Editing Antiphon (orator) (section)

== Works ==
The accurate number of Antiphon’s works is vague as many of those are lost in antiquity. [[Callimachus]] cataloged his works together with other orators in the library at Alexandria.<ref name=":0" /> [[Pseudo-Plutarch]] records sixty speeches of Antiphon were preserved.<ref name=":3" />

However, scholars criticized [[Callimachus]] for his carelessness in attributing authorship and for including numerous false works among the orators he cataloged.<ref name=":0" /> It is noteworthy that he included speeches and treaties like ''Truth'' in his collection of Antiphon. Additionally, [[Friedrich Blass|Blass]] counts two of Antiphon’s books—''On Truth, On Concord, the Politicus,'' and the ''Abuse of Alcibiades''—as epideictic speeches.<ref>{{Cite book |last=5. F. Blass |title=Die attische Beredsamkeit vol. 1 |publisher=Leipzig |year=1887}}</ref> [[Caecilius of Calacte|Caecilius]] declared that twenty-five of Antiphon’s sixty speeches were spurious, as his judgments were based on chronological and stylistic criteria<sup>[5]</sup>, other scholars might not agree on his standards.<ref name=":1" />

We currently have fifteen speeches, including three sets of Tetralogies, each with four speeches—two for defense and two for prosecution—and three individual forensic speeches to be delivered in an Athens court.

=== List of extant speeches ===
This is a list of extant speeches by Antiphon:
#[[Against the Stepmother for Poisoning]] ({{lang|grc|Φαρμακείας κατὰ τῆς μητρυιᾶς}})
#[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Antiph.+2+1 The First Tetralogy: Anonymous Prosecution For Murder] ({{lang|grc|Κατηγορία φόνου ἀπαράσημος}})
#[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Antiph.+3+1 The Second Tetralogy: Prosecution for Accidental Homicide] ({{lang|grc|Κατηγορία φόνου ἀκουσίου}})
#[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Antiph.+4+1 The Third Tetralogy: Prosecution for Murder Of One Who Pleads Self-Defense] ({{lang|grc|Κατηγορία φόνου κατὰ τοῦ λέγοντος ἀμύνασθαι}})
#[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Antiph.+5+1 On the Murder of Herodes] ({{lang|grc|Περὶ τοῦ Ἡρῷδου φόνου}})
#[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Antiph.+6+1 On the Choreutes ] ({{lang|grc|Περὶ τοῦ χορευτοῦ}})

=== Authenticity of the Tetralogies ===
As the Tetralogies have distinct historical, legal and stylistic features from the court speeches, many scholars had doubted its authenticity.

Dittenberger asserts that the Tetralogies assumed a legal system that was very dissimilar from Athens', and the tactics and approaches used by litigants were incongruous. He scrutinized how they differed from Antiphon’s court speeches. According to him, they were exercises meant to teach young men how to argue in court rather than being written by Athenians for Athenians.<ref name=":0" /> He also debated the unusual occurrence of several apparent Ionicisms in the Tetralogies, which are primarily written in the Attic dialect. They interpret this as proof that Ionian Greeks lived in Athens.<ref name=":0" /> While Antiphon was an Athenian, he could not be the author.

However, some other scholars suggested the Tetralogies are written speeches intended for a more scholarly audience rather than being delivered in court. Tetralogies are only works of fiction; their primary goal is not to persuade; rather, they concentrate on developing a smart and improbable argument that advances liberal education rather than professional training.<ref name=":0" /> Also, the format of opposing speeches allows Antiphon to match arguments against arguments in a way that was rare in actual speeches, so he could present the methods of argument and theoretical issues.<ref name=":0" /> This could not be presented in his court speeches, where the opponents might not always respond every point.

Regarding the linguistic issue, the use of Ionicisms could not serve as evidence from another writer.  The incorporation of [[Ionic Greek|Ionicisms]] indicates that the intended audience was not limited to Athenians but also included foreigners, even though the Tetralogies were among the first [[Attic Greek|Attic]] written works that we have.<ref name=":2" /> At the period, the writers were not constrained by factors like their hometown to write in a single, constant dialect.

Additionally, the sophists' spirit of experimentation and the intellectual pursuits of the second half of the fifth century BC were ideally suited to the Tetralogies' arguments. The work of the first rhetoricians, Coraz, [[Tisias]], and [[Gorgias]], can be compared to the First Tetralogy's arguments based on likelihood and the Second and Third Tetralogy's nexus of arguments about cause, effect, blame, and responsibility.<ref name=":2" /> They do fit well to the Athenian’s intellectual ideology at the time.

There is no reason to reject the attribution of Tetralogies to Antiphon, despite the fact that there are still a number of loopholes in the evidence supporting its veracity. Therefore, a majority of scholars regard them as works of Antiphon.