Antidosis

Antidosis (Ancient Greek ἀντίδοσις), is the title of a speech treatise by the ancient Greek rhetorician, Isocrates. The Antidosis can be viewed as a defense, an autobiography, or rhetorical treatise. However, since Isocrates wrote it when he was 82 years old, it is generally seen by some people as an autobiography. The title literally translates as “an exchange,” and was applied in ancient Greek courts as a peculiar law pertaining to an exchange of estates between two parties. If one of the 1200 wealthiest Athenians eligible was tasked with the performance of a public liturgy and financing one of the many public concerns of Athens, then he could avoid the duty by nominating a richer man who was more qualified than himself to perform it. If the supposedly richer man disagreed with the terms, then the entirety of their estates would be exchanged and the now more wealthy man would have to perform the liturgy, as originally planned. The law inspired Isocrates' Antidosis, which was written in the form of a court case where Isocrates had to defend himself from a charge of corrupting the youth by teaching them how to speak well in order for them to gain an unfair advantage over their peers. Although this work is put forward by Isocrates as his imagined defense in a legal case, it is more a treatise on morality and teaching.

Although it is assumed that he is defending himself from a charge of corrupting the youth, nowhere in his Antidosis does Isocrates mention what crime he is charged with and from which he must defend, nor does it say what the penalty would be for being found guilty. Isocrates also does not make any attempt to offer evidence in his favor, yet presents the defense that he is a good teacher to his students as the full defense for the crime that he has committed. There is no specific mention of anything that would prove him innocent in this particular case.

Another idea by scholars is that early on in the Antidosis, Isocrates reads aloud that he is being indicted for corrupting his students. He is accused of educating his students to speak against the courts, question the laws, and think for themselves. Isocrates says, “Here is the indictment my accuser endeavors to vilify me, charging that I corrupt young men by teaching them to speak and gain their won advantage in the courts contrary to justice…” Isocrates is being charged by Lysimachus who has accused Isocrates of receiving money from his students. In return, Isocrates has been teaching them how to become better public speakers and leaders. Isocrates proves his innocence by showing, that through teaching his students rhetoric, he is teaching them how to become better citizens and leaders of Athens. Isocrates proved his rationale by citing the accomplishments and devotion to the state his students displayed after being educated by him. Isocrates says in his defense, “But, I beg of you, consider well whether I appear to you to corrupt the young by my words, or, on the contrary, to inspire them to a life of valor and of dangers endured for their country…” B. Keith Murphy says of Isocrates’s defense, “For Isocrates, it is through rhetoric that we can approximate truth, or at least a consensual truth. A man who is trained in rhetoric is trained in truth, and the creation of that truth through oratory.”

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