Antiphon of Rhamnus (; ; 480–411 BC) was the earliest of the ten Attic orators, and an important figure in fifth-century Athenian political and intellectual life.
There is longstanding uncertainty and scholarly controversy over whether the Sophistic works of Antiphon and a treatise on the Interpretation of Dreams were also written by Antiphon the Orator, or whether they were written by a separate man known as Antiphon the Sophist. This article only discusses Antiphon the Orator's biography and oratorical works.
Life
Early life
Antiphon was born around 480 and from an old wealthy family from the deme Rhamnus. Though Pseudo-Plutarch says he was born at the time of Persian wars in Live of the Ten Orators, Ostwald believed the date of Antiphon’s birth is inconsistent with the age when he began publishing his speeches, which is about sixty, and his involvement in the oligarchic revolution, which is about seventy. Therefore, he would lower Antiphon’s date of birth by a decade, which is 470. But scholars generally accepted the year of 480.
Antiphon’s father, Sophilus, was a Sophist who owned a school. So scholars consider he learned the skills of public speaking from his father. While Plutarch also mentioned he pursued the career of a teacher in his early days, some historians expected him to take over his father’s school when he grew up.
In addition to his sophist father, the political climate in his childhood fostered his interest in political and legal affairs. The institution of Athenian democracy was established around 450 or later, and Antiphon observed the development of democracy closely in his childhood. As a result, no speaker considered composing their speech for someone else or preparing it beforehand. Or even if there were written speeches, they failed to withstand the stringent requirements of Athenian or critical taste. Writing speeches was, therefore, a bold idea that was controversial at the time.
Antiphon became the first to write forensic speeches for publication. He was well-known for his love of money, as declared by Plato in his Peisandros. And the Archidamian War had left his family in poverty, so he looked for an additional occupation of composing speeches. Antiphon acquired enough reputation to start his logographic business, fragments of his lost speeches revealed that Antiphon traveled far and had a wide range of acquaintances, including the general Demosthenes and Alcibiades as clients. There were arguments about whether he was the first logographer in Greece, there is no doubt that he was the first to write speeches for money.
Death
Antiphon was active in political affairs in Athens, and, as a zealous supporter of the oligarchical party, was largely responsible for the establishment of the Four Hundred in 411 (see Theramenes).
After the Athenians were defeated by Sparta in Sicily in 413, Antiphon and a group of aristocrats staged a coup led by four hundred oligarchs in 411. But this government was overthrown quickly as its chief proponent, Phrynichus, was assassinated.
Thucydides famously characterized Antiphon's skills, influence, and reputation:
Antiphon was accused of treason and condemned to death. Given his inability to deny his obvious involvement in the coup, he might have continued by claiming that he wanted an enhanced democracy rather than an oligarchy.
In the end, Antiphon’s plea failed, and he was executed. Some scholars believed the aim of his speech was not to succeed but to present and leave for future generations a deft piece of sophistry regarding his role in the collapse of democracy.
Antiphon may be regarded as the founder of political oratory, but he never addressed the people himself except on the occasion of his trial. Fragments of his speech then, delivered in defense of his policy (called ) have been edited by J. Nicole (1907) from an Egyptian papyrus. Caecilius declared that twenty-five of Antiphon’s sixty speeches were spurious, as his judgments were based on chronological and stylistic criteria<sup>[5]</sup>, other scholars might not agree on his standards.