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Ephoros Book I and the Kings of Argos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. Andrewes
A. Andrewes
Affiliation:
NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD
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Extract

Ephoros is known to have conceived each of his books as a unit with a specific theme, so that where we have any quantity of material it is worth while asking what the theme of a book was supposed to be. Clearly Ephoros i was about the return of the Herakleidai and the early history of the Peloponnese, but that defines the starting-point, not the scope of the book: I propose to argue that he presented here the contrast of the three Heraklid kingdoms, the degeneration and downfall of the Argive and Messenian Heraklids as opposed to the salvation of the Spartan state by Lykourgos.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 1 , Issue 1-2 , January 1951 , pp. 39 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1951

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References

page 39 note 1 Diod. 5. 1. 4 (= Ephoros, F.Gr.H. 70 T 11), cf. 16. 1. 1.

page 39 note 2 Son and successor of Temenos in the Macedonian genealogies, Diod. 7. fr. 17 (= Theopompos 115 F 393); Satyros, F.H.G. iii. 165, fr. 21.

page 40 note 1 Whatever may be thought of the presence of an Argive suitor at the court of Kleisthenes of Sikyon (cf. C.Q. xliii, 1949, p. 74)Google Scholar, there is no ground to doubt the genealogical point that Pheidon had a son of this name. Lakedes appears as king of Argos, without father' name, in Plutarch de cap. ex initn. util. 6, mor. 89 e, in a list of men who gained a bad reputation for some trifling bad habit or from mere accident: The argument and the other examples show that we should not conclude too hastily that Lakedes was a weak character.

page 40 note 2 Not, as in Isokrates Archidamos 23, by the Spartans.

page 41 note 1 No reason is quoted from Ephoros why the Messenian kings were called after Aipytos and not Kresphontes, but there is the parallel that Kresphontes gave the non-Dorians equal rights and therefore had trouble with the Dorians.

page 41 note 2 Cf. Diod. 7, fr. 12. 8:

page 41 note 3 Cf. Diod. 7, fr. 12. 2–4; Polybios 6. 45. 7 (Ephoros F 148). Isokrates Panath. 178 seems to be working the same vein for a different purpose : here too the object is concord. Of Plato's view (Laws 3. 690 d-691 a) that Argos and Messenia gave excessive power to their kings, whereas divine providence moderated the power of Sparta's kings (691 d), there is no trace in the surviving fragments of Ephoros.

page 42 note 1 F 30, Temenos' death; F 31 and 34, Messenia; F 35, Pheidon's death at Corinth; F 36, the eponymous hero Korinthos, and Sisyphos.

page 42 note 2 Including some part of Herakles' own his tory, as F 13–14; no doubt, some description of the Peloponnese, as Nikolaos F 23 and part of Ephoros F 113; and of the Arcadians, as F 112–13, etc.

page 42 note 3 This order (Argos, Messenia, Sparta) is the natural one if I am right about the main thesis of the book. The fragments of Ephoros leave the order undecided (in F 18 the order is geographical): in Diodoros, 7. 13 might as easily precede 7. 12 as follow it: in Nikolaos, F 28–9 could follow F 34.

page 42 note 4 Their geographical situation marked them out for hegemony, but they failed because they rejected education and training (F 119 = Strabo 9. 400–1).

page 42 note 5 Commentary on F 54–6.

page 42 note 6 The three numbered fragments of Book 6 allow only the conclusion that this book dealt with the Peloponnese: F 54 and 55 concern Arcadia, F 56 the Argolid.

page 43 note 1 Diod. 15. 66, cf. Ephoros F 216.

page 43 note 2 F.Gr.H. iii a. 112 ff., on Rhianos 265 F 38–46; cf. on Kallisthenes 124 F 23–4. For the relation between Ephoros and Kallisthenes cf. also Wade-Gery in Athenian Studies (Harvard Studies enough by itself to warrant conclusions about the in CI. Phil., Suppl. i, 1940), 125.

page 43 note 3 Paus. 4. 32. 4–6, cf. Jacoby iii a, p. 175.

page 43 note 4 Diod. 8. 27 shows that Diodoros gave the story of Tyrtaios in an early book, but is not enough by itself to warrant conclusions about the book early books of Ephoros: Diodoros' First Messenian War is from Myron.

page 43 note 5 Already in Kallisthenes F 23 the full story of Aristokrates and the Arcadians appears, and one may reasonably guess that there were other allies. Apollodoros in Strabo 8. 355 and 362 gives a comparatively sober list of allies, Pausanias in book 4 a wilder collocation.

page 44 note 1 For the chronology see below.

page 44 note 2 I have sometimes been tempted to see an allusion to Meltas' downfall in Aeschylus, Supplices 401, where the king imagines the Argive people reproaching him with the words' : and if the story were known to the Athenian audience of the early fifth century, its credit would be improved. But though the direct speech of this line draws attention to it and suggests an allusion, Aeschylus' allusions are mostly topical, and it is hard to see why the Meltas story should be topical. Nor, indeed, were the Arcadians .

page 44 note 3 Diod. 7. 14 is not to be used for determining the total length of Temenid rule: as the context shows, it refers not to the Temenid but to themythical kingdom of Inachos, Lynkeus, etc.

page 44 note 4 For a restatement of this view see C.Q. xliii, 1949, PP. 76 f.Google Scholar

page 45 note 1 Jacoby, , Apollodors Chronik, 134Google Scholar n. 22, added a story from Theopompos' (115 F 71).

page 45 note 2 Among much that remains unclear is the correct expansion of Strabo's brief phrase at the end of Ephoros F 115. Did Sparta and Elis break up Pheidon's empire almost as soon as it had been gained? Or did Ephoros conceivably think of the same struggle as continuing into Meltas' time, nearer the period when Elis might be supposed to reduce the Pisatis, the date when later chronography ended the Pisatan interlude (c. 580–570, cf. C.Q. xliii, 1949, p. 76)Google Scholar ? Pheidon himself, according to Ephoros, met his death in Corinth: and of course the establishment of the Isthmian tyrannies in the middle of the seventh century means a considerable diminution of the area under Argive control.

I should like to express my gratitude to Professor H. T, Wade-Gery, who read through several drafts of this article and helped me especially in the formulation of the third section of it; and to Dr. F. Jacoby, who regards all reconstructions of Ephoros as speculative if they go beyond what is guaranteed by numbered fragments, but encouraged me to proceed with this speculation.