Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos

Jebb examines the Attic orators' lives, works, and historical contexts and argues for their centrality to Greek literature.

This two-volume study, first published in 1876, aimed to re-establish the centrality of pre-Demosthenes orators to the history of Greek literature, and to situate their work in its political and social contexts. Volume 1 focuses on the lives and works of the orators Antiphon, Andokides and Lysias.Sir Richard Claverhouse (R. C.) Jebb (1841–1905) was a prominent classical scholar and politician. Jebb was University Orator at Cambridge before becoming Professor of Greek at Glasgow in 1875, and eventually returning to Cambridge as Regius Professor. His many publications include books on Greek oratory, Homer, and modern Greece as well as editions of ancient Greek drama. The two-volume Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos (1876) was written with two primary objectives: to attend to a significant but often neglected element of Greek literature, Attic prose oratory, and to situate that oratory within its social and political contexts. Jebb analyses a number of rhetors from the period before Demosthenes, providing a thorough overview of the genre during this 'best period of Athens'. Volume 1 establishes the broader historical context before turning to close analysis of the lives, historical contexts, and works of the orators Antiphon, Andokides and Lysias.