Self-Quotations as Witnesses and Evidence: The Case of Isocrates’ Antidosis

This chapter aims to explore the role of the self-quotations in Isocrates’ Antidosis in connection to the fictitious judicial framework of the speech. Pretending to defend himself in a trial for a charge of corrupting youth through his own teaching, Isocrates produces written evidence that consists of large extracts from his previous works. A clerk was also asked to read out these passages, thus turning the imaginary court into a place for a public reading. By introducing and commenting on this “auto-anthology”, Isocrates offered an authorised interpretation of his writings; at the same time, however, these pieces of evidence - together with the silent witnesses produced by his pupils - proved functional both to the rehabilitation of the author’s reputation in the polis and to the transformation of traditional rhetorical forms into new literary products.