And this was no harsh provision before the birth of rhetoric and logic when natural eloquence alone existed and professional oratory was not dreamed of. The establishment of the popular courts and the above requirement changed the literary vehicle from poetry to prose, as a mode of expression better adapted to argument and logical treatment, and finally the professional rhetorician came into the field just after the death of Pericles, that eloquent political "boss" of Athens. At this time, Gorgias, the famous Sicilian orator, showed the Athenians, as embassador, the miraculous possibilities of their language and it at once became the style to cultivate oratory as a fine art. The ordinary man was now severely handicapped in a contest at court with a pupil of the professional rhetorician and lack of time, inclination or ability forced the suitor, if himself unskilled, to hire a logographer or speech-writer to prepare his speech for delivery.
The logographer wrote the speech and gave his client (if we may so call him) some instruction in general delivery. He was not a lawyer, in our sense, his duties ceasing when the case came to court; though at intervals, we find a "next friend," who serves as assistant speaker without pay. The speech-writer did not appear in a professional capacity and the delivered speech disclosed no identity which suggested a violation of the laws on pleading and practise.
The first logographer who wrote for pay was the orator, Antiphon, the master of criminal law. Isæus has left us an extended collection of his speeches, drawn up for suitors in inheritance cases. Demosthenes, after being looted by his guardians, took to speech-writing as a livelihood and laid the foundation of a greater fortune than the one he had lost. Lysias, a reduced metic (resident alien) at Athens, whose property had been confiscated by the "Thirty Tyrants," was probably the most famous and cleverest speech-writer of his times, if we can take Plato's word (Phædrus 228A). His character-study of the manners and mannerisms of the actual suitor was so thorough that the delivered speech became the apparent thought and word of the pleader himself. Not being a citizen, Lysias was practically out of politics and political speeches and so confined his attention to the remunerative preparation of the private speeches of those who wished to win their case. The senator who prosecutes the grain-dealers evidently considered that, in obtaining the services of the expert Lysias, he was doing all in his power to aid the public weal and to protect and enhance his own civic and political reputation.
While undoubtedly Lysias was "for the prosecution,"—whether that word is interpreted to mean the unknown senator or the state—we know nothing of the counsel for the defense—unless we have a right to infer that the corn-ring employed the regularly, though stealthily, retained, "corporation" defense-writer.
