A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Λυσίας), an Attic orator, was born at Athens in B. C. 458; he was the son of Cephalus, who was a native of Syracuse, and had taken up his abode at Athens, on the invitation of Pericles. (Dionys. Lys. 1; Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 835 ; Phot. Bibl. Cod. 262, p. 488, &c.; Suid. s. v. Λυσίας; Lys. c. Eratosth. § 4; Cic. Brut. 16.) When he was little more than fifteen years old, in B. C. 443, Lysias and his two (some say three) brothers joined the Athenians who went as colonists to Thurii in Italy. He there completed his education under the instruction of two Syracusans, Tisias and Nicias, and afterwards enjoyed great esteem among the Thurians, and even seems to have taken part in the administration of the young republic. From a passage of Aristotle (ap. Cic. Brut. 12), we learn that he devoted some time to the teaching of rhetoric, though it is uncertain whether he entered upon this profession while yet at Thurii, or did not commence till after his return to Athens, where we know that Isaeus was one of his pupils. (Plut. l.c. p. 839; Phot. Bibl. Cod. p. 490a.) In B. C. 411, when he had attained the age of forty-seven, after the defeat of the Athenians in Sicily, all persons, both in Sicily and in the south of Italy, who were suspected of favouring the cause of the Athenians, were exposed to persecutions; and Lysias, together with 300 others, was expelled by the Spartan party from Thurii, as a partisan of the Athenians. He now returned to Athens; but there too great misfortunes awaited him, for during the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, after the battle of Aegospotami, he was looked upon as an enemy of the government, his large property was confiseated, and he was thrown into prison, with a view to be put to death. But he escaped from Athens, and took refuge at Megara. (Plut. Phot. ll. cc.) His attachment to Athens, however, was so great, that when Thrasybulus, at the head of the patriots, marched from Phyle to liberate their country, Lysias joyfully sacrificed all that yet remained of his fortune, for he sent the patriots 2000 drachmas and 200 shields, and engaged a band of 302 mercenaries. Thrasybulus procured him the Athenian franchise, as a reward for his generosity; but Archinus afterwards induced the people to declare it void, because it had been conferred without a probuleuma; and Lysias henceforth lived at Athens as an isoteles, occupying himself, as it appears, solely with writing judicial speeches for others, and died in B. C. 378, at the age of eighty. (Dionys. Lys. 12; Plut. l.c. p. 836; Phot. l.c. p. 490.)

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