Minor Attic Orators, Volume I: Antiphon. Andocides

Two ill—fated rhetoricians.

Antiphon of Athens, born in 480 BC, spent his prime in the great period of Athens but, disliking democracy, was himself an ardent oligarch who with others set up a violent short—lived oligarchy in 411. The restored democracy executed him for treason. He had been a writer of speeches for other people involved in litigation. Of the fifteen surviving works three concern real murder cases. The others are exercises in speechcraft consisting of three tetralogies, each t...