The Bibliotheke

χρὴ εὖ μάλα πολλῶν ἵστορας φιλοσόφους ἄνδρας εἶναι

The Internet home of Professor Charles E. Muntz

Lysias

Lysias (ca. 445-380?) was a leading Attic orator. He was a metic (resident alien) in Athens during the latter part of the Peloponnesian War. After the war, he was arrested and his property confiscated by the 30 Tyrants, but Lysias escaped and joined the democratic resistance. After 403 Lysias worked primarily as a logographer, writing speeches for litigants to deliver in the law-courts. Many speeches deal with officials tainted by the oligarchy, most notably 12, in which Lysias attacks Eratosthenes, an ex-member of the 30.  Hundreds of speeches by Lysias were known in antiquity, but only 34 survive today, probably not all genuine. The translations here are by W. R. H. Lamb and were published in the Loeb Classical Library in 1930. They are now in the public domain.

1. On the Murder of Eratosthenes

2. Funeral Oration

3. Against Simon

4. On a Wound by Premeditation

5. For Callias

6. Against Andocides

7. Defense in the Matter of an Olive Stump

8. Accusation of Calumny

9. For the Soldier

10. Against Theomnestus 1

11. Against Theomnestus 2

12. Against Eratosthenes