§1.1#1Ἀντιφῶν Σοφίλου μὲν ἧν πατρὸς τῶν δὲ δήμων ʽπαμνούσιος·
Antiphon was the son of Sophilus, and belonged to the deme of Rhamnus.
μαθητεύσοις δὲ τῷ πατρὶ ʽἦν γὰρ σοφιστῆς, ᾧ καὶ Ἀλκιβιάδην φασὶν ἑτι παῖδα ὄντα φοιτῆσαἰ καὶ δύναμιν λόγων κτησάμενος, ὥς τινες νομίζουσιν, ἀπʼ οἰκείας φύσεως, ὥρμησε μὲν πολιτεύεσθαι·
He studied under his father, who was a sophist, to whom they say Alcibiades also went when he was still a child. Having acquired the power of speech, as some believe, from his own natural talent, he set out to engage in public affairs.
διατριβὴν δὲ συνέστησε καὶ Σωκράτει τῷ φιλοσόφῳ διεφέρετο τὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν λόγων διαφορὰν οὐ φιλονείκως ἀλλʼ ἐλεγκτικῶς, ὡς Ξενοφῶν ἱστόρηκεν ἐν τοῖς Ἀπομνημονεύμασι.
However, he established a school and disputed with Socrates the philosopher on the subject of speeches, not in a contentious but in an elenctic manner, as Xenophon has recorded in the Memorabilia.
καί τινας λόγους τοῖς δεομένοις τῶν πολιτῶν συνέγραφεν εἰς τοὺς ἐν τοῖς δικαστηρίοις ἀγῶνας πρῶτος ἐπὶ τοῦτο τραπείς, ὥσπερ τινές φασι τῶν γοῦν πρὸ αὐτοῦ γενομένων οὐδενὸς φέρεται δικανικὸς λόγος, ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ τῶν κατʼ αὐτόν, διὰ τὸ μηδέπω ἐν ἔθει τοῦ συγγράφειν εἶναι, οὐ Θεμιστοκλέους οὐκ Ἀριστείδου οὐ Περικλέους, καίτοι πολλὰς ἀφορμὰς καὶ ἀνάγκας παρασχόντων αὐτοῖς τῶν καιρῶν καὶ γὰρ οὐ διʼ ἀσθένειαν ἀπελείποντο τοῦ συγγράφειν, ὡς δῆλον ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων παρὰ τοῖς συγγραφεῦσι περὶ ἑνὸς Χ ορατορυμ Ωιταε. ἑκάστου τῶν· προειρημένων ἀνδρῶν.
He also wrote some speeches for those of the citizens who needed them for their contests in the law courts, being the first to turn to this, as some say. At any rate, no court speech is current from any of those who came before him, nor even from his contemporaries, because it was not yet in fashion to write them down— neither of Themistocles, nor of Aristides, nor of Pericles, although their times afforded them many opportunities and necessities. For it was not through weakness that they abstained from writing, as is clear from what is said by historians about each one of the aforementioned men.
ὅσους μέντοι ἔχομεν ἐπὶ τὸ παλαιότατον ἀναφέροντες ἀπομνημονεῦσαι τὴν ἰδέαν τῶν λόγων ταύτην μεταχειρισαμένους, τούτους εὕροι τις ἂν ἐπιβεβληκότας Ἀντιφῶντι, πρεσβύτῃ ἤδη ὄντι, οἷον Ἀλκιβιάδην, Κριτίαν, Λυσίαν, Ἀρχῖνον.
Yet, whomsoever we have to remember, tracing back to the oldest times, as having handled this genre of speeches, one would find that they had run into Antiphon, who was already an old man, such as Alcibiades, Critias, Lysias, and Archinus.
πρῶτος δὲ καὶ ῥητορικὰς τέχνας ἐξήνεγκε, γενόμενος ἀγχίνους· διὸ καὶ Νέστωρ ἐπεκαλεῖτο.
He was also the first to publish handbooks of rhetoric, being of a sharp mind; for which reason he was also called Nestor.
Καικίλιος δʼ ἐν τῷ περὶ αὐτοῦ συντάγματι Θουκυδίδου τοῦ συγγραφέως καθηγητὴν τεκμαίρεται γεγονέναι ἐξ ὧν ἐπαινεῖται παρʼ αὐτῷ ὁ Ἀντιφῶν.
Caecilius, in his treatise on him, conjectures that he was the teacher of Thucydides the historian, from the passages where Antiphon is praised by him.
ἔστι δʼ ἐν τοῖς· λόγοις ἀκριβὴς καὶ πιθανὸς καὶ δεινὸς περὶ τὴν εὕρεσιν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀπόροις τεχνικὸς καὶ ἐπιχειρῶν ἐξ ἀδήλου καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς νόμους καὶ τὰ πάθη τρέπων τοὺς λόγους τοῦ εὐπρεποῦς μάλιστα στοχαζόμενος.
In his speeches, he is precise, persuasive, clever in invention, skillful in difficult situations, arguing from what is unseen, turning his speeches towards laws and passions, and aiming especially at propriety.
γέγονε δὲ κατὰ τὰ Περσικὰ καὶ Γοργίαν τὸν σοφιστήν, ὀλίγῳ νεώτερος αὐτοῦ· καὶ παρατέτακεν ἕως καταλύσεως τῆς δημοκρατίας ὑπὸ τῶν τετρακοσίων. γενομένης, ἣν αὐτὸς δοκεῖ συγκατασκευάσαι, ὁτὲ μὲν δυσὶ τριηραρχῶν ναυσὶν ὁτὲ δὲ στρατηγῶν, καὶ πολλαῖς μάχαις νικῶν, καὶ συμμαχίας μεγάλας αὐτοῖς προσαγόμενος, καὶ τοὺς ἀκμάζοντας ὁπλίζων, καὶ τριήρεις πληρῶν ἑξήκοντα, καὶ πρεσβεύων δʼ ἑκάστοτε ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν εἰς Λακεδαίμονα, ἡνίκα ἐτετείχιστο Ἠετιώνεια.
He lived about the time of the Persian Wars and the sophist Gorgias, being a little younger than him; and he continued until the overthrow of the democracy by the Four Hundred, which he himself is thought to have helped set up. At one time he was a trierarch with two ships, at another a general, winning many battles, bringing great alliances to them, arming those in their prime, filling sixty triremes, and going as an ambassador on each occasion on their behalf to Lacedaemon, when Eetionea had been fortified.
μετὰ δὲ τὴν σε κατάλυσιν τῶν τετρακοσίων εἰσαγγελθεὶς σὺν Ἀρχεπτολέμῳ ἑνὶ τῶν τετρακοσίων, ἑάλω, καὶ τοῖς περὶ τῶν προδοτῶν ἐπιτιμίοις ὑπαχθεὶς ἄταφος ἐρρίφη καὶ σὺν τοῖς ἐκγόνοις ἄτιμος ἀνεγράφη.
But after the overthrow of the Four Hundred, having been impeached along with Archeptolemus, one of the Four Hundred, he was convicted, and having been subjected to the punishments for traitors, he was cast out unburied, and was registered as disenfranchised along with his descendants.
οἱ δʼ ὑπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα ἀνῃρῆσθαι αὐτὸν ἱστοροῦσιν, ὥσπερ Λυσίας ἐν τῷ ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἀντιφῶντος θυγατρὸς λόγῳ· ἐγένετο γὰρ αὐτῷ θυγάτριον, οὗ Κάλλαισχρος ἐπεδικάσατο.
But some record that he was put to death by the Thirty, as Lysias says in his speech On behalf of the daughter of Antiphon; for he had a little daughter, whom Callaeschrus claimed in marriage.
ὅτι δʼ ὑπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα ἀπέθανεν, ἱστορεῖ καὶ Θεόπομπος ἐν τῇ πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ τῶν Φιλιππικῶν ἀλλʼ οὗτός γʼ ἂν εἴη ἕτερος, Λυσιδωνίδου πατρός,·
And that he died under the Thirty is also recorded by Theopompus in the fifteenth book of his Philippica.
οὗ καὶ Κρατῖνος ἐν Πυτίνῃ ὡς πονηροῦ μνημονεύει· πῶς γὰρ ἂν ὁ προτεθνεὼς καὶ ἀναιρεθεὶς ἐπὶ τῶν τετρακοσίων πάλιν ἐπὶ τῶν τριάκοντα εἴη;
But this man must have been another, the son of Lysidonides, whom Cratinus also mentions in the Pytine as a wicked man; for how could one who had already died and been executed under the Four Hundred be again under the Thirty?
ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλος λόγος περὶ τῆς τελευτῆς αὐτοῦ. πρεσβευτὴν γὰρ ὄντα αὐτὸν εἰς Συρακούσας πλεῦσαι, ἡνίκα ἢκμαζεν ἡ τοῦ προτέρου Διονυσίου τυραννίς· γενομένης δὲ παρὰ πότον ζητήσεως, τίς ἄριστός;
There is also another story about his death: that he sailed as an ambassador to Syracuse, when the tyranny of the elder Dionysius was at its height; and when an inquiry arose during a drinking party as to what was the best...