Antiphon

Abstract Antiphon is the earliest of the Attic orators by a generation (born 6.480 BC). Dearth of biographical detail is unsurprising in his case, since he shunned public attention throughout a career which combined rhetorical writing with political conspiracy. Thucydides, his admirer, credited him with masterminding the oligarchic revolution of 411–410 after years of clandestine preparation (8. 68). Its failure led to his trial and death. His literary legacy, by contrast, was permanent. He comes down as the first man to publish speeches written for others.1 Some of the surviving titles of lost or fragmentary speeches suggest a political programme or affinity,2 and a less clearly definable political background may be discerned in the extant full speeches. All concern homicide. They contain few indications as to their date, though they are probably all products of his later years. There has been little scholarly opposition to the tentatively expressed opinion of Blass (AB i. 192–3) that the speech Against the Stepmother is the earliest, but there is less agreement over the dates of the other two speeches. Without a high degree of conviction, I accept the arguments which assign Death of a Chorus-Boy to 419/18 and Murder of Herodes to 417/16.