The Athenian Embassy to Sparta in 371 B.C.

D. J. Mosley

doi:10.1017/S0068673500005344

The Athenian Embassy to Sparta in 371 B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2013

D. J. Mosley

Show author details

D. J. Mosley: Affiliation:
University of Sheffield

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

Xenophon records that in 371 an embassy was sent from Athens to Sparta in order to negotiate a settlement. His account contains several peculiar features concerning both the procedure of the embassy and the personnel employed. To submit the historical writings of Xenophon to close and detailed scrutiny is often an unrewarding task, yet it is well to bear in mind that at the time of the events under discussion Xenophon, who had been exiled from Athens, was resident in the Peloponnese and he ought therefore to have been in a position to combine an understanding of the political workings of Athens with a knowledge of what went on in Sparta.

We read that Callias the son of Hipponicus, Autocles the son of Strombichides, Demostratus the son of Aristophon, Aristocles, Cephisodotus, Melanopus and Lycaethus, seven names in all, were sent as envoys, and further that the popular orator Callistratus was also present in Sparta. Included in the account are three speeches which at first sight are discordant and which Xenophon attributes to Callias, Autocles and Callistratus.

Type: Research Article
Information: Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 8 , 1962 , pp. 41 - 46

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068673500005344 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 41 note 1} Xenophon, , Hellenica, VI, 3, 2Google Scholar.

^{page 41 note 2} ‘Une composition assez bizarre’, Cloché, P., La politique étrangère d'Athènes 404–338, p. 86Google Scholar.

^{page 41 note 3} .

^{page 41 note 4} Thucydides, VIII, 54.

^{page 41 note 5} Ibid. VIII, 90.

^{page 41 note 6} See the Budé text, loc. cit., ed. L. Gernet.

^{page 42 note 1} See Griffith, G. T., ‘Some habits of Thucydides when introducing persons’, Proc. Cambridge Philol. Soc. n.s. 7 (1961), 33CrossRef Google Scholar, n. 2.

^{page 42 note 2} Demosthenes, XIX, 126. In 324 Demosthenes turned up in Arcadia to help an Athenian embassy there, but Arcadia was not enemy territory and Demosthenes was already in exile (Plutarch, , Demosthenes, 27Google Scholar).

^{page 42 note 3} Without real justification from the text he is described as ‘chef de l'embassade’ by Glotz-Cohen, , Histoire Grecque, III, 143Google Scholar. I hope to deal elsewhere with archipresbeutae and the relations between envoys.

^{page 42 note 4} Diod. Sic. XV, 50, 4.

^{page 42 note 5} Aesch. II, 32.

^{page 42 note 6} I.G. II², 103 = Tod, 136 = S.E.G. XVI, 46Google Scholar.

^{page 42 note 7} Xen., Hell. VI, 3Google Scholar, 2.

^{page 43 note 1} Xen.Hell. IV, 8, 15Google Scholar says that all the envoys returned from Persia, yet in IV, 8, 16 we read that Conon was arrested.

^{page 43 note 2} Xen., Hell. IV, 8, 12 ff.Google Scholar; Jacoby, , F.G.H. 328Google Scholar, Philochorus, fr. 149. Griffith, G. T., ‘The Union of Corinth and Argos’, Historia, 1 (1950), 236 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 43 note 3} E.g. Xen., Hell. I, 3, 8Google Scholar; V, 4, 20; VII, 1, 33. VI, 5, 33 gives at least the full Spartan embassy of 370/69, if not all the Peloponnesians; IV, 8, 12 is also probably a full list. Cf. Xen., Anabasis, V, 5, 7Google Scholar; VI, 2, 5; VII, 1, 32, but see especially Xen., Hell. II, 3, 10Google Scholar for a list of twenty-nine eponymous ephors.

^{page 43 note 4} Philoch. op. cit.

^{page 43 note 5} Pausanias, III, 9, 3.

^{page 43 note 6} Xen., Hell. VI, 3, 4Google Scholar.

^{page 43 note 7} Ibid. VI, 3, 7.

^{page 43 note 8} Ibid. VI, 3, 10.

^{page 43 note 9} Plut., Pelopidas, XXX, 1 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 43 note 10} Aeschines, II; Demosthenes, XVIII; XIX passim.

^{page 44 note 1} Plut., Aristides, X, 7Google Scholar.

^{page 44 note 2} Herod. VI, 136.

^{page 44 note 3} Ibid. VIII, 79 ff.

^{page 44 note 4} Thucyd. V, 19, 2; 24, 1; see Andrewes, A. and Lewis, D. M., ‘A note on the Peace of Nicias’, J.H.S. LXXVII (1957), 177 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 44 note 5} Aristotle, , Politics, II, 6, 1271 aGoogle Scholar.

^{page 44 note 6} Strabo, 1, 3, 1.

^{page 44 note 7} Lysias, XIII, 13, 34.

^{page 44 note 8} Xen., Hell. VI, 3, 7Google Scholar; Aristotle, , Rhetoric, II, 23Google Scholar, 1398 b.

^{page 44 note 9} Hyperides ffr. 40–4, 55–65, ed. Blass. [Dem.], L, 4–6, 12.

^{page 44 note 10} Aesch. II, 139.

^{page 44 note 11} Thucyd. IV, 118, 11.

^{page 44 note 12} Dem. XXIV, 12.

^{page 44 note 13} Harpocration, s.v. Μελανωπός.

^{page 44 note 14} I.G. II², 106 = Tod, 135.

^{page 44 note 15} Aristotle, , Rhet. I, 14Google Scholar, 1374 b; Plut., Dem. XIIIGoogle Scholar; Athenaeus, XII, 553 D (Anaxandrides).

^{45 note 1} Xen., Hell. V, 4, 20Google Scholar.

^{page 45 note 2} Ibid. VI, 3, 4.

^{page 45 note 3} Hyperides, fr. 97, ed. Blass.

^{page 45 note 4} Ibid. IV, 5, 13.

^{page 45 note 5} E.g. Plato, , Protagoras, 315 DGoogle Scholar; Hesychius, s.v. ἄκομψον (Cratinas).

^{page 45 note 6} I.G. II², 43 = Tod, 123 = S.E.G. XVI, 44Google Scholar.

^{page 45 note 7} I.G. II², 107 = Tod, 131. In the following year, early in 367, Diophantus proposed a similar decree praising Mytilene, recorded in the same inscription.

^{page 45 note 8} Aristotle, , Rhet. III, 17Google Scholar, 14, 1418 b.

^{page 45 note 9} Philochorus, fr. 149 (Jacoby).

^{page 45 note 10} Dem. XX, 150.

^{page 45 note 11} Xen.Hell. VII, 9Google Scholar, 2 ff.

^{page 45 note 12} Tod, 137 = Schweigert, E., Hesperia, VIII (1939), 5 ffGoogle Scholar., no. 3.

^{page 45 note 13} I.G. II², 141 = Tod, 139 = S.E.G. XII, 83Google Scholar.

^{page 45 note 14} Aristotle, , Rhet. III, 10, 1411 aGoogle Scholar. In 354 he spoke against the law of Leptines, as did Aristophon (Dem. XX, 146).

^{page 46 note 1} Diod. Sic. XV, 38, 3; Nepos, Cornelius, Epaminondas, 6, 1Google Scholar.

^{page 46 note 2} Xen., Hell. VI, 3, 1Google Scholar; Isocrates XIV, Plataean Oration.

^{page 46 note 3} Xen., Hell. VI, 2, 3Google Scholar; Diod. Sic. XV, 45, 1 ff.

^{page 46 note 4} I am indebted to T. T. B. Ryder and M. I. Finley for their arguments and criticisms and to Sheffield University, Research Fund Committee, for assistance.

Article contents

The Athenian Embassy to Sparta in 371 B.C.

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests