Source edition
Antiphon. Minor Attic Orators, Vol. 1. Maidment, Kenneth John, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941 (printing); 1960 (reprint).
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This oration is a defense speech delivered by a defendant who served as a chorus director (choregos) for the Thargelia festival in Athens, following the tragic death of a young choir member (choreutes) who drank a fatal potion. The speaker argues his innocence by demonstrating that he was not present when the potion was administered and had no involvement in the boy's death, emphasizing the lack of premeditation. He points out that the prosecutors repeatedly refused a formal judicial test via the torture of slave witnesses (basanos), which exposes their dishonesty. Furthermore, the defendant reveals that the charge is a politically motivated conspiracy orchestrated by his enemies to exclude him from public affairs and block his prosecution of their own corruption. By highlighting the prosecutors' procedural inconsistencies and delays, the speech seeks to prove that the accusation is nothing but a malicious fabrication and political retaliation.