Olympic Oration (Lysias)

The Olympic Oration (Ancient Greek: Ολυμπιακός, romanized: Olympiakos) was one of the epideictic speeches delivered by the Athenian orator Lysias (5th/4th century BC). According to the writings of Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), it was recited by Lysias during the 98th Olympiad in 388 BC, one year before the Peace of Antalcidas, which marked the end of the Corinthian War.

In this speech, Lysias appealed for the unification and joint military action of all Greeks against Dionysius I, the tyrant of Syracuse in the West, and against Artaxerxes II of Persia in the East. He viewed both as the two greatest threats to Greek freedom during that period.

As a rhetorical work, Olympiakos stands as one of the key examples of political expression of the Panhellenic idea, alongside similar speeches by Gorgias, Isocrates, and Xenophon.

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