Critias

• one of the thirty tyrants at Athens, Cic. Tusc. 1, 40, 96; id. de Or. 2, 22, 93; Nep. Thras. 2, 7.

(Κριτίας).

1. Son of Dropides, a contemporary and relation of Solon's. He lived to the age of more than 90 years. His descendant Critias, the son of Callaeschrus, is introduced in the " Timaeus" of Plato (pp. 20-25), as repeating from the old man's account the fable of the once mighty Atlantis, professing to have been derived by Solon from the priests of Egypt. (Comp. Plat. Charm. pp. 155, 157, ad fin.)

2. Son of Callaeschrus, and grandson of the above. He was one of the pupils of Socrates, by whose instructions he profited but little in a moral point of view, and, together with Alcibiades, gave a colour by his life to the charge against the philosopher of corrupting the youth. Xenophon says, that he sought the company of Socrates, not from any desire of real improvement, but because he wished, for political purposes, to gain skill in confounding an adversary. We learn, however, from the same authority, that he lived a temperate life as long as his connexion with his great master lasted. (Xen. Mem. 1.2. §§ 12-18, 39.) From a fragment of Critias himself (apud Plut. Alc. 33) it appears that he was mainly instrumental in procuring the recall of Alcibiades from banishment. At the time of the murder of the generals who had been victorious at Arginusae, B. C. 406, we find him in Thessaly fomenting a sedition of the Penestae against their lords, and endeavouring to set up democracy in conjunction with one Prometheus, which has been supposed by some to be a surname of Jason of Pherae. According to Xenophon, he had been banished by a sentence of the people, and this it was which afterwards made him so rancorous in his tyranny. (Xen. Mem. 1.2.24, Hell. 2.3. §§ 15, 36; Schn. ad loc. On his return to Athens he became leader of the oligarchical party, and was chosen to be one of the body called Ephori, probably not a public and legal office, but one instituted among themselves by the oligarchs for the better promotion of their ends. (Lys. c. Erat. p. 124; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. iv. p. 160; Hermann, Polit. Ant. § 168.) He was one of the 30 tyrants established in B. C. 404, was conspicuous above all his colleagues for rapacity and cruelty, sparing not even Socrates himself, and took the lead in the prosecution of Theramenes when he set himself against the continuance of the reign of terror. He was slain at the battle of Munychia in the same year, fighting against Thrasybulus and the exiles. (Xen. Hell. 2.3. §§ 2, 15-56, 4. §§ 1-19, Mem. 1.2. §§ 12-38; Diod. 14.4; Plat. Apol. p. 32c; Cic. Tusc. Quaest. 1.40.) Works Speeches

Cicero tells us (De Orat. 2.22), that some speeches of Critias were still extant in his time, and speaks of them as marked by the vigour of matter which distinguished those of Pericles and by a greater copiousness of style A work of his on politics is also frequently referred to by several writers (Athen. 11.463f; Ael. VH 10.13, 17; Clem. Alex. Strom. 6.2; comp. Plat. Tim. p. 20). Poetic Works

Some fragments of his elegies are still extant, and he is supposed by some to have been the author of the Peirithoüs and the Sisyphus (a satyric drama), which are commonly reckoned among the lost plays of Euripides; a tragedy named "Atalanta" is likewise ascribed to him. (Ath. 1. p. 28b, x. p. 432e, xi. p. 496b; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. ii. pp. 252, 254, 294.) Assessment

As we might suppose à priori from his character, he was but a dabbler and a dilettante in philosophy, a circumstance which Plato, with his delicate satire, by no means loses sight of (see Protag. p. 336), insomuch that it was said of him (Schol. ad Plat. Tim. p. 20), that he was ἰδιώτης μὲν ἐν φιλοσόφοις, φιλόσοφος δὲ ἐν ἰδιώταις, "a lord among wits, and a wit among lords." Edition

The remains of his poems have been edited separately by N. Bach, Leipzig, 1827. [E.E]

a very celebrated Athenian artist, whose workmanship belongs to the more ancient school, the description of which by Lucian (Rhetor. Praecept. 100.9) bears an exact resemblance to the statues of Aegina. For this reason, and because the common reading of Pliny (Plin. Nat. 34.19, in.), " Critias Nestocles," is manifestly corrupt, and the correction of H. Junius, " Nesiotes," is borne out by the Bamberg manuscript, Critias was considered by Müller (Aegin. p. 102) to have been a citizen of Aegina. But as Pausanias (6.3.2) calls him Ἀττικός, Thiersch (Epoch. p. 129) assigns his origin to one of the little islands near the coast of Attica, and Müller (Wien. Jahrb. xxxviii. p. 276) to the island of Lemnos, where the Athenians established a cleruchia. All these theories were overthrown by two inscriptions found near the Acropolis, one of which belongs to a statue of Epicharinus, who had won a prize running in arms, mentioned by Pausanias (1.23.11), and should probably be restored thus: Ἐπιχαρῖνος ἀνέθηκεν.. Κρίτιος καὶ Νησιώτης ἐποιησάτην.

From this we learn, first, that the artist's name was Critios, not Critias; then that Nesiotes in Pliny's text is a proper name. This Nesiotes was probably so far the assistant of the greater master, that he superintended the execution in bronze of the models of Critios. The most celebrated of their works were, the statues of Hannodius and Aristogeiton on the Acropolis. These were erected B. C. 477. (Marm. Oxon. Epoch. lv.) Critias was, therefore, probably older than Phidias, but lived as late as B. C. 444, to see the greatness of his rival. (Plin. l.c.)

(Lucian, Philosoph. 18; Paus. 1.8.3; Ross, Kunstblatt, 1840, No. 11.) [L.U]

(Κριτίας). An Athenian, a disciple of Socrates and Gorgias of Leontini. He was one of the most accomplished men of his time, and was distinguished as a poet and an orator. But he is best known as the chief of the Thirty Tyrants (q.v.), in defence of whose cause against the Liberators he fell in B.C. 403. He was the author of several tragedies. Some fragments of his poems have survived, the longest being from his political elegies. He seems to have had the gift of expression, but to have written in a harsh style.

• Paus. 1.8.5, Paus. 1.23.9, Paus. 6.3.5