging section (80-103), criticising the hospitality offered by the rich characters in Homer's Odyssey, the second half (104-152) of the speech considers whether virtuous poor like the hunter can exist in an urban context, concluding that it is possible so long as they avoid taking up jobs that deform or weaken their body or that require them to behave unethically.