Dissertation
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DISSERTATION Titel der Dissertation „Studies in the Prosopography of the Four Hundred Oligarchy in Athens 411 B.C.” Verfasser Nikolaos Karkavelias angestrebter akademischer Grad Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) Wien, 2014 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 792 310 Dissertationsgebiet lt. Studienblatt: Alte Geschichte und Altertumskunde Betreuer: ao. Univ.-Prof. Doz. Mag. Dr. Herbert Heftner Contents Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 Introduction 5 Alexicles 25 Andron 42 Archeptolemus 57 Aristarchus 79 Aristocrates Skelliou 89 Cleitophon 124 Dieitrephes 147 Laispodias Andronymios 162 Melesias 178 Onomacles 181 Phrynichus Stratonidou Deiradiotes 188 Theramenes Hagnonos Steirieus 250 Thymochares 272 Appendix 1: Was Hippodamus of Miletos Archeptolemus father? 279 Appendix 2: The prytany and archon year of 412/11 295 Appendix 3: The chronology of Peisander’s mission to Athens re-visited: Thucydides 8.53-54 297 Appendix 4: εύθύς in Thucydides 316 Appendix 5: Beyond the Four Hundred 317 Afterthought: The social origin of the known members of the Four Hundred and their motives for joining the movement 319 Bibliography 324 Vita 354 2 Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful to Dr. Christos Zapheiropoulos for his warm support and encouragement back in 1997 to undertake the long project that this thesis has proven to be. During my studies at the University of Vienna I was fortunate enough to attend classes of professors Fritz Mitthof, Thomas Corsten, Bernhard Palme and Walter Pohl; they became my mentors and guides to the marvellous world of antiquity and I very much thank them for this unforgettable experience. I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Herbert Heftner for the enthusiastic welcoming and all the unconditional support and help which he so lavishly has offered to me all these years. His erudition and expertise in the field have guided me through the labyrinthine nature of the relevant scholarship, while our discussions have honed my research skills to a great degree. My partner Sabine and our newborn son Christos have been a constant source of inspiration and have given me the necessary strength to bring this thesis to completion. Vienna, November 2014 3 Abstract The “Studies in the Prosopography of the Four Hundred Oligarchy in Athens 411 B.C.” investigates the lives of thirteen members of the first oligarchy which ruled Athens for a short period, less than four months, in the summer of 411. Various classes of evidence, from historiography to comedy, tragedy and inscriptions have been critically interpreted with a view to revealing for us a narrative that tells the story of how these men happened to get entangled in one of the most bizarre but also obscure episodes of the history of Classical Athens. This narrative might be necessarily supplemented with conjecture since our sources are scanty, but this conjecture is informed by our knowledge of fifth-century Athenian legal, constitutional, anthropological and sociological frameworks. In this study an effort has been made not to attach preconceived ideological labels to those individuals whose family history and career-to the extent that our sources allow us- are being scrutinised. The picture that emerges is that of a small group of men with strong oligarchic views who managed to take control of the decision making process within the movement and imposed their will on a majority of loosely connected and unorganised individuals. This is in effect a coup within the oligarchic coup. The abrupt and traumatic end of the Four Hundred oligarchy caused a dichotomy in Athenian society, a sharp and bitter confrontation which widened the gap between perpetrators and victims; as the settling of old scores was continued under the regime of the Thirty Tyrants, this time it was the vanquished side in the first oligarchy who were the avengers. In den „Studien über die Prosopographie der Oligarchie der Vierhundert in Athen im Jahre 411 v. Chr.” wird das Leben von dreizehn Mitgliedern der ersten Oligarchie untersucht, die für kurze Zeit (weniger als vier Monate) im Sommer 411 v. Chr. Athen regierte. Verschiedene Kategorien von Quellen – von Historiographie bis zu Komödie, Tragödie und Inschriften – sind kritisch interpretiert worden im Hinblick auf die Enthüllung einer Erzählung, die uns mitteilt, wie diese Männer in einen der bizarrsten, aber auch dunkelsten Abschnitte der Geschichte des klassischen Athens verwickelt wurden. Diese Erzählung ist notwendigerweise mit Vermutungen ergänzt, aber diese Vermutungen ziehen die juristischen, verfassungsmäßigen, anthropologischen und soziologischen Grundlagen des klassischen Athens des fünften Jahrhunderts in Betracht. In dieser Studie habe ich mich bemüht, diese Männer, deren Familiengeschichte und Aufstieg – soweit es die Quellen erlauben – genau untersucht werden, nicht mit vorgefassten ideologischen Etiketten zu versehen. Das entstehende Bild ist das einer kleinen Gruppe von Männern mit starker oligarchischer Überzeugung, die es schaffte, den Entscheidungsprozess in der oligarchischen Bewegung zu kontrollieren und ihren Willen einer Mehrheit von lose verbundenen und unorganisierten Menschen aufzuzwingen. Das war in der Realität ein Staatsstreich innerhalb des oligarchischen Staatsstreiches. Das abrupte und traumatische Ende der Oligarchie der Vierhundert verursachte eine Dichotomie in der Athenischen Gesellschaft, eine heftige und erbitterte Konfrontation, die die Kluft zwischen Tätern und Opfern vergrößerte. Als das Begleichen alter Rechnungen unter dem Regime der Dreißig Tyrannen weiterging, war es diesmal die besiegte Seite der ersten Oligarchie, die die Rächer waren. 4 Introduction More than half a century ago, in 1959, Harry C. Avery completed his doctoral thesis Prosopographical Studies in the Oligarchy of the Four Hundred at Princeton University, USA. Since then our knowledge of the political life of late fifth-century Athens has tremendously advanced thanks to contributions from quite diverse scientific fields: archaeology, social anthropology, social history, epigraphic, philology. It seems, therefore, that the time is ripe for a fresh attempt at re- examining and re-interpreting the first successful overthrow of the Athenian democracy, as well as emphasising on its participants. The last fifty-year research in this field have argued against Avery’s somewhat simplistic division of politically prominent Athenian figures into ‘parties’ and ideologically entrenched groups, a division that can hardly bear scrutiny any more. I believe that a different approach might yield better results, and deepen our understanding of the convoluted nature of the late fifth-century Athenian political life. Such an approach will take into account the outstanding advances occurred in the last few decades in social anthropology. I will propose that apart from ideological leanings, it was personal and family affiliations, antagonisms as well as political opportunism and financial pressures that were also crucial factors that determined the choices of those participating in the coup. Furthermore, the respective weight of these factors would have altered in response to the rapid changes in the current political conditions- changes of alignments in the current political struggles in conjunction with the fluctuating military situation- and therefore each case of the participants in the coup must be studied separately. Avery does not take notice of such subtler divisions inherent in such an unsteady constellation as that of the Four Hundred. In addition, further questions as to the intellectual and social background will be raised, to the extent our sources invite us to such an inquiry. Since 1959 the prosopographical studies of individuals who lived in Athens in the classical era have made great strides. Avery’s research efforts were facilitated primarily by Kirchner’s monumental work Prosopographia Attica (PA), published in two volumes in 1901 and 1903, which is still consulted today, and additionally by J. Sundwall’s Nachträge zur Prosopographia Attica, published in 1910. Nevertheless, in the meanwhile, great scholarly works were published in the 80s and 90s, works that incorporated and made use of the abundance of the new epigraphic and archaeological material that came to light in the decades following the publication of Avery’s thesis. The first one was Davies’ Athenian Propertied Families, an indispensable work for the historian of ancient Athens. Davies’ laborious work records every individual in Athens who belonged to the leitourgical class, that is, the wealthy and well-to-do Athenians who could undertake a special form of taxation. In a sense, all the political, social and intellectual elite of classical Athens is presented in such a way that interrelationships and bonds of kin are amply demonstrated. Then, in 1994 P. M. Fraser and E. Matthews published the voluminous Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, the second volume of which is dedicated to Attica only. This joint 5 enterprise is the first to use a computerised database in which every instance of already known, published or newly found epigraphic and literary material is stored. At about the same time John S. Traill published his Persons of Ancient Athens, a twenty-volume work (of which only the first seventeen have been published) including all the personal names of people who lived in Attica in antiquity and whose names were recorded in inscriptions or in literary works. This work builds on Kirchner’s PA and on inscriptions discovered and published in the period from 1931 to 1967 by the American