Ten short biographies of the great Athenian orators (Antiphon through Dinarchus), covering their careers, famous speeches, deaths, and descendants.
Vitae Decem Oratorum ("Lives of the Ten Orators") is a set of ten compact biographies, traditionally bundled with Plutarch's Moralia though many scholars doubt Plutarch actually wrote it. It covers Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, Aeschines, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Dinarchus — the figures later canonized as the "Attic orators" whose speeches were studied as models of Greek rhetoric. Each life follows a loose pattern: parentage and teachers, entry into public speaking or politics, signature speeches and disputed authorship of works attributed to them, notable sayings, the manner of their death, and often a closing tally of descendants and honors.
The collection is less philosophical argument than a reference work: it functions as a biographical encyclopedia for readers who already knew the speeches and wanted the gossip, the trial outcomes, and the political context behind them. Antiphon, the earliest professional speechwriter, is executed after the fall of the Four Hundred oligarchy, and the text preserves the actual Athenian decree condemning him to death — a rare verbatim legal document embedded in a biography. Lycurgus, the incorruptible financial administrator, gets an unusually long entry that ends by quoting in full the honorary decree the Athenian people passed for him after his death, listing the exact sums of money he raised and the buildings, arsenals, and stadium he financed.
What makes the work valuable to a modern reader is precisely this documentary texture: real decrees, family genealogies traced across generations, anecdotes about oratory as a dangerous public profession (several of the ten were executed, exiled, or died in disgrace), and glimpses of how the Athenians themselves ranked and canonized their own rhetorical tradition centuries before literary criticism became a formal discipline.
“Sixty speeches of the orator are in circulation, of which Caecilius says twenty-five are spurious. He has been mocked for love of money by Plato in the Pisander.”
— Vitae Decem Oratorum · read this chapter →
“Convicted of treason: Archeptolemus, son of Hippodamus, of Agryle, present; Antiphon, son of Sophilus, of Rhamnus, present”
— Vitae Decem Oratorum · read this chapter →
“He was also outspoken because of his noble birth: once, when the Athenians would not tolerate him while he was addressing the Assembly, he cried out as he was being shouted down, "O Corcyrean scourge, how many talents you are worth!"”
— Vitae Decem Oratorum · read this chapter →
“Fifteen speeches of the orator Lycurgus survive. He was crowned by the people many times and honored with statues”
— Vitae Decem Oratorum · read this chapter →
“though he often rendered account of his conduct of public affairs in a city that remained free and democratic, he continued throughout his whole life uncondemned and unbribed”
— Vitae Decem Oratorum · read this chapter →
It is a collection of ten short biographies of the classical Athenian orators — Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, Aeschines, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Dinarchus. Each entry covers the orator's family, career, famous speeches, disputes over authorship, and death, often ending with a list of descendants and honors.
It is transmitted as part of Plutarch's Moralia, but many scholars regard it as by a different, unknown author working from earlier sources like Caecilius of Caleacte, since its style and approach differ from Plutarch's other biographical work.
Antiphon was the earliest known professional Athenian speechwriter, credited with founding the practice of writing legal speeches for others. After the oligarchy of the Four Hundred fell, he was tried for treason, convicted, and executed; the text preserves the actual Athenian decree condemning him and his fellow defendant Archeptolemus.
Lycurgus receives one of the longest entries: he is portrayed as an incorruptible financial administrator who raised huge sums for Athens (including tens of thousands of talents over three five-year terms), funded shipyards, the Panathenaic stadium, and the Lyceum gymnasium, and was never convicted despite frequent accusations.
The author quotes real Athenian public documents — the indictment and death sentence against Antiphon, and the honorary decree passed for Lycurgus after his death — giving the biographies documentary weight beyond ordinary anecdote.
Ten: Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, Aeschines, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Dinarchus, the figures later canonized as the 'Attic orators.'
Moralia: Ad Principem Ineruditum · Moralia: Adversus Colotem · Moralia: Amatoriae Narrationes · Moralia: Amatorius · Moralia: An Recte Dictum Sit Latenter Esse Vivendum · Moralia: An Seni Respublica Gerenda Sit · Moralia: An Virtus Doceri Possit · Moralia: An Vitiositas Ad Infelicitatem Sufficia · Moralia: Animine An Corporis Affectiones Sint Piores · Moralia: Apophthegmata Laconica · Moralia: Aquane An Ignis Sit Utilior · Moralia: Bruta Animalia Ratione Uti