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Antiphon the Sophist lived in Athens probably in the last two decades of the 5th century BC. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC. There is an ongoing controversy over whether he is one and the same with Antiphon (Ἀντιφῶν) of the Athenian deme Rhamnus in Attica (480–411 BC), the earliest of the ten Attic orators. Ancient Greece, a deme ( δῆμος) was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. For the genus of plants called Rhamnus see Buckthorn. Rhamnus (Greek Ραμνоυς — Ramnous is an archaeological site in Greece Attica (Αττική Attikí;) is a periphery (subdivision in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece Events By place Greece May — King Xerxes I of Persia marches from Sardis and onto Thrace Events By place Greece The Democracy of Athens is overthrown by the oligarchic extremists Antiphon, The ten Attic orators were considered the greatest Orators and logographers of the classical era ( 5th century BC – 4th century BC For the purposes of this article, they will be treated as distinct persons.

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Antiphon of Rhamnus

Antiphon of Rhamnus was a statesman who took up rhetoric as a profession. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice He was active in political affairs at Athens, and, as a zealous supporter of the oligarchical party, was largely responsible for the establishment of the Four Hundred in 411 (see Theramenes); upon restoration of the democracy shortly afterwards, he was accused of treason and condemned to death. The Four Hundred (Greek οἱ τετρακόσιοι was a short-lived Oligarchic body that held power in Athens during the Peloponnesian War from June Events By place Greece The Democracy of Athens is overthrown by the oligarchic extremists Antiphon, Theramenes (d 404 BC Greek:) was an Athenian statesman prominent in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War. Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system In Law, treason is the Crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or Nation. Thucydides (viii. Thucydides ( C 460 BC &ndash C 395 BC) ( Greek Θουκυδίδης Thoukydídēs) was a Greek 68) famously characterized Antiphon's skills, influence, and reputation:

“ . . . 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. [1] ”

Antiphon may be regarded as the founder of political 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 Περι μεταστασεως) have been edited by J. Nicole (1907) from an Egyptian papyrus. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Papyrus (/pəˈpaɪrəs/ (Rhymes -aɪrəs)is a thick paper-like material produced from the Pith of the papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus

His chief business was that of a logographer (λογογραφος), that is a professional speech-writer. The title of logographer (from the Ancient Greek λογογράφος logographos, a compound of λόγος logos, 'word' and γράφω grapho He wrote for those who felt incompetent to conduct their own cases — all disputants were obliged to do so — without expert assistance. Fifteen of Antiphon's speeches are extant: twelve are mere school exercises on fictitious cases, divided into tetralogies, each comprising two speeches for prosecution and defence—accusation, fence, reply, counter-reply; three refer to actual legal processes. All deal with cases of homicide (φονικαι δικαι). Antiphon is also said to have composed a Τεχνη or art of Rhetoric.

Antiphon the Sophist

A treatise known as On Truth, of which only fragments survive, is attributed to Antiphon the Sophist. It is of great value to political theory, as it appears to be a precursor to natural rights theory. The views expressed in it suggest that its author could not be the same person as Antiphon of Rhamnus; for it affirms strong egalitarian and libertarian principles appropriate to a democracy but presumably antithetical to the oligarchical views of one who was instrumental in the anti-democratic coup of 411. Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have Libertarianism is a term used by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which prioritize individual Liberty and seek to minimize or even abolish the (See W. K C. Guthrie, The Sophists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971)

"Nature" requires liberty

On Truth juxtaposes the repressive nature of convention and law (nomos) with "nature" (physis), especially human nature. Nature is envisaged as requiring spontaneity and freedom, in contrast to the often gratuitous restrictions imposed by institutions:

Most of the things which are legally just are [none the less] . . . inimical to nature. By law it has been laid down for the eyes what they should see and what they should not see; for the ears what they should hear and they should not hear; for the tongue what it should speak, and what it should not speak; for the hands what they should do and what they should not do . . . and for the mind what it should desire, and what it should not desire. (Antiphon, "On Truth," Oxyrhynchus Papyri, xi, no. The Oxyrhynchus papyri are a very numerous group of Manuscripts discovered by Archaeologists at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus ( modern el-Bahnasa 1364, fragment 1, quoted in Donald Kagan (ed. ) Sources in Greek Political Thought from Homer to Polybius ("Sources in Western Political Thought, A. Hacker, gen. ed. ; New York: Free Press, 2965)

Repression means pain, whereas it is nature (human nature) to shun pain.

Elsewhere, Antiphon wrote: "Life is like a brief vigil, and the duration of life like a single day, as it were, in which having lifted our eyes to the light we give place to other who succeed us. " Mario Untersteiner comments: "If death follows according to nature, why torment its opposite, life, which is equally according to nature? By appealing to this tragic law of existence, Antiphon, speaking with the voice of humanity, wishes to shake off everything that can do violence to the individuality of the person. " (Mario Untersteiner, The Sophists, tr. Kathleen Freeman (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1954) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971, p. 247)

Mathematics

Further information: Bryson of Heraclea#Pi and squaring the circle

Antiphon was also a capable mathematician. Bryson of Heraclea (ca 450 BCE - ca 390 BCE was an Ancient Greek Mathematician and Sophist who contributed to solving the problem of Squaring the Antiphon, alongside his companion Bryson of Heraclea, was the first to give an upper and lower bound for the value of pi by inscribing and then circumscribing a polygon around a circle and finally proceeding to calculate the polygons' areas. Bryson of Heraclea (ca 450 BCE - ca 390 BCE was an Ancient Greek Mathematician and Sophist who contributed to solving the problem of Squaring the IMPORTANT NOTICE Please note that Wikipedia is not a database to store the millions of digits of π please refrain from adding those to Wikipedia as it could cause technical problems This method was applied to the problem of squaring the circle. Squaring the circle is a problem proposed by ancient Geometers.

Notes

  1. ^ trans. by Richard Crawley, revised by Robert Strassler, 1996

References

External links

Further reading

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

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