Archive

I.E. Surikov (Moscow) – From the History of Athenian Oligarchic Coups d’État of Late 5th Century BC. II. Demagogues and Their Antagonists in the 410s BC

download PDF

Abstract

This study continues a series of articles dealing with antidemocratic coups d’état in Athens in the end of the 5th century B.C. and their historical significance. It is well-known that the camp of Athenian oligarchs in the period of the Peloponnesian War was extremely heterogeneous, which does not further its cohesion. The article poses a question whether the opposite camp, represented by demagogues, was notable for its uniformity and makes a conclusion that the answer to this question should be rather negative. According to the popular opinion, all demagogues were like Cleon, who was in 420s B.C. the most vivid specimen of such a type of politician. However, already demagogues of 410s NC, as the article demonstrates on prosopographical data, had a number of diff erences from their predecessors (almost there were also features of similarity between them). The demagogue of the new type is not, as a rule, a nouveau riche parvenu; he belongs to more respectable circle and may be even connected with aristocracy, albeit not of the highest level. He, unlike a Cleon, almost never aims at being and general and distinguishing himself on the military field; his native milieu is the judicial sphere. Courts in the “era of the ochlokratia” frequently became a means of squaring of political accounts. It was demagogues who were initiators of such a development; but their opponents adopted the same methods, what is especially manifest on the example of Antiphon.

Keywords

Classical Greece, Athens, oligarchy, democracy, coups d’état, Peloponnesian War, demagogues, Antiphon, Philinus, court trials.

Igor E. Surikov

Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Badian, E. 1995: The Ghost of Empire: Refl ections on Athenian Foreign Policy in the Fourth Century BC. In: W. Eder (ed.), Die athenische Demokratie im 4. Jahrhundert v.Chr.: Vollendung oder Verfall einer Verfassungsform? Stuttgart, 79–106.

Brenne, S. 2002: Die Ostraka (487 – ca. 416 v. Chr.) als Testimonien (T 1). In: P. Siewert (ed.), Ostrakismos-Testimonien I: Die Zeugnisse antiker Autoren, der Inschriften und Ostraka über das athenische Scherbengericht aus vorhellenistischer Zeit (487–322 v. Chr.). Stuttgart, 36–166.

Burgess, S.J. 2005: The Athenian Eleven: Why Eleven? Hermes 133/3, 328–335.

Carawan, E.M. 1987: Eisangelia and Euthuna: The Trials of Miltiades, Themistocles, and Cimon. Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 28/2, 167–208.

Develin, R. 2003: Athenian Officials 684–321 B.C. Cambridge.

Fornara, C.W. 1971: The Athenian Board of Generals from 501 to 404. Wiesbaden.

Gagarin, M. 2002: Antiphon the Athenian: Oratory, Law, and Justice in the Age of the Sophists. Austin.

Gagarin, M., MacDowell, D.M. 1998: Antiphon & Andocides. Austin.

Hansen, M.H. 1975: Eisangelia: The Sovereignty of the People’s Court in Athens in the Fourth Century B.C. and the Impeachment of Generals and Politicians. Odense.

Harding, P. 1994: Androtion and the Atthis. Oxford.

Joyce, C.J. 2022: Amnesty and Reconciliation in Late Fifth-Century Athens: The Rule of Law under Restored Democracy, Edinburgh.

Karpuyk, S.G. 1994: Nikiy: doblest’ politika [Nicias: politician’s virtue]. Vestnik drevney istorii [Journal of ancient history] 3 (210), 38–57.

Karpyuk, S.G. 1998: Giperbol, “chelovek negodnyy” [Hyperbolos, “a wretched man”]. Vestnik drevney istorii [Journal of ancient history] 4 (227), 142–156.

Kirchner, I. 1901: Prosopographia Attica. Vol. 1. Berlin.

Kirchner, I. 1903: Prosopographia Attica. Vol. 2. Berlin.

Kudryavtseva, T.V. Narodnyy sud v demokraticheskikh Afinakh [Popular Court in Democratic Athens]. St. Petersburg.

Osborne, R. 2003: Changing the Discourse. In: K.A. Morgan (ed.), Popular Tyranny: Sovereignty and its Discontents in Ancient Greece. Austin, 251–272.

Raubitschek, A.E. 1954: Philinos. Hesperia 23/1, 68–71.

Rhodes, P.J. 2015: Instability in the Greek Cities. In: V. Goušchin, P.J. Rhodes (eds.), Deformations and Crises of Ancient Civil Communities. Stuttgart, 27–47.

Surikov, I.E. 2006: Ostrakizm v Afinakh [Ostracism in Athens]. Moscow.

Surikov, I.E. 2008: Anticnaya Gretsiya: politiki v kontexte epokhi. Vremya rastsveta demokratii [Ancient Greece: Politicians in the context of the epoch. The heyday of democracy]. Moscow.

Surikov, I.E. 2011: Anticnaya Gretsiya: politiki v kontexte epokhi. Godina mezhdousobitz [Ancient Greece: Politicians in the context of the epoch. The time of intestine dissention]. Moscow.

Surikov, I.E. 2021: Anticnnaya Gretsiya: Mekhanizmy politicheskoy zhizni (Opuscula selecta III) [Ancient Greece: Machinery of political life (Opuscula selecta III)]. Moscow.

Surikov, I.E. 2024: Iz istorii afinskikh oligarkhicheskikh perevorotov kontsa V v. do n.e. I. Peloponnesskaya voyna i vnutripoliticheskoe polozhenie v Afinakh [From the history of Athenian oligarchic coups d’État of late 5th century B.C. I. The Peloponnesian War and internal situation in Athens]. Problemy istorii, filologii, kul’tury [Journal of historical, philological and cultural studies] 1, 134–151.

Vanderpool, E. 1952: Kleophon. Hesperia 21/2, 114–115.

Wolpert. A. 2006: The Violence of the Thirty Tyrants. In: S. Lewis (ed.), Ancient Tyranny. Edinburgh, 213–223.

Details
Hits: 19