Antiphon

Antiphon, the earliest of the ten Attic orators in the Alexandrine canon, born at Rhamnus in Attica, 480 B.C. He belonged to the oligarchical party at Athens, and to him, according to his pupil Thucydides, was mainly due the establishment of the government of the Four Hundred in 411 B.C. On its fall, six months later, Antiphon was brought to trial and condemned to death, in spite of his noble defence. Only fifteen of his orations have come down to us, of which three were written for others, while the remainder appear to have been intended as specimens of school-rhetoric for his pupils. The best edition is by Blass (Leip. 1881).