SOURCE: Carawan, Edwin. “The Tetralogies and Athenian Homicide Trials.” American Journal of Philology 114, no. 2 (1993): 235-70.

In the following essay, Carawan presents an analysis comparing the methods of argument used in the Tetralogies attributed to Antiphon with court arguments he is actually known to have made.

The Tetralogies attributed to Antiphon are documents of singular importance for the evolution of rhetoric at Athens: they give an artful demonstration of opposing arguments in three hypothetical cases of homicide; their methods are not unlike those of the showpieces of Gorgias or the paired speeches in Thucydides' History.¹ Basic questions of authorship and date remain unresolved, but it now appears to be the majority view that the Tetralogies can be at least identified as a product of Antiphon's era, if not his own work. The author's aims, however, remain uncertain: his work is often treated as a practical demonstration of model arguments...