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Eupatridai, Archons, and Areopagus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

H. T. Wade-Gery
Affiliation:
Wadham College, Oxford.

Extract

I argued in § II. (Ion and Theseus) that in the lost chapters of the Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία Aristotle recorded (in connexion with the Synoikisis) the creation by Theseus of the Eupatrid Order, from whom the Archons were chosen: that this tallies with Thuc. II. 15: that Thucydides further suggests that the continuous existence of the Areopagus Council dates from the same time: that finally Council and Order stand to each other as patres and patricii did in Rome.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1931

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References

page 77 note 1 I take the occasion to add two passages in further illustration of § 2: (a) Bekker's, Anecdota 257: Εὐπαγρίδαι ἐκαλοῦντο οί αὐνὀ τὀ ᾰστυ οικοῦντες καὶ μετέχοντες βασιλικοῦ γένους καὶ τἠν τῶν ἐπιμέλειαν ποιούμενοι. A careful account: They are of royral blood (not the royal blood), i.e. descended from the local rulers (cf. Plut. Theseus, 32. I, Herodotus, 9. 73): they have migrated to Athens; they control religion. (b) I.G. I2 188 (Law of the Deme Skambonidai, early fifth century) lines 60–64, Χσυνοι[κιοι [σ]: εμ πολει[τε: λεον]τ α δ ε κρεα απο δοσ θαι ομα: ‘at the Synoikia, on the Akropolis, an entire victim: they shall sell the meat raw.’Google Scholar

page 77 note 2 For all its archaic sound: cf. αριστινδεν in Law, Drakon's, I.G. I2115Google Scholar , line 19. A very different context: the choosing of Phrateres (in default of kin) for the Aidesis of an unintentional homicide.

page 78 note 1 It depents entirely on how large a body the top class, the Pentekosiomedimnoi, were, and this we don't know. The Tamias had clearly to be one of the richest men in the state (cf. Plato, Laws, 759e: the need for the Archon to be rich, provided he was a considerable landowner, was not so urgent. Very likely some Eupatrids were only Hippeis. The Archonship was opened to Zeugitai (the third class) in 457 (ch. 26, § 2), whereas the Tamiai continued to be Pentekosiomedimnoi (ch.8, § 1). Of course, the Archon by then was an unimportant man, but it must have been open to Hippeis for many years at least before then, and thirty years takes us back to the elected Archons, men like Themistokles and Aristeides.

page 78 note 2 For the question, how the people exercised their vote, see Appendix B.

page 79 note 1 This is all related in ch. 13.

page 79 note 2 For the question whether there were actually such πρόκριτοι, see Appendix B.

page 81 note 1 Diog. Laert. I. 49, says, when Peisistratos was planning hi coup d'état, Solon appealed to the be Boule: ή δὲ βουλή Πεισιστραγιδαι ὂντες gave him no help. The strory is nonsensical (I think)as it stands: how had peisistratos packed either Boule, so soon, with his sons? The pharse, however, ή βουλὴ Πεισισγραγιδαι ὂντες would not be an inapt description of the Areopagus in the later years of the tyranny: though if such was the original context of the words, I hardly think it can be recovered now.

page 82 note 1 Συγενέες here ‗ γενῆται, as in Isaeus Apollodoros 27: and often, though of course not always: συγενής is not always technical, γενήτης is. Herodotus is here talking of the Genos cults.

page 82 note 2 I mean e.g. the Alkmeon and Alkmeonides ofn I.G. I2. 472; and the Alkmeon father of Leobotes (Plut. Thim. 23) who is not, like the Megakles II. line, of the deme Alopeke; and the possibly identical Alkmaion, archon in 508/7.

page 82 note 3 See the genealogies in Kirchner's prosopographia Attica, to the names Megakles I. (No. 9688). Peusustratos I. (No. II793), Bouselos (No. 2921).

page 82 note 4 Megakles I., his father, is never called an Alkmeonid, any more than Hippokrates is called a Peisistratid. The great fortunes of the house dated from the known Alkmeon (Hdt. 6. 125. 1).

page 83 note 1 Paionidai is the name of a Deme, close to Acharnai: the modern Menidi [ = Μαινιδια=Παιονιδιο: cf. Mendeli=Πεντέλη] lies between the two. It may have been the local centre of a Genos of Paionidai, though otherwise we know of none such. And Peisistratidai and Alkmeonidai may have belonged to that Genos, since the local centre of a Genos says nothing as to the local seat of its members in the sixth century: cf. Βρυτιδαι and Άμυνανδριδαι above.

page 83 note 2 I am a little embarrassed by the fact that the Greek word γένος means both ‘Caste’ (e.g. Hdt. 2. 164) and ‘Body of Gennetai’. I use the transliteration ‘Genos’ in the latter sense only. It has been thought Isokrates' words ‘you may guess their nobility from their name’ suggest a Genos which happened to have the same name as the Caste of Nobility. He means, in fact, that the name of the Caste is a common (poetical) adjective (see the next two notes). For the alleged Genos see e.g. Busolt-Swoboda, , Gr. Staatskunde (1924) 7722, 11021Google Scholar, and the scholars there quoted (Wilamowitz, Toepffer, IIirzel, Boethius, even Persson, Exegeten 15).

page 83 note 3 Fr. 45 and 53, Lobel. Not κακόπαγρις, which is feminine, Theognis 193, like εὒπατρις (of Elektra, Soph. El. 1080: εὐπατριδης of Orestes, ibid. 162, 859). Do these patronymic forms mean just the same as εὐπάτωρ (Aesch, . Persai 969) and εὐπατέρεια (Homer)? or do they rather mean ‘(daughter) of a man who stands well (or ill) in his πύτρα, ’ εὒπατρος, κακόπατρος? (The most analogous form is Homer's ὂπατροσ.) The Eupatridai would thus be the superior members of the πάγρα.Google Scholar

I do not think πάτρα is to be distinguished from Φραγρια. It is the ‘father house, ’ in which the members are ‘brothers, ’ ϕράτερες: the same aggregate of ϕρἀτερες can be called ϕραγρια. The legal fixation of ϕραγρια at Athens as something probably bigger than πάτρα at Aigina need not mislead us. Dicaearchus (apud Steph. Byz. s.v. πάτρα=F.H.G. II., p. 238) speaks as a whimsical philosopher, not an antiquarian: he was not (what Philochorus was) an Exegetes, an ‘expert aristocrat, ’ like the Garter King at Arms.

page 84 note 1 I.e. Orestes and Elektra are true to Agamemnon: 162, 859, 1080. I do not imagine this connotation was old: Hirzel's theory that Orestes was the ancestor of the (Genos of) Eupatridai can be dismissed. Yet I do not know wheather Orestes' connextion with the Areopagus might not be partly responsible for the epithet. Of Theseus, , Eur, , Hipp. 152Google Scholar : of Admetos and Alkestis, , Alk. 920Google Scholar . A very old late poetical use in cometas' paraphrase of ch. xi. of Gospel, St. John's, Anth. pal, XV. 40Google Scholar , line 20.

page 84 note 2 I Γένας is the natural Greek word for ‘Caste’: see e.g. Herodotus 2. 164 on the seven Castes of Egyptians, έπτὰ γένεα. Cf. I.G. III. 1335 προγονοισ και γενει Ευπατριδησ.

page 84 note 3 Not Hellanicus' own words.

page 85 note 1 Dorotheos is presumably an Exegete, like Kleidemos and Philochoros: and his book an Έξηγητικόν;.

page 85 note 2 I assume, with Smith, Gertrude, Administration of Justice from Hesiod to Solon, 16Google Scholar sqq., that the Ephetic courts are, till Ephialtes, manned by Areopagites.

page 85 note 3 The inscription is I.G. II2 1232: given in Toepffer, , Att. Gen., p. 287Google Scholar , in rough facsimile. I have not seen the stone, but suggest for lines 25 sqq. οπωσ αν ειδωσι Σαλα [μινιοι και ο] ιαλοι οι αϕικνουμενοι ε[ισ τα ιερα τα Ευρυ] σακ[ειατο γενομενο] ν, ο[τι] δ[ι αγετελεκασ] ι ϕιλοτι[μουμενοιεισ το γενοσ και τουσ αλλουσ] πολι[τασ: and possibly for 3 sqq. (cf. τεθυμένοσ in Xen. Hell. 5. 1. 18) [τουσ τεθυμ]ενουσ και τασ τεθυ[μενασ τασθυαι ασ υπερ ταν δη]μου του Αθηνατων και [τουγενουσ του Σαλαμινιω]ν, Ευϕροσυνον Ον[ησιμον;, etc.

page 86 note 1 So the second hand in two MSS.: the un corrected reading is τρεῖς.

page 86 note 2 I.e. the language is slovenly, and will not bear the meaning Plato intends. see below.

page 87 note 1 Presumably the real, not the Platonic, Exegetai. I do not feel quite sure of this, though it is commonly assumed.

page 87 note 2 757b and 757e: one has to use it, and hope God will make it a real equality, τψ τοῦκλήρου ἲσψ ἀνάγκη προσχρήσασθαι δυοκολίας τῶν ἒνεκα, θιον και ἀγαθὴν τύχην και τότε ἐν εὐχαῖς ἐπικαλουμἐνους ἀπορθοῦν αύτοὑς τὸν κλῆρον πρός τὸ δικαιότατον.

page 88 note 1 Cf. Klio 19, pp. 106 sqq. and Lehmann Haupt, Ibid. 6, pp. 304 sqq.

page 88 note 2 Strabo XIII. 1. 38, and the other passages quoted in Prosopographia Attica under Phrynon, 15029.

page 88 note 3 So Camb. Anc. Hist. IV. 51. The generality on p. 155, ‘the holder of an office that is military must be capable of re-election, ’ is very surprising. Surely the Polemarchy could not be iterated?

page 88 note 4 A fool or Coward would not be among the forty πρόκριτοι.

page 88 note 5 See their Careers in the Prosopographia Attica. I compute roughly from their strategia to their last

page 89 note 1 Solon is conscious that wealth, as a criterion, is not good nor even constant: see fr. 4 (Diehl), lines 9–12, especially the last line: χοήματα δʹἀνθρώπων ἂλοτε ἂλλος ἒχει.

page 89 note 2 This is how the archon was chosen before Solon's reform: Ἀθ. πολ. 8. 2.

page 89 note 3 Cavaignac's hypothesis, quoted above, that the five Eupatridai and five non-Eupatridai of 'θ. πολ. 13. 2 are really the ten πρόκριτοι of each Tribe would (if right) strongly corroborate the fact of πρόκρισις.

page 89 note 4 The best known case is the year of the Samian Revolt, when Perikles is ἐξ ἀπάντων, and Glaukon is Tribal Strategos for Akamantis: that year Aiantis has no Strategos. The list is given by schol. Aristeid. III., p. 485 Dindorf, but is only complete in one Ms., published by Wilamowitz, , De Rhesi scholiis, P. 13Google Scholar : it is conveniently accessible in I.G. I2.. P. 284, lines 60 sqq.

page 89 note 5 Hdt. 6. 104. 2, Xen. Mem. 3. 4. 1: C.Q. XXIV., P.38.

page 89 note 6 The lists of Strategoi [Krause, , Attische Strategenlisten (Weimar, 1914)Google Scholar ; Beloch, Gr. Ges 2. II. 2, pp. 260Google Scholar Sqq.; Pomello, and Zancan, , Riv. d. fil. 1927. 361Google Scholar , none of which is complete make it certain that non-representation was not regularly rotated.