Antiphon
The first Attic orator
c. 480 BC – 411 BC
Antiphon of Rhamnus, born around 480 BC, was the earliest of the ten canonical Attic orators. He was an aristocrat and intellectual who largely avoided speaking in public himself — Thucydides, who admired him enormously, says he was suspected by the common people on account of his reputation for cleverness. Instead, he wrote speeches for others to deliver, effectively inventing the profession of logographer (speechwriter).
In 411 BC he emerged from the shadows to help organise the oligarchic coup of the Four Hundred. When the democracy was restored, he was tried and executed. Thucydides says his defence speech was the finest ever made by a man on trial for his life. It does not survive.
What does survive are three courtroom speeches and three Tetralogies — sets of paired prosecution and defence speeches on hypothetical murder cases, probably composed as rhetorical exercises. The courtroom speeches deal with real murder cases and give us an unvarnished look at Athenian homicide law. The Tetralogies are more theoretical but show a mind fascinated by problems of causation and intent. Antiphon's prose is stiff and archaic compared to his successors, but he was the pioneer. Everyone who came after him owed him a debt.
The earliest surviving Attic orator. Antiphon prosecutes a stepmother for poisoning her husband with a love potion that killed him.
A defence against a murder charge. Antiphon argues that the prosecution has manipulated evidence and witnesses.
Antiphon defends a choregos (chorus-producer) accused of causing a boy's death by giving him a dangerous potion during rehearsal.
A set of four imaginary speeches — two for prosecution, two for defence — on a hypothetical murder case. Antiphon's rhetorical exercises.
A second set of imaginary speeches on a case involving accidental death during athletic training.
A third set of imaginary speeches on a case involving a bystander killed in a fight.