Showing papers in "Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies in 1983"

Rhetores and Strategoi in Fourth-Century Athens

Abstract: C POLITICAL LEADERSHIP in classical Athens historians 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 article 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'. Accordingly, 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.

Basiliscus the Boy-Emperor

Abstract: F THE FIFTH AND SIXTH centuries the Chronicle of Victor of Tunnuna is a valuable source that deserves close inspection. What may not always be sufficiently appreciated, because Victor is most frequently referred to as an African bishop and because he wrote in Latin, is that he spent a good deal of his later life in Constantinople. His Chronicle, which covers the years 444-567, was in fact written in Constantinople and is a generally well-informed source for events in the East during this period.1 Like so many other African bishops, Victor fell foul of his sovereign Justinian by defending the works condemned by the emperor in 543 in the so-called Three Chapters edict. This resulted in a trying period of internment for Victor in the Mandracion monastery near Carthage, then on the Balearic Islands, then Algimuritana, and finally with his episcopal colleague Theodore of Cebaruscitana in the prison of the Diocletianic fortress behind the governor's palace in Alexandria (Chron. s.a. 555.2, p.204). In 556 after a twelve-day trial in the praetorium Victor and Theodore were transferred to the Tabennesiote monastery near Canopus, twelve miles east of Alexandria (556.2, p.204). Nine years later, at the request of Justinian himself, Victor and Theodore were summoned from Egypt. At the imperial court they stood their ground in the argument over the 'Three Chapters' with both Justinian and the patriarch Eutychius. As a punishment the two African bishops were placed under house arrest in separate monasteries in Constantinople (565?, p.205). As Victor himself tells us, Theodore died in 567 (p.206) while he himself lived on in monastic exile, where he wrote his chronicle a couple of years later. The chronicle itself is constructed principally around tracing the changes of occupancy of the major sees-Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem (pp.181-82). For the period of Victor's own lifetime it is particularly full on ecclesiastical politics and

The Chorus of Aristophanes’ Babylonians

Abstract: T BABYLONIANS, Aristophanes' second attested play, was produced by Calli stratus at the Dionysia of 426. It is known that Cleon resorted to some form of legal action after the performance, but there is little agreement about the theme of the lost comedy or about the chorus from which it took its title. Reaction to the important article published some fifty years ago by Norwood l continues, in the main, to be equivocal. On the one hand, there has been a definite tendency in recent years to applaud Norwood's exposure of the 'false dogma' that the chorus represented the members of the Athenian Empire.2 Yet his own suggestion that the choreutai were followers of Dionysus has not attracted much support, and no new attempts at identification seem to have been made.3 While it is impossible to reconstruct the plot of the Babylonians, a reappraisal of the chorus' role may be useful. References to the lost play in the Acharnians show that it was concerned with imperial matters and that Cleon argued that it had damaged Athens' relationship with her allies.4 The direction that Aristophanes took, however, is debated, and only two things are securely established about the members of the chorus: they appeared as branded or tattooed (EUTL'YIJ-ElJOL) slaves working in a mill, and

The Purpose of Dokimasia

Abstract: T CONSTITUTION of Athens' 'radical' democracy is notable for its egalitarianism. All citizens enjoyed full political rights-assembly, council, law-courts-and eligibility for almost all public offices. For the assembly and the law-courts there were no provisions for vetting the qualifications of members, but councillors and all public officials were required to undergo a scrutiny, the dokimasia, after their appointment but before assumption of office. There has been some controversy on the purpose of the institution. Some scholars believe that it was introduced to weed out unsuitable officials who owed their appointment to the process of sortition.l Another school, on the other hand, believes that the dokimasia was introduced to test not a candidate's suitability for office but only his legal qualifications both as a citizen and for the office in question.2 This school also maintains that the use of the dokimasia as "an inquiry into the whole career of a citizen" (Headlam) was an abuse. The latter view seems to be gaining ground, and a substantial number of scholars believe that plaintiffs at the dokimasia could not resist "the temptation to introduce extraneous questions, and to argue not only whether the candidate' was legally qualified but whether he was a good and patriotic citizen."3 There are thus two conflicting views on the dokimasia, one school maintaining that the institution aimed at eliminating unsuitable candidates and implying that the candidate's career was scrutinized, while the other maintains that the institution was formally restricted to the examination of the candidate's legal qualifications as a citizen and for the particular office. The question is a serious one, for it affects our understanding of the principles of the Athenian democracy. I examine here the evidence relating to the dokimasia, in the hope that the

Amazons, Thracians, and Scythians

Abstract: T HE AMAZONS offer a remarkable example of the lacunose and fragmented state of ancient evidence for many Greek myths. For while we hear virtually nothing about them in extant literature before the mid-fifth century, they are depicted in art starting in the late eighth! and are extremely popular, especially in Attica, from the first half of the sixth. Thus all we know about the Greeks' conception of the Amazons in the archaic period comes from visual representations, not from written sources, and it would be hazardous to assume that various 'facts' and details supplied by later writers were familiar to the sixth-century Greek. The problem of locating the Amazons is a good case in point. Most scholars assume that Herakles' battle with the Amazons, so popular on Attic vases, took place at the Amazon city Themiskyra in Asia Minor, on the river Thermodon near the Black Sea, where most ancient writers place it.2 But the earliest of these is Apollodoros (2.5.9), and, as I shall argue, alternate traditions locating the Amazons elsewhere may have been known to the archaic vase-painter and viewer. An encounter with Amazons figures among the exploits of three important Greek heroes, and each story entered the Attic vasepainters' repertoire at a different time in the course of the sixth century. First came Herakles' battle to obtain the girdle of Hippolyte (although the prize itself is never shown), his ninth labor. This scene first appeared in the second quarter of the sixth century, "arriving suddenly and in force, without any apparent antecedents."3 Achilles' combat with the Amazon queen Penthesilea at Troy is first depicted

Erotesis : Interrogation in the Courts of Fourth-Century Athens

Abstract: T Dill allTtBtKOtll E1TalluYKE<; Eillm a1TOKptlluCT(Jm aAA-rJAOt<; TO EPWn,V/-tElIOll (Dem. 46.10): EPWTTJCTt<;, interrogation of the adversary as Aristotle describes in the Rhetoric (l419a), has been regarded by authorities on Athenian law and judicial oratory as merely 'rhetorical questions' in the fourth century.1 The formalization of legal procedure under the restored democracy and the development of artistic argumentation in written speeches seem to have left little opportunity for question-and-answer. It has been assumed that the speech writers who provided their clients with prepared texts of their arguments effectively put an end to extempore debate in the courts; 2 and it has been concluded that the statute requiring an answer to the speaker's questions (Dem. 46.10) had become a dead letter of the law.3 Recent work on Athenian law has given us a clearer understanding of the legal principles in such important procedures as ypuqn., 1TUPUlIO/-tWlI, 1TUPUYPUcP-rJ, EWUYYEAta, a1TuywY-rJ, and €lIBE\"gt<;, but it still remains unclear in some cases how these proceedings were initiated and what questions were left for the court to decide.4 The

Army Transport in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries

Abstract: A NCIENT METHODS of military transport are clearly stated in our sources, provided that attention is paid to the technical terms. In view of recent interest and work in ancient military logistics, it seems appropriate to set out the evidence on these methods. We may list four. 1. A soldier carrying his own equipment and rations. For example, the Athenians were to go to Marathon with their rations (Arist. Rh. 1411a), and Philip's soldiers were trained to carry a month's supply of flour (Frontin. 4.1.6).1 Alexander's men carried enough water to last them four days in the desert (Diod. 17.49.5). During forced marches they sometimes carried their arms and their rations (e.g. Arr. A nab. 3.21.3). 2. Porters 'carrying loads on their backs' (Curt. 3.13.7), who were called UKEVOqx)pOl, by Herodotus, referring to 480 B.C. (7.40.1, cf 7.55.1), and gangabae by the Persians (Curt. 3.13.7). Greek hoplites were attended by porters throughout a campaign, just as Greek cavalrymen had grooms to assist them. In 359 Philip reduced the number of porters for his phalangites so drastically that there was only one porter to ten soldiers (Frontin. 4.1.6). 3. Animals 'carrying loads on their backs' (Diod. 17.105.7, Curt. 3.13.16), that is 'pack-animals'. Of these the camel was particularly efficient for carrying grain (in 480 B.C., Hdt. 7.125) and treasure (in 330, Diod. 17.71.2 KaJ..tTJ""Ol, ... ax(JocpOpOl,). The normal pack-animals in Greece were donkeys and mules (Xen. Hell. 5.4.17 ovo~ ... aVTOt~ UKEVEUt, Diod. 17.71.2 r,J..tt0vwv ... ax(JocpOpwv). 4. Vehicles drawn by a 'pair' (~EV'YO~) of animals 'under-the-yoke' (mro~v'Yta),2 the yoke itself being called ~v'Yov. Sometimes the ani-

Galen and Stoic rhetoric.

Abstract: T SOPHISTS are at dinner, and among them Athenaeus places Galen as well as the less identifiable physicians 'Daphnus of Ephesus' and 'Rufinus of Nicaea'.l The connection between rhetoric and medicine is in fact an old one, going back to the beginnings of both in the first sophistic period.2 We might expect, however, that the connection would be especially well marked in the second century A. D. No one can think of Fronto and Aelius Aristides without remarking the obsession with health, healing, and medicine that dominates their works; for E. R. Dodds, in fact, the hypochondria of Fronto and Aristides was one symptom of an age of anxiety.3 On the other hand, Galen, the greatest physician of the age, for all that he was a master of argument and persuasion, rejected rhetoric and expresses nothing but contempt for those who were deluded by it or devoted to it. Perhaps it is Galen's emphatic scorn for rhetoric or his failure to provide us with a systematic exposition of his ideas on it that accounts for the lack of scholarly attention to his views on the subject.4

The Date of Prometheus Bound

Abstract: W E HEAR on a number of occasions of spurious or doubtfully authentic plays, l and so it is clear that Alexandrian scholarship was alive to the need for establishing authentic canons of playwrights' works. If inauthentic plays did circulate in antiquity bearing the names of notable poets, there seem to be no grounds for excluding a priori the possibility that the Alexandrians could have been fooled and spurious plays eluded their detection. The date and circumstances of production of Prometheus Bound are not known. Its authenticity appears to have been unanimously accepted in antiquity~ the one conceivable exception to this generalization can easily be set aside.2 But in the nineteeth and twentieth centuries a number of authorities have doubted or denied its attribution to Aeschylus.3 Indeed, of the two leading historians of Greek literature of this century, one vigorously denied its authenticity and the other regarded its attribution as an open question.4 Although in 1970 C. J. Herington defended the play's authenticity,5 Mark Griffith has more recently subjected Prometheus to a battery of stylometric tests and examined various other aspects of the play, producing results that in his opinion tell against attribution to Aes-

A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis

Abstract: P OF AN INSCRIBED block was brought from the village of Maldan, about five km. southeast of ancient Aigai, to the Manisa Museum in 1981. In 1983, after having been informed that the block had been found in the modern cemetery of the village and that there were other inscribed blocks there, I visited the village to look for the remaining part of the inscription. With the invaluable help of the villagers, I in fact discovered the upper part of the text, although the beginning of the inscription and several lines between the two fragments are missing. The abundance of ancient blocks in the cemetery as well as at Sivri mevkii, three km. northeast of the village, and rock-carved tombs at Aktepe mevkii, south of the village, lead us to conclude that there was a settlement in this district.l

The Motives for Athens’ Alliance with Corcyra (Thuc. 1.44)

Abstract: D ESPlTE ABLE STUDIES of the Epidamnian affair, and in particular of the Corcyraean and Corinthian speeches at Athens reported in Thucydides 1.32-43,1 the rationale of the Athenian decision to enter a defensive alliance with Corcyra has been misunderstood. This decision, described by Thucydides in 1.44, is more pragmatic, indeed Machiavellian, than regularly supposed. The speakers of the two embassies to Athens had attempted to play on Athenian fears and ambitions. Corcyra, under the veil of a call for justice, had boldly argued the military advantage of an alliance. Their stated premise was that a war would soon break out between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians. Athenian support for Corcyra would be a necessary preparation for the war, for three reasons:

Political Activity and the Organization of Attica in the Fourth Century B.C.

Abstract: I T IS GENERALLY BELIEVED that the political organization of Attica introduced by Kleisthenes in the years after 50817 was maintained unchanged for two hundred years. Most historians hold, with Traill's fundamental study, 1 that the creation and distribution of 139 (?) constitutional demes over thirty trittyes and ten phylai was upheld from ca 500 to 307/6 B.C. and that the number of seats in the boule assigned to each deme goes back to Kleisthenes, although the attested quotas are all later than the restoration of the democracy in 403/2.2 An essential aspect of Kleisthenes' reforms was to combine membership in a de me with residence in the deme (Arist. Ath.Pol. 21.4)~ but as deme membership was made hereditary, all scholars acknowledge that the original territorial organization of the citizen body must have become increasingly artificial in the course of the classical period. So the student of fourth-century Athenian institutions is faced with two basic questions: (1) to what degree was the original settlement pattern preserved, i.e. how many fourth-century citizens happened to reside in the de me to which they belonged? (2) to what degree was the political organization preserved, i.e. was the distribution of politically active citizens over the three Attic districts (Asty, Paralia, Mesogaios) the same in the fourth century as when Kleisthenes created the districts and fixed the bouleutic quotas for all the demes? I shall begin with the second question. For the relation between deme membership and political activity we have three types of evidence: (a) inscriptions recording bouleutai and so the bouleutic quotas, i.e. the number of seats in the boule assigned to each deme (and accordingly to each of the thirty trittyes and

Eumolpos and the Wars of Athens

Abstract: A NCIENT TRADITION recalled two great early wars between Athens and her neighbor Eleusis. Of these, the later was associated with Theseus, who captured Eleusis from the Megarians under Diokles and Skiron: although attested only by Megarian sources (Plut. Thes. 10), this conquest is perhaps related to the synoikismos of Attica which was regarded as Theseus' signal achievement.1 The earlier war, on the other hand, is much more fully attested than that of Theseus: it is placed in the time of Erechtheus,2 and is represented as the heroic defense of Athens against an invading force from Eleusis under the command of Eumolpos. This war too is sometimes said to have resulted in the annexation of Eleusis by Athens. Scholars generally agree3 that these legends reflect one or more historical wars, but have disagreed about their number, sequence, and nature.4 The present study will approach these questions by a different route, viz. the complex and self-contradictory legend of Eumolpos. We begin by cataloguing the versions (I, II, etc.) and variants (A, B, etc.) of this legend, combining and enlarging upon the work of Kern5 and Jacoby.6 Our approach will entail an attempt to attribute each version and suggest its age.

Graphe or Dike Traumatos

Abstract: I N Apagoge, Endeixis and Ephegesis I argued that the offence trauma ek pronoias in classical Athens could be redressed both through a private action (dike) and through a public action (graphe).l In support of the existence of a public action for wounding with intent to kill I adduced four sources which explicitly refer to a ypaqrry Tpavf.W.TO~: Dem. 54.18~ Aeschin. 2.93~ 3.51, 212. Recently Chiara Pecorella Long02 has restated the traditional view,3 that the reference, in all four passages, is to a dike traumatos. Her line of argument is that Athenian legal terminology lacks precision and is often confused. Accordingly the use of the terms ypa¢ea(Jm and ypa¢~ TpaVf.W.TO~ does not prove that the Athenians had a graphe traumatos, i.e., a public action for wounding. The other sources relating to trauma (where the terminology, according to Longo, is always precise and consistently used) show that the action brought was a dike. It seems useful therefore to discuss in detail the problems in distinguishing between dike and graphe, in order to support my view that both a BiKTJ and a ypa¢~ TpaVf.W.TO~ €K 7T'po)Joia~ could be brought before the council of the Areopagos. Following Longo I will begin with a discussion of the passage in Demosthenes' speech Against Konon (54.18): \"\" ~ , , ~, A..,.,\" ,~,,...,' 0 \" owv ... HCTt KaK'Y/yoptaC; utKat\" o/\"CTt TOtVVV TaVTac; uta TOVTO ytyV€CT at, tva /-L~ AOtOOPOV/-L€VOt nmT€tv aAA,JAovc; 1TpoaywVTat. 1TaAtv alK€WC; dCTi\" Kat , \".., \\ ~,'\" \\.., , \" ..,'\" \" '\" ~'O TaVTae; aKOVW uW TOVT HVat Tae; utKae;, tva /-L'1/uHe;, OTav '1/ TTWV TI, ,,-t Cf /-L'1/8i TWV TOWVTWV a/-LVV'1/TaL /-L'1/8€vi, aAAa T~V £K TOV vO!J.Ov 8iK'1/V ava,.,.Evy/. Tpav!J.aToe; TTaAtv €LCTtv ypaqxxL TOV /-L~ nTpwCTKO/-LEVWV nvwv cpOvove; yiYV€CTOat.

Techne : A New Fragment of Chrysippus

Abstract: F RAGMENTS I call 'new' when they satisfy two conditions: (1) they are not found in existing collections of fragments; (2) they are not discussed, or mentioned, in the secondary literature. The present new fragment is to be found in a passage of Olympiodorus which is the source for two well-known Stoic fragments, viz. the definitions of techne attributed to Zeno and Cleanthes, SVF I 73 (Zeno 12 Pearson) and I 490 (Cleanthes 5 Pearson). Olympiodorus, interpreting Gorgias, wants to find out whether or not rhetoric is a techne; he sets out definitions of techne and looks to see if they fit rhetoric. The first definition quoted is Cleanthes':l K ). , (J , ). , .,,,, .,., l: • ~::, ., " I\.Eav 'TIr; TOtvVV I\.EyEf, on TEXV'TI EU"Ttv E~(,r; OUtp 7TaVTa avvovU"a. Olympiodorus rejects this, because, so he argues, also cpvu"f,r; ;~f,r; nr; EU"TLV dd (J , '" ''/''''rv ,....." '!I fI", "til:. r ~ ... '"": 7TpOu" Etr; TO J,«Ta '/A"-VTaU"uuv Et'7TEV on TEXV'TI EU"nv E~f,r; OUtp 7TpoiovU"a J,«Ta cpavTaU"wJV." According to Olympiodorus, Chrysippus' definition fits rhetoric, but there is also another one that is d . Z '2 Z' ~, A. .,,,, ." • goo ,VIZ. eno s: 'TIVWV uE 'f''TIU"f,V on TEXV'TI EU"n U"VU"T'TIf.UX EK , ./, ' 3 ' ,).., ,.., • KaTaA'Y/'YEWV avyyE)'Vl-tvaU"J,«vwv 7Tpor; n TEI\.Or; EVXP'TIU'TOV TWV EV Tq) f3~." For Chrysippus' definition, Westerink (following Norvin) refers to SVF II 56, viz. to Sextus Math. 7.373, which does not quote Chrysippus' definition in Olympiodorus, but reports Chrysippus' argument against the view of Zeno and especially Cleanthes that "presentation" is an "impression of the soul"; if this is assumed, avatpEi-

Eunapius and Arethas

Abstract: ,..., ~ , ~ , ff " art.' ,,,,.,, TWV EV1TOPOVVTWV utaYEVOJ.tEVOt OVTW'i, 01. fJVVAOtVT av EXEtv ax(Jo'i iTwcnov a1TOVP'Y1'i Ta'i {3i{3AOlJf; Kai 1Tap' eaVTOt'i s;:, I ,,~ I Y • , • A..~'I. I s;:, s;:, I , utaKaTE XH v 'Y1 Tot'i XPYh.OVUt v E1T W~I\.tl!J.tETaotuO vat' Kat KtvBVVEVH OVTW yE 1TPOi.OVUt T7JV 1TapOtJ.tiav avauo{3Etv T71'i E1Ti rfi cP&TVTJ KVVO'i, T1 J.tT,T' aVT7J nov rfi cP&TVTJ a1TOKH-

Conon and Rhodes: The Troubled Aftermath of Synoecism

Abstract: R HODES was a late developer. It was not until the beginning of the Hellenistic age that the Rhodians extracted the full benefit of the environmental advantages with which their island was richly endowed and transformed it from a backwater l into one of the most prosperous and powerful states in the Greek world.2 The turning point was undoubtedly the synoecism of the three hitherto independent cities, which was implemented soon after the revolt from Athens in 412, and the foundation of the new capital, Rhodes, on a well chosen site at the northern extremity of the island. For many years, however, progress towards stability and power was slow. The Spartans must have given their blessing to the two new projects and have supported the oligarchical regime which evidently assumed control after the revolt, but their interest in the island was largely confined to its value to them as a naval base. Soon after the revolt a rising against Sparta, presumably by Rhodians faithful to Athens, was threatened (Diod. 13.38.5), and although it was suppressed (I 3.45. 1), rivalry between opposing factions doubtless continued. Lindus had had a democratic government not long before the synoecism,3 though not necessarily Ialysus or Camirus, and, as will be shown below, democratic feeling was strong in the first decade of the fourth century. Another factor retarding rapid progress was that in the closing years of the Peloponnesian war Rhodes contributed ships to the Peloponnesian fleet,4 and the establishment and maintenance of this squadron doubtless diverted effort and resources which might have been devoted to the needs of the new state.5 The scheme for the