Source edition
Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a rhetorical declamation composed in the form of a speech for a fictional court case. The speaker claims the reward of a tyrannicide after killing the tyrant’s son, an act which subsequently drove the despairing tyrant himself to commit suicide. Standing in court, the protagonist recounts the cruelty of the former dual tyranny and emphasizes that the son was the actual ruler and the root of all evil. When opponents object that he did not kill the tyrant directly, he counters that the one who provided the cause of death is legally equivalent to the killer. He dramatically depicts the tragic scene of the father's self-destruction upon discovering his son's corpse, presenting it as the culmination of his own perfect plan that restored freedom and democracy.