Antiphon
- A renowned sophist of Rhamnus, a contemporary of Socrates, Cic. Brut. 12, 47; Quint. 3, 1, 11; 12, 10, 22.—
- II The name of an interpreter of dreams, Cic. Div. 1, 20; 1, 51.
- 1. redenaar in Athene (479—411 v. Chr.);
- 2. sofist, tijdgenoot en tegenstander v. Socrates.
(Ἀντιφῶν).
1. The most ancient among the ten Attic orators contained in the Alexandrine canon, was a son of Sophilus the Sophist, and born at Rhamnus in Attica in B. C. 480. (Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 832b.; Philostrat. Vit. Soph. 1.15.1; Phot. Cod. p. 485; Suid. s.v. Eudoc. p. 59.) He was a man of eminent talent and a firm character (Thuc. 8.68; Plut. Nic. 6), and is said to have been educated partly by his father and partly by Pythodorus, while according to others he owed his education to none but himself. When he was a young man, the fame of Gorgias was at its height. The object of Gorgias' sophistical school of oratory was more to dazzle and captivate the hearer by brilliancy of diction and rhetorical artifices than to produce a solid conviction based upon sound arguments; it was, in short, a school for show-speeches, and the practical purposes of oratory in the courts of justice and the popular assembly lay beyond its sphere. Antiphon perceived this deficiency, and formed a higher and more practical view of the art to which he devoted himself; that is, he wished to produce conviction in the minds of the hearers by means of a thorough examination of the subjects proposed, and this not with a view to the narrow limits of the school, but to the courts and the assembly. Hence the ancients call Antiphon the inventor of public oratory, or state that he raised it to a higher position. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 1.15.2; Hermog. de Form. Orat. ii. p. 498; comp. Quint. Inst. 3.1.1 ; Diod. apud Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 365.) Antiphon was thus the first who regulated practical eloquence by certain theoretical laws, and he opened a school in which he taught rhetoric. Thucydides, the historian, a pupil of Antiphon, speaks of his master with the highest esteem, and many of the excellencies of his style are ascribed by the ancients to the influence of Antiphon. (Schol. ad Thuc. iv. p. 312, ed. Bekker; comp. Dionys. de Comp. Verb. 10.) At the same time, Antiphon occupied himself with writing speeches for others, who delivered them in the courts of justice; and as he was the first who received money for such orations--a practice which subsequently became quite general--he was severely attacked and ridiculed, especially by the comic writers, Plato and Peisander. (Philostr. l.c.; Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 833c.) These attacks, however, may also have been owing to his political opinions, for he belonged to the oligarchical party. This unpopularity, together with his own reserved character, prevented his ever appearing as a speaker either in the courts or the assembly; and the only time he spoke in public was in B. C. 411, when he defended himself against the charge of treachery. (Thuc. 8.68 ; Lys. c. Eratosth. p. 427; Cic. Brut. 12.)
The history of Antiphon's career as a politician is for the most part involved in great obscurity, which is in a great measure owing to the fact, that Antiphon the orator is frequently confounded by ancient writers with Antiphon the interpreter of signs, and Antiphon the tragic poet. Plutarch (l.c.) and Philostratus (Vit. Soph. 1.15.1) mention some events in which he was engaged, but Thucydides seems to have known nothing about them. The only part of his public life of which the detail is known, is that connected with the revolution of B. C. 411, and the establishment of the oligarchical government of the Four Hundred. The person chiefly instrumental in bringing it about was Peisander; but, according to the express testimony of Thucydides, Antiphon was the man who had done everything to prepare the change, and had drawn up the plan of it. (Comp. Philostr. l.c.; Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 832f.) On the overthrow of the oligarchical government six months after its establishment, Antiphon was brought to trial for having attempted to negotiate peace with Sparta, and was condemned to death. His speech in defence of himself is stated by Thucydides (8.68; comp. Cic. Brut. 12) to have been the ablest that was ever made by any man in similar circumstances. It is now lost, but was known to the ancients, and is referred to by Harpocration (s. v. στασιώτης), who calls it λόγος περὶ μεταστάσεως. His property was confiscated, his house razed to the ground, and on the site of it a tablet was erected with the inscription "Antiphon the traitor." His remains were not allowed to be buried in Attic ground, his children, as well as any one who should adopt them, were punished with atimia. (Plut. l.c.) Works
As an orator, Antiphon was highly esteemed by the ancients. Hermogenes (de Form. Orat. p. 497) says of his orations, that they were clear, true in the expression of feeling, and faithful to nature, and consequently convincing. Others say, that his orations were beautiful but not graceful, or that they had something austere or antique about them. (Dionys. de Verb. Comp. 10, de Isaeo, 20.) The want of freshness and gracefulness is very obvious in the orations still extant, but more especially in those actually spoken by Antiphon's clients. (No. 1, 14, and 15.) His language is pure and correct, and in the three orations mentioned above, of remarkable clearness. The treatment and solution of the point at issue are always striking and interesting. (Dionys. Jud. de Thuc. 51, Demosth. 8; Phot. p. 485.)
The ancients possessed sixty orations of different kinds which went by the name of Antiphon, but Caecilius, a rhetorician of the Augustan age, declared twenty-five to be spurious. (Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 833b.; Phot. l.c.) Orations written for others
We now possess only fifteen orations of Antiphon, three of which were written by him for others, viz. No. 1. Κατηγορία φαρμακείας κατὰ τῆς μητρυιᾶς; No. 14. Περὶ τοῦ Ἡρώδου φόνου, and No. 15. Περὶ τοῦ χορευτοῦ. Tetralogies
The remaining twelve were written as specimens for his school or exercises on fictitious cases. They are a peculiar phenomenon in the history of ancient oratory, for they are divided into three tetralogies, each of which consists of four orations, two accusations and two defences on the same subject. The subject of the first tetralogy is a murder, the perpetrator of which is yet unknown; that of the second tetralogy is an unpremeditated murder; and that of the third tetralogy is a murder committed in self-defence. The clearness which distinguishes his other three orations is not perceptible in these tetralogies, which arises in part from the corrupt and mutilated state in which they have come down to us. A great number of the orations of Antiphon, and in fact all those which are extant, have for their subject the commission of a murder, whence they are sometimes referred to under the name of λόγοι φονικοί. (Hermog. de Form. Orat. p. 496, &c.; Ammon. s. v. ἐνθύμημα.) The genuineness of the extant orations has been the subject of much discussion, but the best critics are at present pretty nearly agreed that all are really the works of Antiphon. As to the historical or antiquarian value of the three real speeches--the tetralogies must be left out of the question here--it must be remarked, that they contain more information than any other ancient work respecting the mode of proceeding in the criminal courts of Athens. Editions
All the orations of Antiphon are printed in the collections of the Attic orators edited by Aldus, H. Stephens, Reiske, Bekker, Dobson, and others. The best separate editions are those of Baiter and Sauppe, Zürich, 1838, 16mo., and of E. Mätzner, Berlin, 1838, 8vo. Other works
Besides these orations, the ancients ascribe to Antiphon: 1. Art of Rhetoric
A Rhetoric (τέχνη ῥητορική) in three books. (Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 832d.; Phot. l.c. ; Quint. Inst. 3.1.10.) When it is said, that he was the first who wrote a work on rhetoric, this statement must be limited to the theory of oratory in the courts of justice and in the assembly; for treatises on the art of composing show-speeches had been written by several sophists before him. The work is occasionally referred to by ancient rhetoricians and grammarians, but it is now lost. 2. Beginnings and Endings
Προοίμια καὶ ἐπίλογοι, seem to have been model speeches or exercises for the use of himself or his scholars, and it is not improbable that his tetralogies may have belonged to them. Further Information
Suid. s. vv. ἅμα, αἴθησθαι, μοχθηρός; Phot. Lex. s. v. μοχθηρός. Further Information
The best modern works on Antiphon are: P. van Span (Ruhnken), Dissertatio historica de Antiphonie, Oratore Attico, Leyden, 1765, 4to., reprinted in Ruhnken's Opuscula, and in Reiske's and Dobson's Greek orators; Taylor, Lect. Lysiac. vii. p. 268, &c., ed. Reiske; Westermann, Geschichte der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, §§ 40 and 41.
2. A tragic poet, whom Plutarch (Vit. X. Orat. p. 833), Philostratus (Vit. Soph. 1.15.3), and others, confound with the Attic orator Antiphon, who was put to death at Athens in B. C. 411. Now Antiphon the tragic poet lived at Syracuse, at the court of the elder Dionysius, who did not assume the tyranny till the year B. C. 406, that is, five years after the death of the Attic orator. The poet Antiphon is said to have written dramas in conjunction with the tyrant, who is not known to have shewn his passion for writing poetry until the latter period of his life. These circumstances alone, if there were not many others, would shew that the orator and the poet were two different persons, and that the latter must have survived the former many years. The poet was put to death by the tyrant, according to some accounts, for having used a sarcastic expression in regard to tyranny, or, according to others, for having imprudently censured the tyrant's compositions. (Plut., Philostr. ll. cc.; Aristot. Rh. 2.6.) We still know the titles of five of Antiphon's tragedies: viz. Meleager, Andromache, Medeia, Jason, and Philoctetes. (Bode, Gesch. der Dram. Dichtk. der Hellen. i. p. 554, &c.)
3. Of Athens, a sophist and an epic poet. Suidas, who says that he was surnamed λογομάγειρος, and others state, that he occupied himself with the interpretation of signs. Works
Not a line of his poems is extant. On Dreams
He wrote a work on the interpretation of dreams, which is referred to by Artemidorus, Cicero, and others. (Artemid. Oneirocr. 2.14; Cic. de Divin. 1.20, 51, 2.70.) Other figures named Antiphon
He is unquestionably the same person as the Antiphon who was an opponent of Socrates, and who is mentioned by Xenophon (Memorab. 1.6.1; compare D. L. 2.46 ; Senec. Controv. 9), and must be distinguished from the rhetorician Antiphon of Rhamnus, as well as from the tragic poet of the same name, although the ancients themselves appear to have been doubtful as to who the Antiphon mentioned by Xenophon really was. Further Information
Ruhnken, Opuscula, i. pp. 148, &c., 169, &c., ed. Friedemann.
4. The youngest brother of Plato, whose name the philosopher has immortalised in his dialogue " Parmenides." (Plut. de Frat. Amor. p. 484f.) The father of Plato's wife was likewise called Antiphon. (Plut. de Genio Socrat.)
5. An Athenian, and a contemporary of Demosthenes. For some offence his name was effaced from the list of Athenian citizens, whereupon he went to Philip of Macedonia. He pledged himself to the king, that he would destroy by fire the Athenian arsenal in Peiraeeus ; but when he arrived there with this intention, he was arrested by Demosthenes and accused of treachery. He was found guilty, and put to death in B. C. 342. (Dem. de Coron. p. 271 ; Stechow, de Aeschinis Orat. Vita, p. 73, &c.; Aeschines, p. 38.)
6. A Greek sophist, who lived before the time of Aristotle, and whose opinions respecting the quadrature of the circle, and the genesis of things, are mentioned by this philosopher. (Aristot. Sophist. Elench. 1.10, Phys. 1.2, 2.1.)
7. A Greek author, who wrote an account of men distinguished for virtue (περὶ τῶν ἐν ἀρετή πρωτευσάντων), one of whom was Pythagoras. (D. L. 8.3; Porphyr. de Vit. Pythag. p. 9.)
8. A writer on agriculture, mentioned by Athenaeus. (xiv. p. 650.) [L.S]
(Ἀντιφῶν). The earliest of the ten great Attic orators, born B.C. 480 in Attica, son of the sophist Sophilus, to whom he owed his training. He was the founder of political eloquence as an art, which he taught with great applause in his own school of rhetoric; and he was the first who wrote out speeches for others to deliver in court, though he afterwards published them under his own name. He also played an active part in the politics of his time as a leading member of the oligarchical party, and the real author of the death-blow which was dealt to democracy in B.C. 411 by the establishment of the Council of Four Hundred. He then went as ambassador to Sparta, to purchase peace at any price in the interest of the oligarchy. On the fall of the Four Hundred he was accused of high treason, and, in spite of a masterly defence —the first speech he had ever made in public— was condemned to death B.C. 411. Of the sixty orations attributed to him, only fifteen are preserved—all on trials for murder; but only three of them are about real cases. The rest (named tetralogies because every four are the first and second speeches of both plaintiff and defendant on the same subject) are mere exercises. Antiphon's speeches exhibit the art of oratory in its rudimentary stage as regards both substance and form. The best edition is that of Blass (Leipzig, 1881).
(ca. 480-411) Antiphon was a professional speechwriter who was active at Athens in the last quarter of the fifth century B.C. Six of his forensic speeches and numerous fragments of others survive. Three of the surviving speeches were probably delivered in actual homicide cases. The other three are really sets of speeches (two each for defense and prosecution, hence called Tetralogies) which appear to represent imaginary homicide trials and may never have been delivered. The ascription of the Tetralogiesto Antiphon has been doubted by some modern scholars, as has his ancient identification with Antiphon the Sophist, fragments of whose philosophical writings are also preserved. Others are convinced of both the authenticity of the Tetralogiesand the unity of sophist and orator. As a speechwriter (logographos), Antiphon was for the most part employed in writing speeches for others or offering legal advice while never appearing in court himself. After a life out of public view, however, he rose to sudden political prominence in 411. His active support of the oligarchic coup led to his trial and conviction for treason. The main contemporary source for these events is Thucydides, who notes with admiration the brilliant speech Antiphon made in his own defense. A short fragment of this speech also survives.
FamilyA member of a prominent Athenian family, Antiphon was the son of the aristocrat Sophilus from the Athenian deme of Rhamnus. The aristocratic or oligarchic leanings of his family are well established. In a fragment of a speech Antiphon himself mentions that his grandfather was a strong supporter of the Peisistratids.
BiographyThe date of Antiphon's birth is unknown. Ancient information that he was a little younger than the sophist Gorgias, if true, would suggest that he was born around 480 B.C. Sixty speeches were attributed to him in antiquity. Along with the six extant speeches, fragments of some twenty others are preserved. While some scholars regard the Tetralogiesas an earlier rhetorical exercise, no speech can be shown to date from before 430, and the three forensic speeches probably were composed in the period from 420 to 411 B.C., when Antiphon was put to death.
The subjects of fragmentary speeches are quite varied, but the extant works all deal with homicide cases, suggesting that Antiphon specialized in this area of law. The first speech is Prosecution of the Stepmother for Poisoning, in which the speaker asserts that his stepmother conspired with his father's mistress in the poisoning of his father. The three Tetralogiescome next in the traditonal manuscript order of his works. Each of these takes the form of two speeches for the defense and two for the prosecution in three different kinds of homicide case. The first represents a case of murder, the second an accidental homicide, and the third a killing in self-defence. Antiphon's most admired speech, On the Murder of Herodes, is counted fifth in his corpus. In this speech Euxitheus, a young man from the Aegean island of Lesbos, defends himself on a charge of murdering a fellow passenger, Herodes, on a sea-trip to Thrace. In Antiphon's sixth speech, On the Choreutes, the sponsor of a tragic chorus defends himself against charges that he was responsible for the accidental poisoning of a boy in the chorus.
Toward the end of his life Antiphon suddenly took a leading role in politics as a mastermind and active participant in the oligarchic revolution of the Four Hundred in 411. As a result, he was brought to trial on charges of treason that same year. After making a passionate speech in his own defense, he was nevertheless convicted and executed. Thucydides (8.68) says that this was the very best speech of its kind ever delivered. Unfortunately, only a brief fragment of the defense, On the Revolution, survives.
Except for the controversy about his identity and about the authenticity of the Tetralogies, scholarship on Antiphon concentrates mostly on his prose style and methods of argumentation as a chief representative both of early Attic prose and of the beginnings of forensic rhetoric.
Primary Sources Thuc. 8.68 and 90 Pseudo-Plutarch Lives of the Ten Orators832c-4b Secondary Sources Avery, H.C. “One Antiphon or two?” Hermes110 (1982) 145-158 [argues that Antiphon the sophist and the orator were the same] Dover, K.J. “The Chronology of Antiphon's Speeches” CQ44 (1950) 44-60 [discusses dating of the forensic speeches] Due, B. Antiphon, a Study in Argumentation (Copenhagen 1980) Edwards, M. and S. Usher. Greek Orators-I: Antiphon & Lysias (Chicago 1985) [translation and commentary on Antiphon 5 with extensive bibliography] Gagarin, M. The Murder of Herodes. a study of Antiphon 5. Stud. zur klass. philol. n. 45 (Frankfurt 1989) Heitsch, E. Antiphon aus Rhamnus.(Wiesbaden 1984) Pendrick, S. “Once again Antiphon the Sophist and Antiphon of Rhamnus” Hermes115 (1987) 47-60 [argues against identification of orator with sophist] Schindel, U. Der Mordfall Herodes; zur 5. Rede Antiphons (Gottingen 1979) Solmsen, F. Antiphonstudien (Berlin 1931) [fundamental study of prose style and methods of argumentation] Sprague, R.K., ed., The Older Sophists (Univ. of South Carolina 1990) [contains translations of all sources] Zuntz, G. MH 6 (1949) 100-103 [on the dating and authenticity of the Tetralogies ] John Lawless