HYPERIDES, a celebrated orator of Athens, was son of Glaucippus, respecting whose private history we are able to collect a few facts from the Orations of Demosthenes and the Bibliotheca of Photius (p. 1479). The exact date of his birth is not known; but he was put to death b. c. 322, the same year in which Demosthenes poisoned himself. He studied philosophy under Plato, but not along with Isocrates, as is stated by Photius; for Isocrates was born b. c. 436, and must have been far advanced in years when Hyperides was born. Hyperides adopted the same line of politics as Demosthenes, and opposed with great perseverance the proceedings of Philip of Macedon. That monarch, dreading lest the Athenians should be inclined to throw obstacles in the way of his projects, took into his pay many of the chief orators of Athens, at the head of whom was Aeschines. Demosthenes, who was chief of the opposite party, recommended an alliance with the king of Persia, whose dominions were equally threatened by Philip; and it would appear that Hyperides and Ephialtes were employed in a secret negotiation for this purpose. When Euboea was threatened with invasion by Philip, Hyperides, finding that the Athenians were wasting the time in vain debates, had sufficient influence with the richer citizens to prevail upon them to fit out a fleet of forty triremes, two of which he equipped at his own expense. He was employed under Phocion, in the expedition which was sent to the assistance of Byzantium, when it was besieged by Philip, b. c. 339; and after the battle of Chaeronea, B. C. 338, it was through his energetic means that Athens obtained an honourable peace. He was afterwards accused by Aristogeiton of having violated at this period all the laws of the republic; but in his defence he made that celebrated reply, that he had been dazzled by the arms of the Macedonians, and that it was not he, but the battle of Chaeronea, which had caused the decree to pass of which he was now accused. He was one of the few whose lives were demanded of the Athenians by Alexander, after the destruction of Thebes, n. c. 335; but it appears that Demades contrived to appease the wrath of the prince, and Hyperides was allowed to remain in his country. He seems to have been honourably distinguished from the orators of his time by an entire freedom from avarice; he resisted the bribes of Harpalus, and was therefore employed to prosecute those who had allowed themselves to be corrupted; he was also one of the accusers of Demosthenes. The troops, however, which Harpalus had brought with him he advised the Athenians to retain; and by means of these, upon the death of Alexander, b c. 323, [7:12:138]they were able to commence the Lamian war. Leosthenes the general fell, with many of his troops; and the funeral oration which was pronounced over them by Hyperides was considered by the ancients as one of the most beautiful of its kind. After the defeat of the Greeks, Hyperides was banished from Athens; and having retired to Aegina, was there reconciled to Demosthenes. Being pursued by the Macedonians, he fled to the Temple of Neptune at Hermina, and he was there seized by Archias, who carried him to Corinth, where Antipater then was. Being subjected to torture, some say that he bit off his tongue, that he might not be induced to betray the secrets of his country; whilst others assert that it was cut out by order of Antipater, and that he was then put to death, b. c. 322. Cicero places him immediately after Demosthenes as an orator. There were fifty-two orations of his extant in the time of Photius, and twenty-five others whļch Photius did not consider as genuine. None of his works have been preserved.