The work On Theramenes is a fragmentary Greek prose treatise known from a single excerpt preserved in the lexicon of Harpocration. It functions as an apologia for the Athenian politician Theramenes, who was executed in 404/3 BCE during the rule of the Thirty Tyrants. The text directly rebuts accusations made by his enemy Critias, a leading member of the oligarchic regime, and argues for the injustice of Theramenes's execution. It seeks to rehabilitate him as a political moderate unjustly killed by an extremist government, thereby engaging with the contemporary controversy over the conflict between moderation and oligarchic violence in late fifth-century Athens. The original treatise is lost and survives only as an anonymous citation; no independent manuscript tradition exists. Despite its fragmentary state, the work is a crucial piece of the immediate historiographical debate about Theramenes. It exemplifies the pro-Theramenean perspective attested in other historical sources and confirms the enduring polemical interest in his character and political fate in later antiquity.
| 1 | PAP. MICHIG. 5982 s. 21 p. edd. Herbert C. Youtie—Reinhold Merkel bach, ZPE 2, 1968, 161—169 [Taf. 3] (dazu A. Henrichs, ebd. 3, 1968, 161—168; A. Andrewes, ebd. 6, 1970, 35—38; Raphael Sealey, ebd. 16, 1975, 279—288):[...]ˈ τοὺς Λακεδαιμονί[ους, ἀν]ˈτέλεγον αὐτῶι φάσκ[ον]ˈτες ἁπάντων ἀτοπώ[τα]ˈτον αὐτὸν διαπράττεσ[θαι]· ˈ τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ἄλλους τ[ἀ]ˈπόρρητα ποιεῖσθαι πρὸ[ς] ˈ τοὺς πολε[μ]ίους, ἐκεῖν[ον] ˈ δὲ περὶ ὧν τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ˈ ἐρεῖν μέλλει{ν} ταῦτα π[ρὸς] ˈ τοὺς πολίτας λέγειν μὴ τολμᾶν. ὁ δὲ ˈ πρὸ[ς τ]οῦτο παρελθὼν ε[ἶ]ˈπε[ν· ‘τὸ] πλεῖστον τοῦ δέˈον[τος ἁ]μαρτάνουσιν ˈ [οἱ] ῥήτορ[ες]. εἰ μὲν γ[ὰρ ἐ]φ’ ἡˈ[μῖν] ἦν‘, ἔφη, ‘τὴν [εἰρήνην ]ˈ[ ]ι, οὐδὲν δ[ι]έφερεν ἂ[ν ὑˈμᾶ]ς ἀκούειν ἐφ’ οἷς αὐ[τὴν ˈ ἡγ]οῦμαι τῆι πόλει ποιή[σαˈσθ]αι καλῶς ἔχειν· ἐπειˈ[δὴ δ]ὲ οἱ πολέμιοι κύριοι ˈ [κα]θεσ[τᾶ]σι[ν, ο]ὐκ ἀσφαλές ˈ [ἐσ]τιν εἰκῆ[ι πε]ρὶ αὐτῆς λέˈ[γει]ν. οὐ γὰρ δηλονότι τῶ[ν ˈ διδ]ομένων αὐτοῖς παˈ[ρ’ ἡμ]ῶν οὐθὲ[ν ἀξ]ιώσουˈ[σιν] ἀφαιρεῖν, ἕτερα δὲ πρὸς ˈ [τούτ]ο[ις] ἐπιτάττειν ἐπιˈ[χειρ]ήσουσι. τὴν οὖν αἵρεˈ[σιν] οὗτοι μὲν ἐπ’ ἐκείνοις ˈ [θήσ]ουσιν, ἐγὼ δ’ ἐφ’ ὑμῖν. ˈ [ ... ] . υ . [ . ] γὰρ τὰ [π]αρ’ ἐκείνων ˈ [ ...... ] . αντα [ἐν τ]ῶ〈ι〉 βουλεύˈ[σα]σθαι περὶ αὐτῶν.‘ ὑπολαˈ[β]ὼν δὲ ὀρθῶς λέγειν αὐˈ[τὸ]ν ὁ δῆμος πρεσβευ[τὴ]ν ˈ [αὐ]τοκράτορα τὴν εἰρήνην ˈ [πο]ιησόμενον ἀπέστειˈ[λε]ν. Θηραμένης δὲ παραυˈ[τίκα] μὲν ὡς ἡ〈ι〉ρέθη πρὸςˈ [Λύσα]νδρ[ο]ν ἔπλευσεν εἰς ˈ [Σάμ]ον καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ˈ [ἐπ]εχείρει πράττειν τὰ ˈ [περ]ὶ τῆς εἰρήνης. ἐπειδὴ ˈ [δὲ Λ]ύσανδρος αὐτὸν ἐκ[έˈλευ]εν Λα[κεδαιμο]νίο[ις... ...] εἰς τὸν . [ ]ˈ[ ] .. ἱερῶν . [ ]ˈ[ ]ν πόλεω[ν ]ˈ[ ] . ων καὶ τ[ ]ˈ[ ]ν δύο μ . [ ]ˈ[ ]ν τριήρω[ν ]ˈ[ π]έμψας [] |