Eratosthenes (statesman)

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This article is about the ancient Athenian statesman of the fifth century BC. For the Greek scholar of the third century BC, see Eratosthenes.

Eratosthenes of Athens was one of the Thirty Tyrants elected to rule the city of Athens after the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC).

Having lost the war to the Spartans, the citizens of Athens elected thirty men as oligarchs. These Thirty instituted oppressive and highly exclusionary laws and instituted a political purge against Athenians who had been Spartan informers and collaborators during the long war. Eventually open hostilities between the Thirty and disenfranchised or disaffected Athenian citizens led to a coup d'etat in 403 B.C. that deposed them.

After the removal of the Thirty Tyrants from power, Lysias, one of the ten Attic orators, wrote Against Eratosthenes[1] as an indictment against Eratosthenes for the murder of his brother, Polemarchus. This speech remains one of the world's most famous orations and is identified by some historians as Lysias's personal best.

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  1. ^ Lysias, Speeches. Lysias with an English translation by W.R.M. Lamb, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930 (Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University)
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