Antiphon

Born around 480 BC in the Attic deme of Rhamnus, Antiphon emerged as a central figure in fifth-century Athenian intellectual life at a time when public speaking was becoming both art and weapon. He was the first to write speeches for others to deliver in court, professionalizing persuasion in a city where every citizen might face a jury. His oratorical works established him as the earliest of the ten Attic orators whose texts endured. Scholars have long debated whether he also penned Sophistic treatises and a work on dream interpretation, or whether those belonged to a separate Antiphon the So…