Polemarchus

Polemarchus (d. 404 BC) was the son of Cephalus of Syracuse. He had two brothers, Lysias and Euthydemus, and a sister who married Brachyllus. Polemarchus and Lysias traveled to Thurii when the former was 15 years old.

Polemarchus was an Athenian philosopher and like his brother, singled out by the Thirty Tyrants for being a wealthy metic. Unlike his brother, he did not manage to escape and was executed. Melobius, one of the Thirty Tyrants, snatched the golden earings from Polemarchus' wife. After Polemarchus' death, the Thirty forbade his family from holding a funeral in any of their houses.

Plato's Republic is set at Polemarchus' house in the Piraeus, which was located next to their shield manufacturing store that employed 120 skilled slaves. Polemarchus himself speaks briefly in Book 1 of the Republic.

References

• Lysias, 12.17-19
• Plato, Phaedrus, 257b
• Plato, Republic

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