HANSEN, MOGENS HERMAN, "Rhetores" and "Strategoi" in Fourth-Century Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:2 (1983:Summer) p.151 Rhetores and Strategoi in Fourth-Century Athens Mogens Herman Hansen ONCERNING POLITICAL LEADERSHIP in classical Athens histori­ C ans have posed a number of interesting questions: Were the Athenian 'politicians' recruited from the propertied families? Did they become rich in consequence of their political careers? Did they belong to the city demes or to the inland and coastal demes? Did they often serve as archai selected by lot? How often were they put on trial? But as a basis for their arguments historians tend either to draw up a random list of so-called politicians or to adduce five, ten, or fifteen examples of named political leaders, from which to draw conclusions. 1 In the absence of a list of political leaders, this is of course the only possible method, and doubtless the answers offered are often along the right lines. Nevertheless, given the very good sources available on fourth-century Athens, it is worth while to delimit the concept 'political leader' and accordingly draw up a list of persons meeting the criteria, so as to have a more rigorous basis for addressing questions of the sort mentioned above. In an earlier ar­ ticle 2 I argued that in fourth-century Athens the phrase PT,TOpf.~ Kat (TTpaT'Y'TrYOL is the nearest equivalent of what we, with a much vaguer and less formal term, call 'politicians' or 'political leaders'. Accor­ dingly, I present here the application of that principle, an inventory which is basically a list of rhetores and strategoi. First however it is necessary to discuss whom to include and why. 1 Several lists of strategoi have been published (see infra n.23). Lists of 'politicians' can be found in e.g. P. Cloche, "Les hommes politiques et la justice populaire dans I' Athenes du ive siecle," Historia 9 (1960) 80-95; J. Talbert Roberts, "Athens' So­ called Unofficial Politicians," Hermes 11 0 (1982) 354-62. A good but incomplete list of ambassadors and proposers of decrees and speakers addressing the ecc/esia in the period 359-322 can be found in J. Sundwall, Epigraphische Beitriige zur sozial-politischen Geschichte Athens (Klio Beih. 4 [1906)) 59-74. For conclusions based On a selection of examples see A. W. Gomme, The Population of Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries (Oxford 1933) 37-39 (distribution over demes); S. Perlman, "The Politicians in the Athenian Democracy of the Fourth Century B.C.," Athenaeum 41 (1963) 327-55 (participation in trials, social composition, etc.). 2 M. H. Hansen, "The Athenian 'Politicians', 403-322 B.C.," GRBS 24 (983) 33-55. 151 HANSEN, MOGENS HERMAN, "Rhetores" and "Strategoi" in Fourth-Century Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:2 (1983:Summer) p.151 152 RHETORES AND STRA TEGOI In recording the strategoi I include only members of the Athenian board of ten and omit the generals who commanded the forces on Samos, Skyros, Lemnos, and Imbros.3 But of the elected military officials, the strategoi were only first in rank: why not include the hipparchs, taxiarchs, and phylarchs? There is some slight evidence that taxiarchs or hipparchs might be reckoned among the political leaders. Describing the oligarchic revolution of 404, Lysias mentions 'TO~ 'TOV 8TII.WV 1TPOECTrT)K(J-rar; Kat CT'Tpan1'),oVV'Tar; Kat 'TO~ 'Tagl.­ apxovv'Tar; 03.7, cf also 26.20), and Xenophon advises a hipparch to collaborate with the rhetores in the council (Hipp. 1.8). There is however a substantial gulf between these scattered remarks and the constant juxtaposition of rhetores and strategoi, and our prosopo­ graphical knowledge does not support the inclusion of the other elected officers.4 Of 39 known fourth-century hipparchs, taxiarchs, and phylarchs, three, completing the 'cursus honorum', came to be strategoi and are accordingly recorded in this capacity. But only two are known also as rhetores and only one as an ambassador. Hence I prefer to record only the ten strategoi, and exclude all other elected military officials.5 In recording the rhetores I follow the definition argued in my for­ mer article, and so I include: proposers of psephismata in the ecc/esia or in the boule; proposers of nomoi before the nomothetai; prosecu­ tors and defendants in political public actions; speakers addressing the ecc/esia or the boule; synegoroi addressing the dicasteria (either for the prosecution or for the defence). Two problems, however, need a more detailed investigation. As to prosecutors, defendants, and syne­ goroi, we must define the concept 'political public action'; and as to speakers addressing the ecc/esia and the boule, we must decide whether or not to include the ambassadors. 'Public prosecutors' in Athens comprised all citizens who brought any public action (8rnroCTwr; aywv). But the Athenians had more than fifty different types of public action, ranging from e.g. the public action 3 Arist. Ath.Pol. 62.2, c/ P. J. Rhodes, A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (Oxford 1981) 695. 4 A complete list of taxiarchs, phylarchs, and hipparchs can be found in J. K. Davies, Wealth and the Power of Wealth in Classical Athens (New York 1981) 151-55. Apart from broken names, Davies records, for the fourth century, 8 taxiarchs (Philokles II should be deleted, as he is an ephebic officer and not a genuine taxiarch), 20 phy­ larchs, and 12 hipparchs. Lykophron served both as phylarch and as hipparch. So the sum is 39. 5 The three strategoi are Demainetos of Paiania, Euetion of Kephisia, and Philokles of Eroiadai. The two rhetores are Meidias of Anagyrous (PA 9719) and, presumably, Menites of Kydathenaion. The ambassador is Orthoboulos of Kerameis. For the 'cursus honorum' c/ Davies (supra n.4) 122 with n.56. HANSEN, MOGENS HERMAN, "Rhetores" and "Strategoi" in Fourth-Century Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:2 (1983:Summer) p.151 MOGENS HERMAN HANSEN 153 for locking up a man on the pretense that he is an adulterer ('Ypacpr, asiKw~ eipx.fJ.y,vm W~ J.t<nx.ov) to the public action against unconstitu­ tional proposals ('Ypacpr, 'TT'apavo/.UJlv).6 The former action had no di­ rect connection with politics, and in this and many similar public ac­ tions the prosecutor would often be one of the relatives or friends of the injured person (who was in this case the detained man).7 So within the group of public actions we must look for specifically political types of public action, i.e. public actions brought against rhelores or slralegoi in their capacity of being rhelores or slralegoi. The two most obvious types of public action meeting this requirement are the 'Ypacpr, 'TT'apa­ VOJ..UlJV (invariably brought against rhelores) and the eina'Y'YeA.l.a (fre­ quently brought against strategoi and sometimes against rhetores). To the 'Ypacpr, 'TT'apavof..UVv (involving psephismata passed by the ecclesia or the boule) must be added the corresponding 'Ypacpr, vOJ,Wv /-tr, €7T'LTr,• SetOv fJeLvm (involving nomoi passed by the nomothetai), and in addi­ tion to the EUra'Y'YEAia we must record applications of the a'TT'ocpao-t~, introduced ca 350 and brought against the same types of offender as the einayyeA.la, the main difference being that the council of the Are­ opagos was entrusted with the preliminary investigation. Next, prose­ cutors and synegoroi in the 80KLj..UX(J"Ux P'Y1T()PWV must be recorded, and so must attested cases of the 'TT'po{3oA.r" when brought against syco­ phants or against a man who did not fulfill what he had promised the Athenian demos~ both types of action seem to have been used only infrequently.8 6 J. H. Lipsius, Das attische Recht und Rechtsverfahren I-III (Leipzig 1905-15), dis­ cusses forty different types of graphe (spurious graphai are not included in the count). Apart from the graphai we have the following types of public action: array~/ElJ8EtI;L<;1 iqrrrYT/UL<;, arroypaqrr" a rro<Pam<;, 80KL(..UXUW TOW P'Y/TOPWlJ, EiuaYYEAW, d;8VlJat, rrpo­ {3oA.q, and cpam<;. 7 Cf. E. Ruschenbusch, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des athenischen Strafrechts (Koln 1968) 58-60. 8 For the period 403-322 we know of 36 applications of the ypacP7} rrapalJolJ.WlJ, 62 of the EiuaYYEAw Ei<; TOlJ 8ijf-WlJ, 5-6 of the ypacb7} lJOf-WlJ /-L7} i1TL~8ELOlJ 8EilJat, 15-16 of the arro<PauL<;. The inventory includes, of course, only those cases in which we know the name(s) of the prosecutor(s) and/or defendant{sL Apart from Aischines' irraYYEAia against Timarchos, the only other known application of the 80KL(..UXUW TWlJ P'Y/TOPWlJ is Lysitheos' irraYYEAw against Theomnestos (Lys. 10.1, where I follow Gernet/Bizos in emending Eiu.qYYEMf. to i~YYf.AAe). In Aeschin. 1.64 we hear that Aristophon threatened to bring a dokimasia rhetoron against Hegesandros. When used against offences committed during a festival, the rrpo{30A..q (Oem. 21.8-10) was not a political public action (although it could sometimes be used by political leaders against their opponents, cI Oem. 21). The only known case of a probote against sycophants falls outside our period, viz. the probote against the prosecutors of the generals in 406 (Xen. Hell. 1.7.35). Of the probote for not fulfilling one's promises to the demos (Arist. Ath.Pot. 43.5) we have only one attested case, Euboulos' probote against Aristophon (Oem. 21.218 with scholia). HANSEN, MOGENS HERMAN, "Rhetores" and "Strategoi" in Fourth-Century Athens , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:2 (1983:Summer) p.151 154 RHETORES AND STRATEGOI What brings together these public actions is not only the fact that they were explicitly aimed at rhetores and/or strategoi, but also some significant procedural regulations.