Lycurgus

This is the fifth volume in the Oratory of Classical Greece. This series presents all of the surviving speeches from the late fifth and fourth centuries B.C. in new translations prepared by classical scholars who are at the forefront of the discipline. These translations are especially designed for the needs and interests of today's undergraduates, Greekless scholars in other disciplines, and the general public. Classical oratory is an invaluable resource for the study of ancient Greek life and culture. The speeches offer evidence on Greek moral views, social and economic conditions, political and social ideology, law and legal procedure, and other aspects of Athenian culture that have been largely ignored: women and family life, slavery, and religion, to name just a few. This volume combines the surviving speeches of three orators who stand at the end of the classical period. Dinarchus was not an Athenian, but he was called on to write speeches in connection with a corruption scandal (the Harpalus affair) that put an end to the career of Demosthenes. His speeches thus raise many of the vital issues surrounding the Macedonian conquest of Athens and the final years of Athenian democracy. Hyperides was an important public figure who was involved in many of the events described by Dinarchus and Lycurgus. His speeches open a window into many interesting facets of Athenian life. Lycurgus was one of the leading politicians in Athens during the reign of Alexander the Great and put Athenian public finances on a more secure footing. He was also a deeply religious man, who tried to revive Athenian patriotism after the crushing defeat at Chaeronea.

This book offers a new interpretation of Aeschylus’ tragic tetralogy Lycurgeia and Naevius’ tragedy Lycurgus, the two most important texts that shaped the tradition of the myth about Lycurgus’ resistance against the god Dionysus.

The LYCURGUS Cup is a literary fiction painted on the authentic historical tapestry of the Eastern Mediterranean in the year 400. It is an adventure story, but constructed around a number of theological problems of the day. The central character, Veritus, is a student from Corduba who has come to Ephesus to interview a powerful but dying Roman bureaucrat. Several attempts are made on his life, but why? By whom? He soon finds that he is embroiled in an undeclared war of theology. He becomes a pawn in this deadly game as he agrees to set a trap for the Capoderms, a group of intolerant "protectors of the faith." Instead of closing the trap, he finds himself betrayed and at the point of death in a wine cellar on the Sinai. There, during that night, he goes through a transformation, a personal Pentecost, during which he is given the Faith by the Holy Spirit. He emerges as a man of faith and is extricated from the hands of the evil Capoderms by a remarkable sequence of events.