The first volume of Stephen Todd’s commentary on Lysias’ speeches appeared in 2007 (A Commentary on Lysias, Speeches 1–11 (Oxford)); this is the second. Like the first, the present volume is a major contribution to scholarship on Athenian law court oratory. It offers a strong foundation for future scholarly work on these five speeches (some of which have had no published commentary in English since the nineteenth century), and it will be an indispensable reference point for anyone looking at any of them for any purpose.
The second volume’s organization largely matches that of the first (though there is no general introduction this time, only a brief preface). Each speech in turn receives an introduction to the main interpretative issues associated with it (with the linked speeches 14 and 15 sharing one), a translation (alongside Christopher Carey’s Oxford Classical Text) and then the commentary proper. Todd’s consistently accurate translations reflect (but do not simply reproduce) those he published in the relevant volume of the Texas ‘Oratory of Classical Greece’ series (Lysias (Austin 2000)); that book’s very helpful introductions and notes are drawn on and sometimes adjusted or corrected in the present work.
This second volume has been especially eagerly awaited because it includes one of Lysias’ best-known and most intriguing speeches, Against Eratosthenes (speech 12). Along with speech 13 (Against Agoratus), Against Eratosthenes is central to our understanding of the oligarchic regime of the Thirty at Athens. Todd’s treatments of both speeches are authoritative while also indicating where further interpretative work on key aspects of the texts and their contexts (especially literary ones) might concentrate. His work complements Cinzia Bearzot’s primarily historical commentary on these two speeches in Lisia e la tradizione su Teramene (Milan 1997), as it is geared to those interested in the rhetorical strategies of the speeches as well. It is also necessarily more up to date than Bearzot’s work, drawing on recent scholarly developments, though a notable characteristic of both volumes of Todd’s commentary to date is the author’s attention to what can be gained from close engagement with both less and more familiar nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholarship as well.
Contextual aspects receive ample discussion throughout, both in the introductions and the commentary sections. For example, readers approaching speeches 12 and 13 are offered (in the case of speech 12) detailed introductory coverage (6–32) of a number of contentious issues of interpretation of the Thirty’s rule and its aftermath, where Todd pays meticulous attention to the evidential problems involved. He also offers an excellent prosopographical account of the individuals mentioned in speech 13, with the speech’s wider context in view (241–48). The introductory overviews of both speeches’ persuasive strategies (38–43, 248–53), by contrast, feel slightly brief and over-selective in the rhetorical aspects that are introduced: much of the substance of the rhetorical analysis is reserved for the commentary sections proper, where it can be tied to specifics. Todd’s introduction to the rhetorical profile of speech 16 (606–12) is much better-proportioned relative to this speech’s (excellent) introduction as a whole (595–614). Speeches 14 and 15 bring with them the question of their relationships with extant speeches by Isocrates and pseudo-Andocides, and Todd’s coverage here is concise and balanced (463, 465, 474–79). Indeed his economical and acute mediation of complex material is a feature of the whole volume. Specialists are admittedly the group of readers best served in general, but Todd confines much supporting detail (including granular critique of older commentaries) to the numerous and often very full footnotes, making the core content more widely accessible (though non-specialist readers may still wish to read Todd’s succinct speech introductions in his 2000 translation volume first). Readers working with Lysias’ speeches primarily as texts for Greek language learning will probably need more specific support than Todd offers them in the commentary sections here. They are nonetheless bound to have their understanding of a given speech’s expressive framework enriched by his precise discussions of a wide variety of relevant linguistic and rhetorical features, including individual technical terms (stylistic aspects as such tend to be less of a priority for comment). Production quality is high, and the book’s clear internal referencing system makes it straightforward to use. Like the first volume, it is also equipped with four indexes (including an excellent index of personal names), further enhancing its utility as a reference work.
In summary, Stephen Usher’s judgement in JHS that the first volume of this commentary would be ‘very unlikely to be superseded in the foreseeable future’ holds true for this second volume. Anyone interested in Lysias, Athenian oratory or late fifth- and early fourth-century Athens will benefit from the great wealth of insights to be found here.
