Editing Antiphon (orator) (section)

=== Death ===
Antiphon was active in political affairs in [[Athens]], and, as a zealous supporter of the [[oligarchical]] party, was largely responsible for the establishment of the [[The Four Hundred (oligarchy)|Four Hundred]] in 411 (see [[Theramenes]]).

After the Athenians were defeated by [[Sparta]] in [[Sicily]] in 413, Antiphon and a group of [[Aristocracy|aristocrats]] staged a coup led by four hundred oligarchs in 411. But this government was overthrown quickly as its chief proponent, [[Phrynichus (oligarch)|Phrynichus]], was assassinated.<ref name=":2" />  Members of the Four Hundred were charged for their involvement in an embassy to Sparta near the end of the Four Hundred brief rule. They were found guilty and given the following sentences: execution, property seizure, loss of burial privileges, and loss of citizenship rights for their descendants.<ref name=":1" />

Although most of Antiphon’s acquaintances fled, he stayed in Athens and made his last speech for his defense, ''On the Revolution''. Though some of the speech did not survive antiquity, leaving fragments of it what we have today, it was particularly admired by Thucydides, ‘Of all the men up to my time…he seems to me to have made the best defense in a capital case.’<ref>{{Citation |last=Thucydides |title=History of the Peloponnesian War |date=2009-06-11 |work=Oxford World's Classics: Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00266021 |access-date=2025-03-27 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-282191-1}}</ref>


[[Thucydides]] famously characterized Antiphon's skills, influence, and reputation:
{{quote|...He who concerted the whole affair [of the 411 coup], and prepared the way for the catastrophe, and who had given the greatest thought to the matter, was Antiphon, one of the best men of his day in Athens; who, with a head to contrive measures and a tongue to recommend them, did not willingly come forward in the assembly or upon any public scene, being ill-looked upon by the multitude owing to his reputation for cleverness; and who yet was the one man best able to aid in the courts, or before the assembly, the suitors who required his opinion. Indeed, when he was afterwards himself tried for his life on the charge of having been concerned in setting up this very government, when the Four Hundred were overthrown and hardly dealt with by the commons, he made what would seem to be the best defence of any known up to my time.|Thucydides, ''Histories'' 8.68<ref>trans. by [[Richard Crawley]], revised by [[Robert B. Strassler]], 1996</ref>}}
Antiphon was accused of [[treason]] and condemned to death.<ref name="EB1911" /> Even though the indictment involved the ambassador to Sparta, he denied potential motivations for the alleged crime of taking part in an oligarchic coup. He also addressed the more general accusation of taking part in the [[The Four Hundred (oligarchy)|Four Hundred]] Coup and created a convincing case based on the likelihood that his line of work would flourish in a democracy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Giorgini |first=Giovanni |date=2023-03-24 |title=The Cosmopolitanism of the Early Sophists: The Case of Hippias and Antiphon |journal=Humanities |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=30 |doi=10.3390/h12020030 |doi-access=free |issn=2076-0787}}</ref> Given his inability to deny his obvious involvement in the coup, he might have continued by claiming that he wanted an enhanced democracy rather than an oligarchy.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=https://doi.org/10.7560/728080 |title=Antiphon and Andocides |date=1998 |publisher=University of Texas Press |doi=10.7560/728080 |isbn=978-0-292-79911-0}}</ref>

In the end, Antiphon’s plea failed, and he was executed. Some scholars believed the aim of his speech was not to succeed but to present and leave for future generations a deft piece of sophistry regarding his role in the collapse of democracy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Arnaoutoglou |first=Ilias |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1n3587r?turn_away=true |title=Law, Rhetoric and Comedy in Classical Athens: Essays in Honour of Douglas M. MacDowell |last2=Arnott |first2=W.G. |last3=Carawan |first3=Edwin |last4=Carey |first4=Christopher |last5=Dover |first5=Sir Kenneth |last6=Edwards |first6=Michael J. |last7=Gagarin |first7=Michael |last8=Mirhady |first8=David C. |last9=Prandi |first9=Luisa |date=2004 |publisher=Classical Press of Wales |isbn=978-0-9543845-5-5 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1n3587r.11}}</ref>

Antiphon may be regarded as the founder of political [[Public speaking|oratory]], but he never addressed the people himself except on the occasion of his trial. Fragments of his speech then, delivered in defense of his policy (called {{lang|grc|Περὶ μεταστάσεως}}) have been edited by J. Nicole (1907) from an [[Egypt]]ian [[papyrus]].<ref name="EB1911" />