Antiphon 6: Causation and the Law

Abstract The last speech in Antiphon’s modest corpus, for a defendant implicated in the death of a choirboy, is the earliest extant speech that can be dated with any confidence: the death occurred in the spring of 419 and the trial was held in late autumn or winter of 419 / 18. It is also our earliest reliable evidence for the kind of case that was tried at the Palladium. The argument centres upon the peculiar concept of ‘planning’ or determining in unintentional homicide, and the speech is, again, our best evidence for this peculiar concept. This speech also gives us an intriguing glimpse of internal politics at Athens. There is a consensus going back to Schwartz and Wilamowitz that the defendant in this case was one of those mentioned by Thucydides as relying upon the artful arguments of Antiphon to further their cause in the courts and assembly, and scholars have been inclined to read partisan issues into the arguments. Such matters lie outside the scope of this study. On the questions that most concern us, of law and its rhetorical uses, there has been broad disagreement.