LYS'IAS, b. Athens, B. C. 458. He was one of the ten Athenian orators, and the con temporary of the most distinguished men of Athens—Thucydides, Xenophon, Euripides, and Sophoeles. His father was a man of wealth, was intimate with Pericles and Soc rates, and his house was the scene of the celebrated dialogue bf Plato's Republic. At the age of 15 Lysias went to Thuritim, in the s. of Italy, with an Athenian colony, acconipanied by the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, remaining there 32 years, and studying the art of eloquence under the, two Syracusans, Tisias and Nisias. After the failure of the Athenian expedition in Sicily, he was obliged to leave Italy. Returning to Athens in 411, he carried on with his brother Polemarelms a large manufactory of shields, in which they employed 120 slaves. Athens fell into the hands of Lysander, and 30 tyrants were appointed to administer the affairs of the city. The wealth of the two brothers excited the cupidity of the tyrants; their house was attacked by an artned force while they were entertaining some friends at supper, their property seized, Pole marchus put to death, and Lysias, by bribing some of the soldiers, escaped to Megara.
In his oration against Eratosthenes, one of the 30 tyrants, lie has given a graphic sketch of his escape. At Megara lie assisted Thrasybulus to free his country from the tyrants, supplying him with a large sinn of money from his ONVII resources, and hiring 300 men at his own expense. The tyrants having been expelled, Lysias returned to Athens in 403, where lie began his career as an orator. Of the 475 orations ascribed to him, only 235 are regarded as genuine, and only 34 are extant. Nonplus of Halicarnassus, in his critique of his works and style, says: " He was particularly distinguished for sim plicity and precision, as well as for the fidelity with which he depicts the manners of the age." " In narrating events or circunistances," he considers Lysias " superior to all the orators." Quintillian compares him to " a clear and pure rivulet rather than to a majestic river." Cicero regards him as " the model of a perfect orator." The best editions of the orations of Lysias are those of J. Taylor (London, 1739), and of Reiske (Leipsic, 1722). Some of his orations have been translated into English by Dr. Gillies.