LYCURGUS (c. 396-325 B.c.), son of Lycophron, one of the "ten" Attic orators. He shared with Demosthenes and Hypereides the leadership of the opposition to Philip. He left the care of external relations to his colleagues, and devoted himself to internal organization and finance. He managed the finances of Athens for twelve successive years (338-326), at first directly as treasurer of the revenues (6 Eirl T77 atotsiio-EL) for four years, and in two succeeding terms, when the actual office was forbidden him by law, through his son and a nominal official chosen from his party. Part of one of the deeds in which he rendered account of his term of office is still preserved in an inscription. During this time he raised the public income from 600 to 1,200 talents yearly. He increased the navy, repaired the dockyards, and completed an arsenal, the o-Kfvo0i7m designed by the architect Philo. He also reconstructed the great Dionysiac theatre and the gymnasium in the Lyceum, and built the Panathenaic stadium on the Ilissus. He proposed a law that statues of the three great tragedians should be erected in the theatre, and that their works should be carefully edited and preserved among the state archives. Alex ander the Great demanded his surrender, but the people refused to give him up. He died while president of the theatre of Dionysus, and was buried on the road leading to the Academy at the expense of the state. (See Hicks, Greek Historical Inscriptions, no. 145.) Lycurgus was a man of action ; his orations, of which fifteen were published, were criticized by the ancients for their awkward arrangement, harshness of style, and the tendency to digressions about mythology and history, although their noble spirit and lofty morality were highly praised. The one extant example, Against
Leocrates, fully bears out this criticism. After the battle of Charroneia (338), in spite of the decree which forbade emigra tion under pain of death, Leocrates had fled from Athens and on his return was impeached by Lycurgus but acquitted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The speech has been frequently edited. Editio princeps (Aldine, 1513) ; F. G. Kiessling (1847) with M. H. E. Meier's commentary on pseudo-Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus and the fragments of his speeches; C. Rehdantz (1876) ; T. Thalheim (1880) ; C. Scheibe (1885) ; E. Blass (ed. major, 1889), with bibliography of editions and articles (ed. minor, 5902) ; E. Sofer (Leipzig, 1905), with notes and introd. There is an index to Andocides, Lycurgus and Deinarchus by L. L. Forman (Oxford, 1897). The exhaustive treatise by F. Diirrbach, L'Orateur Lycurgue (1890), contains a list of the most important review articles on the financial and naval administration of Lycurgus and on his public works; see also C. Droege, De Lycurgo publicarum pecuniarum administratore (Minden, 188o). Several fragments of his various laws have been preserved in inscriptions (Corpus inscriptionum atticarum, ii. 162, 163, 173, 176, 180). And see authorities under DEMOSTHENES.