Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/493

471 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 4»JI sellors of modern states, although they did not stand nearly so high in public estimation, unless at the same time they took an active part in public affairs.* The. practice of writing speeches for others probably led to a general habit of committing speeches to writing, and thus placing them within the reach of others besides those to whom they were delivered : at all events, it is certain that Antiphon was the first to do this.t Antiphon also established a school of rhetoric, in which the art of oratory was systematically taught, and, according to a custom which had been prevalent since the time of Corax, wrote a Techne, containing a formal exposition of his principles. As a teacher of rhetoric, Antiphon followed closely in the steps of the Sophists, with whose works he was very well acquainted, although he was not actually a scholar of any one among them : like Protagoras and Gorgias, he discussed general themes, which were designed only for exercises, and had no practical object in view. These may have been partly the most general subjects about which an argument could be held, — the loci communes, as they are called ; § partly, particular cases so ingeniously contrived that the con- trary assertions respecting them might be maintained with equal facility, and thus exercise would be afforded to the sophistic art of speaking plausibly on both sides of the question. § 2. Of the fifteen remaining speeches of Antiphon, twelve belong to the class of school exercises. They form three Tetralogies, so that every four of the orations are occupied with the discussion of the same case, and contain a speech and reply by both plaintiff and defendant. || The following is the subject of the first Tetralogy :— A citizen, returning with his slave from an evening banquet, is attacked by assassins, and killed on the spot : the slave is mortally wounded, but survives till he has told the relations of the murdered man that he recognized among the assassins a particular person who was at enmity with his master, and who was about to lose his cause in an important law-suit between him and the deceased. Accordingly, this person is indicted by the family of the murdered man, and the speeches all turn upon an attempt to exaggerate or diminish the probabilities for and against the guilt of the person arraigned. For instance, while the complainant lays the greatest stress on the animosity hire : Photius, Coder 259. f Orationem primus omnium scripsit, says Quintilian. X This is shown by the yives 'Avr^'ros : the chronology renders it almost im- possible that Antiphon's father could have lx-.n a Sophist {Vita X. Orat., c. 1. Phot., Coder 259).— [This is probably a confusion occasioned bj the name of Antiphon's father Sopkilus. — En.] § That Antiphon had practised himself in such common places is shown by their occurrence in different orations, in which he inserts them wherever he can. Comp. tie cade Herod., § 14, 87. Chor., § 2, 3.
 * Thus Antiphon was attacked by Plato the comedian for writing speeches for
 * Xlyai ■st^oTi^oi Kai vtrri°oi.