The vocabulary of Lysias is pure and simple. Most of the rhetorical "figures" are sparingly used—except such as consist in the parallelism or opposition of clauses, due to the still surviving influence of the Sicilian school. Lysias excels in vivid description; he has also a happy knack of marking the speaker's character by light touches. He has equal command over the "periodic" style (Karearpaµ,uivn XE is) and the non-periodic or "continuous" otaXeXvpivn). His disposition of his subject-matter is always simple. The speech has usually four parts—introduc tion Or narrative of facts proofs (xiarets) and conclusion (friXoTos). It is in the introduction and the nar rative that Lysias is seen at his best. In his greatest extant speech —that Against Eratosthenes—and also in the fragmentary Olym piacus, he has pathos and fire ; but these were not characteristic qualities of his work. In Cicero's estimate of the various Greek orators (De Orat. iii. 7, 28) the quality in which Lysias is supreme is subtilitas (refinement). Nor was it oratory alone to which Lysias rendered service; his work had an important effect on all subsequent Greek prose, by showing how perfect elegance could be joined to plainness. And his style has an additional charm for modern readers, because it is employed in describing scenes from the everyday life of Athens.
In literary and historical interest, the first place among his ex tant speeches belongs to that Against Eratosthenes (403 13.c.), one of the Thirty Tyrants, whom Lysias arraigns as the murderer of his brother Polemarchus. The speech is an eloquent and vivid picture of the reign of terror which the Thirty established at Athens; the concluding appeal, to both parties among the citizens, is specially powerful. Next in importance is the speech Against Agoratus (399 B.c.), one of our chief authorities for the internal history of Athens during the months which immediately followed the defeat at Aegospotami. The Olympiacus (388 B.c.) is a bril liant fragment, expressing the spirit of the festival at Olympia, and exhorting Greeks to unite against their common foes. The Plea for the Constitution (403 B.c.) is interesting for the manner in which it argues that the wellbeing of Athens—now stripped of empire—is bound up with the maintenance of democratic prin ciples. The speech For Mantitheus (392 B.c.) is a graceful and animated portrait of a young Athenian lirrein, making a spirited defence of his honour against the charge of disloyalty. The de fence For the Invalid is a humorous character-sketch. The speech Against Pancleon illustrates the intimate relations between Athens and Plataea, while it gives us some picturesque glimpses of Athe nian town life. The defence of the person who had been charged
with destroying a moria, or sacred olive, places us amidst the country life of Attica. And the speech Against Theomnestus de serves attention for its curious evidence of the way in which the ordinary vocabulary of Athens had changed between 600 and 400 B.C.
Thirty-four speeches (three fragmentary) have come down under the name of Lysias ; 127 more, now lost, are known from smaller frag ments or from titles. The ipcortmis in Plato's Phaedrus, pp. 23o E-234 has generally been regarded as Plato's own work; however, the certainty of this conclusion will be doubted by those who observe (I) the elaborate preparations made in the dialogue for a recital of the ipcorucOs which shall be verbally exact and (2) the closeness of the criticism made upon it. If the satirist were merely analysing his own composition, such criticism would have little point. Lysias is the earliest writer who is known to have composed kpwrowt, it is as representing both rhetoric and a false g pcos that he is the object of attack in the Phaedrus.
All mss. of Lysias yet collated have been derived, as H. Sauppe first showed, from the Codex Palatinus X: (Heidelberg). The next most valuable ms. is the Laurentianus C (15th century), which I. Bekker chiefly followed. Speaking generally, we may say that these two mss. are the only two which carry much weight where the text is seriously corrupt. In Oratt. i.—ix. Bekker occasionally con sulted II other mss., most of which contain only the above nine speeches: viz., Marciani F, G, I, K (Venice) ; Laurentiani D, E (Florence) ; Vaticani M, N; U, V; Urbinas 0.
Editio princeps, Aldus (Venice, 1513) ; by I. Bekker (1823) and W. S. Dobson (1828) in Oratores Attici; C. Scheibe (1852) and T. Thalheim (1901, Teubner series, bibl.) ; C. G. Cobet (4th ed., by J. J. Hartman, 1905) ; with variorum notes, by J. J. Reiske (1772). Editions of select speeches by J. H. Bremi (1845) ; R. Rauchenstein (1848, revised by C. Fuhr, 1880-81) ; H. Frohberger (1866-71) ; H. van Herwerden (1863) ; A. Weidner (1888) ; E. S. Shuckburgh (1882) ; A. Westermann and W. Binder (1887-9o) ; G. P. Bristol (1892), M. H. Morgan (1895), C. D. Adams (19o5), all three pub lished in America. There is a special lexicon to Lysias by D. H. Holmes (Bonn, 1895). See also Jebb, Attic Orators (1893) and Selections from the Attic Orators (2nd ed., 1888) and F. Blass, Die Attische Beredsamkeit (2nd ed., 1887-98) ; W. L. Devries, Ethopoiia. A rhetorical study of the types of character in the orations of Lysias (Baltimore, 1892). (R. C. J.; X.)