Lucian, Tyrannicida, Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator), 1

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[1] Two tyrants—a father advanced in years, a son in the prime of life, waiting only to step into his nefarious heritage—have fallen by my hand on a single day: I come before this court, claiming but one reward for my twofold service. My case is unique. With one blow I have rid you of two monsters: with my sword I slew the son; grief for the son slew the father. The misdeeds of the tyrant are sufficiently punished: he has lived to see his son perish untimely; and—wondrous sequel!— the tyrant’s own hand has freed us from tyranny. I slew the son, and used his death to slay another: in his life he shared the iniquities of his father; in his death, so far as in him lay, he was a parricide.

Tyrannicida. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.

Current edition Perseus

The Tyrannicide (English) (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 2. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Editions (1)

Τυραννοκτόνος Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).) — 1 focus

[1] δύο τυράννους ἀποκτείνας, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, μιᾶς ἡμέρας, τὸν μὲν ἤδη παρηβηκότα, τὸν δὲ ἀκμάζοντα καὶ πρὸς διαδοχὴν τῶν ἀδικημάτων ἑτοιμότερον, ἥκω μίαν ὅμως ἐπʼ ἀμφοτέροις αἰτήσων δωρεὰν μόνος τῶν πώποτε τυραννοκτόνων πληγῇ μιᾷ δύο πονηροὺς ἀποσκευασάμενος καὶ φονεύσας τὸν μὲν παῖδα τῷ ξίφει, τὸν πατέρα δὲ τῇ πρὸς τὸν υἱὸν φιλοστοργίᾳ. ὁ μὲν οὖν τύραννος ἀνθʼ ὧν ἐποίησεν ἱκανὴν ἡμῖν δέδωκε τιμωρίαν, ζῶν μὲν τὸν υἱὸν ἐπιδὼν προανῃρημένον παρὰ τὴν τελευτήν, τελευταῖον δὲ ἠναγκασμένος, τὸ παραδοξότατον, αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ γενέσθαι τυραννοκτόνος. ὁ παῖς δὲ ὁ ἐκείνου τέθνηκεν μὲν ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ, ὑπηρέτησε δέ μοι καὶ ἀποθανὼν πρὸς ἄλλον φόνον, ζῶν¹ μὲν συναδικῶν τῷ πατρί, μετὰ θάνατον δὲ πατροκτονήσας, ὡς ἐδύνατο.

Translations (1)

The Tyrannicide Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).) — 1 focus

[1] Two tyrants, gentlemen of the jury,¹ have been done to death by me in a single day, one already past his prime, the other in the ripeness of his years and in better case to take up wrongdoing in his turn. Yet I have come to claim but one reward for both, as the only tyrant-slayer of all time who has done away with two malefactors at a single blow, killing the son with the sword and the father by means of his affection for his son. The tyrant has paid us a sufficient penalty for what he did, for while he still lived he saw his son, prematurely slain, in the toils of death, and at last (a thing incomparably strange) he himself was constrained to become his own executioner. And his son not only met death at my hands, but even after death assisted me to slay another; for though while he still lived he shared his father’s crimes, after his death he slew his father as best he might.

Lucian Tyrannicida 1

Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator)

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