Minor Attic Orators, Volume I: Antiphon, Andocides (Loeb Classical Library No. 308)

Antiphon

ISBN 10: 0674993403 / ISBN 13: 9780674993402

Published by Harvard UP, 1941

About this Item

1941. Hardcover. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780674993402

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Minor Attic Orators, Volume I: Antiphon, Andocides (Loeb Classical Library No. 308)
• Publisher: Harvard UP
• Publication Date: 1941
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674993403
• ISBN 13: 9780674993402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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 tetralogy comprising four skeleton speeches: accuser’s; defendant’s; accuser’s reply; defendant’s counter-reply.

Andocides of Athens, born ca. 440 BC, disliked the extremes of both democracy and oligarchy. Involved in religious scandal in 415 BC, he went into exile. After at least two efforts to return, he did so under the amnesty of 403. In 399 he was acquitted on a charge of profaning the Mysteries and in 391–390 took part in an abortive peace embassy to Sparta. Extant speeches are: On His Return (a plea on his second attempt); On the Mysteries (a self-defense); On the Peace with Sparta. The speech Against Alcibiades (the notorious politician) is suspect.