SOURCE: Pendrick, Gerard. “Once again Antiphon the Sophist and Antiphon of Rhamnus.” Hermes: Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie 115, no. 1 (1987): 47-60.

In the following essay, Pendrick argues that Antiphon the Sophist and Antiphon the politician and logographer were two different individuals.

Despite a century and more of scholarly debate, the ‘Antiphontean question’ remains an unsolved problem, and the existence of a Sophist Antiphon distinct from the homonymous politician and logographer has not yet been proved to the satisfaction of all critics¹. Three types of evidence have been brought to bear on the problem: the ancient testimonia, the styles of the works ascribed to ‘Antiphon’, and the ideas and attitudes expressed in these works. About style I shall have nothing to say: although some scholars have tried to infer diversity of authorship from apparent diversity of style between the writings assigned (tentatively) to the Sophist and to the Rhamnusian, there...