Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/492

470 470 HISTORY OF THE speaking,* there was yet no one man in Athens who was better ahle to assist, by his counsels, those who had any contest to undergo either in the law-courts or in the popular assemblies. And in his own case, when, after the downfal of the Four-hundred, he was tried for his life as having been a party to the establishment of the oligarchy, it is acknowledged that the speech which he made in his own defence was the best that had ever been made up to that time."f But his admirable oratory was of no avail at this crisis, when the effect of his speech was more than counter- balanced by the feelings of the people : the devices of Theramenes completed his ruin; he was executed in 01. 92, 2. b.c. 411, when nearly seventy years old ; his property was confiscated, and even his descendants were deprived of the rights of citizenship. § We clearly see, from the testimony of Thucydides, what use Antiphon made of his oratory. He did not come forward, like other speakers, to express his sentiments in the Ecclesia, nor was he ever a public accuser in the law-courts : he never spoke in public save on his own affairs and when attacked : in other cases he laboured for others. With him the business of speech-writing first rose into importance, a business which for a long time was not considered so honourable as that of the public speaker ; but although many Athenians spoke and thought contemptu- ously of this profession, it was practised even by the great public orators along with their other employments; and according to the Athenian institutions was almost indispensable For in private suits the parties themselves pleaded their cause in open court ; and in public indictments, though any Athenian might conduct the prosecution, the accused person was not allowed an advocate, though his defence might be supported by some friends who spoke after him, and endeavoured to complete the arguments in his favour. It is obvious from this, that when the need of an advocate in the law-courts began to be more and. more felt, most Athenians would be obliged to apply for professional assistance, and would, with this view, either get assisted in the composition of their own speeches, or commit to memory and deliver, word for word, a speech composed for them by some practised orator. Thus the speech- writers, or logographi, as they were called, || (Antiphon, Lysias, Isfeus, and Demosthenes,) rendered services partly analogous to those performed by the Roman pdironi and causidici, or to the legal advocates and Coun- f It is a great pity that this speech has not been preserved. Harpocration often quotes it under the title h <rZ <si£ rife ^irairramus. The allusions to the time of the Four-hundred are obvious enough. % i. e. if the account is true which places his birth in 01. 75, 1. b.c. 480. , His great age and winning eloquence seem to have gained him the name of Nestor, by which lie was known among the Athenian people. § The decree according to which he was executed, and the decision of the court, are preserved in the Vita decern oratorum (in Plutarch's works), Cap. I. II They were called Xoyoypdp, by the common people at Athens.
 * hmo-Tv;, here used in its wider sense, as implying any power of persuasion.