Lycurgus of Athens
Encyclopedia
Lycurgus was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators
included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium
and Aristarchus of Samothrace
in the third century BCE.
Lycurgus was born at Athens
about 396 BC, and was the son of Lycophron, who belonged to the noble family of the Eteobutadae. He should not be confused with the quasi-mythological Spartan lawgiver of the same name
.
of Plato
, but afterwards became one of the disciples of Isocrates
, and entered upon public life at a comparatively early age. He was appointed three successive times to the office of manager of the public revenue, and held his office each time for four years, beginning with 337 BC. The conscientiousness with which he discharged the duties of this office enabled him to raise the public revenue to the sum of 1200 talents
.
This, as well as the unwearied activity with which he laboured both for increasing the security and splendour of the city of Athens, gained for him the universal confidence of the people to such a degree, that when Alexander the Great demanded, in 335 BC, among the other opponents of the Macedon
ian interest, the surrender of Lycurgus also, who had, in conjunction with Demosthenes
, exerted himself against the intrigues of Macedonia even as early as the reign of Philip
, the people of Athens clung to him, and boldly refused to deliver him up.
He was further entrusted with the superintendence (φυλακη) of the city and the keeping of public discipline; and the severity with which he watched over the conduct of the citizens became almost proverbial.
He had a noble taste for every thing that was beautiful and grand, as he showed by the buildings he erected or completed, both for the use of the citizens and the ornament of the city. His integrity was so great, that even private persons deposited with him large sums of money, which they wished to be kept in safety. He was also the author of several legislative enactments, of which he enforced the strictest observance. One of his laws forbade women to ride in chariot
s at the celebration of the mysteries; and when his own wife transgressed this law, she was fined; another ordained that bronze statues should be erected to Aeschylus
, Sophocles
, and Euripides
, that copies of their tragedies
should be made and preserved in the public archives.
The Lives of the Ten Orators erroneously ascribed to Plutarch
are full of anecdotes and characteristic features of Lycurgus, from which we must infer that he was reputed one of the noblest specimens of old Attic virtue, and a worthy contemporary of Demosthenes
. He often appeared as a successful accuser in the Athenian courts, but he himself was as often accused by others, though he always, and even in the last days of his life, succeeded in silencing his enemies.
Thus we know that he was attacked by Philinus
, Dinarchus
, Aristogeiton
, Menesaechmus
, and others. He died while holding the office of director (επιστατης) of the theatre of Dionysus
, in 323 BC. A fragment of an inscription, containing the account which he rendered to the state of his administration of the finances, is still extant. At his death he left behind three sons, including one named Abron or Habron, by his wife Callisto, who were severely persecuted by Menesaechmus and Thrasycles, but were defended by Hypereides
and Democles
. Among the honours which were conferred upon him, we may mention, that the archon Anaxicrates ordered a bronze statue to be erected to him in the Ceramicus
, and that he and his eldest son should be entertained in the prytaneum
at the public expense.
The ancients mention fifteen orations of Lycurgus as extant in their days, but we know the titles of at least twenty. With the exception, however, of one entire oration against Leocrates, and some fragments of others, all the rest are lost, so that our knowledge of his skill and style as an orator is very incomplete. Dionysius
and other ancient critics draw particular attention to the ethical tendency of his orations, but they censure the harshness of his metaphor
s, the inaccuracy in the arrangement of his subject, and his frequent digressions.
His style was said to be noble and grand, but neither elegant nor pleasing. His works seem to have been commented upon by Didymus of Alexandria
. Theon
mentions two declamation
s, Encomium of Helen and Deploration of Eurybatus, as the works of Lycurgus; but this Lycurgus, if the name be correct, must be a different personage from the Attic orator. The oration Against Leocrates, which was delivered in 330 BC, was first printed by Aldus Manutius
in his edition of the Attic orators.
Attic orators
The ten Attic orators were considered the greatest orators and logographers of the classical era . They are included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace.-The Alexandrian "Canon of Ten":* Aeschines* Andocides* Antiphon* Demosthenes*...
included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium
Aristophanes of Byzantium
Aristophanes of Byzantium was a Greek scholar, critic and grammarian, particularly renowned for his work in Homeric scholarship, but also for work on other classical authors such as Pindar and Hesiod. Born in Byzantium about 257 BC, he soon moved to Alexandria and studied under Zenodotus,...
and Aristarchus of Samothrace
Aristarchus of Samothrace
Aristarchus of Samothrace was a grammarian noted as the most influential of all scholars of Homeric poetry. He was the librarian of the library of Alexandria and seems to have succeeded his teacher Aristophanes of Byzantium in that role.He established the most historically important critical...
in the third century BCE.
Lycurgus was born at Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
about 396 BC, and was the son of Lycophron, who belonged to the noble family of the Eteobutadae. He should not be confused with the quasi-mythological Spartan lawgiver of the same name
Lycurgus (Sparta)
Lycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi...
.
Life
In his early life he devoted himself to the study of philosophy in the schoolAcademy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, but afterwards became one of the disciples of Isocrates
Isocrates
Isocrates , an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works....
, and entered upon public life at a comparatively early age. He was appointed three successive times to the office of manager of the public revenue, and held his office each time for four years, beginning with 337 BC. The conscientiousness with which he discharged the duties of this office enabled him to raise the public revenue to the sum of 1200 talents
Talent (weight)
The "talent" was one of several ancient units of mass, as well as corresponding units of value equivalent to these masses of a precious metal. It was approximately the mass of water required to fill an amphora. A Greek, or Attic talent, was , a Roman talent was , an Egyptian talent was , and a...
.
This, as well as the unwearied activity with which he laboured both for increasing the security and splendour of the city of Athens, gained for him the universal confidence of the people to such a degree, that when Alexander the Great demanded, in 335 BC, among the other opponents of the Macedon
Macedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....
ian interest, the surrender of Lycurgus also, who had, in conjunction with Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
, exerted himself against the intrigues of Macedonia even as early as the reign of Philip
Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon "friend" + ἵππος "horse" — transliterated ; 382 – 336 BC), was a king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.-Biography:...
, the people of Athens clung to him, and boldly refused to deliver him up.
He was further entrusted with the superintendence (φυλακη) of the city and the keeping of public discipline; and the severity with which he watched over the conduct of the citizens became almost proverbial.
He had a noble taste for every thing that was beautiful and grand, as he showed by the buildings he erected or completed, both for the use of the citizens and the ornament of the city. His integrity was so great, that even private persons deposited with him large sums of money, which they wished to be kept in safety. He was also the author of several legislative enactments, of which he enforced the strictest observance. One of his laws forbade women to ride in chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
s at the celebration of the mysteries; and when his own wife transgressed this law, she was fined; another ordained that bronze statues should be erected to Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
, Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, and Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
, that copies of their tragedies
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
should be made and preserved in the public archives.
The Lives of the Ten Orators erroneously ascribed to Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
are full of anecdotes and characteristic features of Lycurgus, from which we must infer that he was reputed one of the noblest specimens of old Attic virtue, and a worthy contemporary of Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
. He often appeared as a successful accuser in the Athenian courts, but he himself was as often accused by others, though he always, and even in the last days of his life, succeeded in silencing his enemies.
Thus we know that he was attacked by Philinus
Philinus of Athens
Philinus was an Athenian orator, a contemporary of Demosthenes and Lycurgus. He is mentioned by Demosthenes in his oration against Meidias, who calls him the son of Nicostratus, and says that he was trierarch with him. Harpocration mentions three orations of Philinus...
, Dinarchus
Dinarchus
Dinarchus or Dinarch was a logographer in Ancient Greece. He was the last of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace in the third century BC.A son of Sostratus , Dinarchus settled at Athens early in life, and...
, Aristogeiton
Aristogeiton (orator)
Aristogeiton was an Athenian orator and adversary of Demosthenes and Dinarchus. His father, Scydimus, died in prison, as he was a debtor of the state and unable to pay: his son, Aristogeiton, who inherited the debt, was likewise imprisoned for some time...
, Menesaechmus
Menesaechmus
Menesaechmus , an Athenian and an inveterate enemy of the orator Lycurgus, by whom he was impeached on a charge of impiety and convicted. When Lycurgus felt his end drawing near , he had himself brought into the council to give an account of his public conduct, and Menesaechmus was the only man who...
, and others. He died while holding the office of director (επιστατης) of the theatre of Dionysus
Theatre of Dionysus
The Theatre of Dionysus is a major open-air theatre and one of the earliest preserved in Athens. It was used for festivals in honor of the god Dionysus...
, in 323 BC. A fragment of an inscription, containing the account which he rendered to the state of his administration of the finances, is still extant. At his death he left behind three sons, including one named Abron or Habron, by his wife Callisto, who were severely persecuted by Menesaechmus and Thrasycles, but were defended by Hypereides
Hypereides
Hypereides or Hyperides was a logographer in Ancient Greece...
and Democles
Democles
Democles was an Athenian orator, and a contemporary of Demochares, among whose opponents he is mentioned. He was a disciple of Theophrastus, and is chiefly known as the defender of the children of Lycurgus against the calumnies of Moerocles and Menesaechmus...
. Among the honours which were conferred upon him, we may mention, that the archon Anaxicrates ordered a bronze statue to be erected to him in the Ceramicus
Kerameikon
Kerameikos is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient city walls, on both sides of the Dipylon Gate and by the banks of the Eridanos River...
, and that he and his eldest son should be entertained in the prytaneum
Prytaneum
Prytaneum and Prytanis . In general in ancient Greece, each state, city or village possessed its own central hearth and sacred fire, representing the unity and vitality of the community. The fire was kept alight continuously, tended by the king or members of his family...
at the public expense.
The ancients mention fifteen orations of Lycurgus as extant in their days, but we know the titles of at least twenty. With the exception, however, of one entire oration against Leocrates, and some fragments of others, all the rest are lost, so that our knowledge of his skill and style as an orator is very incomplete. Dionysius
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...
and other ancient critics draw particular attention to the ethical tendency of his orations, but they censure the harshness of his metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
s, the inaccuracy in the arrangement of his subject, and his frequent digressions.
His style was said to be noble and grand, but neither elegant nor pleasing. His works seem to have been commented upon by Didymus of Alexandria
Didymus Chalcenterus
Didymus Chalcenterus , ca. 63 BCE to 10 CE, was a Hellenistic Greek scholar and grammarian who flourished in the time of Cicero and Augustus.- Life :...
. Theon
Aelius Theon
Aelius Theon was an Alexandrian sophist and author of a collection of preliminary exercises for the training of orators. He probably lived and wrote in the mid to late 1st century AD and his treatise is the earliest treatment of these exercises...
mentions two declamation
Declamation
Grand National Tournament in Declamation is a public speaking event of the National Catholic Forensic League. One can qualify for the annual NCFL Grand National Tournament in Declamation through their local qualifying tournament...
s, Encomium of Helen and Deploration of Eurybatus, as the works of Lycurgus; but this Lycurgus, if the name be correct, must be a different personage from the Attic orator. The oration Against Leocrates, which was delivered in 330 BC, was first printed by Aldus Manutius
Aldus Manutius
Aldus Pius Manutius , the Latinised name of Aldo Manuzio —sometimes called Aldus Manutius, the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius, the Younger—was an Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice.His publishing legacy includes...
in his edition of the Attic orators.
External links
- Lycurgus, Against Leocrates (both Greek text and English translation at Perseus)