Abstract
One of the leaders of the Athenian oligarchic movement at the end of the 5th century BC was the aristocrat Critias. He is best known as the head of the government of the Thirty. However, he had participated in Athenian political life earlier, starting from 415 BC. Critias came from the noble family of the Codrids. In his youth, he studied under the philosophers Socrates and Gorgias. He is first mentioned in sources related to politics in connection with the trial of 415 BC. Questions about Critias's participation in the events of 411 BC remain debated. Scholars disagree on whether Critias was a member of the oligarchic government. The article attempts to reconstruct Critias's early biography. It makes assumptions about his involvement in the events of 411 BC, as well as the subsequent decade.
Keywords
Athens, Critias, oligarchy, Athenian democracy, government of Four Hundred.
Adeleye, G. 1974: Critias: Member of the Four Hundred. Transactions of the American Philological Association 104, 1–9.
Avery, H. 1963: Critias and Four Hundred. Classical Philology 58, 165–167.
Danzig, G. 2014: The Use and Abuse of Critias: Conflicting Portraits in Plato and Xenophon. Class. Q. 64, 507–524.
Davies, J.L. 1971: Athenian Properited Families, 600–30 B.C. Oxford.
Frolov, E.D. 2003: Kritiy, syn Kallekshra, afinyanin, – sofist i tiran [Critias, Son of Callaischros, the Athenian, – a Sophist and a Tyrant]. Vestnik drevney istorii [Journal of Ancient History] 4, 67–89.
Mosse, C. 1961: Le role des esclaves dans troubles politiques du monde Crec a` la fin de 1' epoque classique. Cahiers d' Histoire 6, 354–355.
Munn, M. 2000: School of History. Athens in the Ages of Socrates. London.
Nails, D. 2002: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Socratics. Cambridge.
Nemeth, G. 1988: Metamorphosis Critiae? Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 74, 167–180.
Rhodes, P.J. 2011: Alcibiades. Barnsley.
Skvortsov, A.M. 2009: M.S. Kutorga i V.M. Vedrov: konflikt uchitelya i uchenika [M.S. Kutorga and V.M. Vedrod: Conflict between Teacher and Student]. Vestnik Chelyabinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University] 36, 162–168.
Surikov, I.E. 2022: Politicheskie deyateli Drevney Gretsii. T. II. Epokha krizisa polisa [Political Figures of Ancient Greece. Vol. II. The Era of the Polis Crisis]. Moscow.
Vedrov, V.M. 2019: Zhizn' afinskogo oligarkha Kritiya [The Life of the Athenian Oligarch Critias]. Moscow.