Name your enemy: Lysias the metic vs the social network of power

Journal article

The speech Against Eratosthenes was composed for a private case in which Lysias sought retribution for the killing of his brother Polemarchus at the hands of the Thirty. Eratosthenes, Lysias’ target, belonged to the moderate faction of the regime at the time of the events, but was one of the two surviving members who had remained in Athens, where he was not particularly unpopular. Lysias thus needed to portray the Thirty as a close-knit, corporative group whose members were all to be held responsible and liable for collective crimes. In this connection, a striking feature of this speech is the high number and frequency of personal names. The high density of prosoponyms contributes to painting a vivid picture of the events and their context. In particular, the large cast of villains portrays the oligarchs as an extended but well-defined social network, cornering Lysias into a position of isolation. Theramenes, their mastermind, is in turn portrayed as a well-connected but ultimately solitary villain—the mirror image of the persecuted metic.

Authors: Vatri, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies
• Article number: qbaf035
• Publication date: 2026-01-20
• DOI: 10.1093/bics/qbaf035
• EISSN: 2041-5370
• ISSN: 0076-0730
• Language: English
• Keywords: Eratosthenes; Theramenes; Personal names; Thirty; Cognition