the most ancient of the ten Athenian orators contained in the Alexandrine canon. He was born in B.C. 480 at Rhamnus. During the Peloponnesian war he several times was entrusted with the command of detachments of the Athenian forces, and took an active part in the political affairs of Athens. He had a hand in the overthrow of the democracy, and the establishment of the oligarchy of the Four Hundred in B.C. 411; but as the new government was soon after changed, Antiphon was accused of high treason, and put to death. He must be regarded as the founder of political oratory at Athens, for he was the first that reduced the art of the orator to certain rules and principles. He wrote speeches for others, but never addressed the people himself except at his own trial. Seventeen orations have been preserved under his name, but two or three of them may be spurious. They are printed in the various collections of the Greek orators. From this Antiphon the orator we must distinguish two others; one a philosopher, mentioned by Xenophon (Memor. i. 6), who is said to have written about dreams, and the other, a tragic poet, who lived at the court of the elder Dionysius.