Athens in the Age of Alexander1

Fordyce Mitchel

doi:10.1017/S0017383500015357

Athens in the Age of Alexander1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009

Fordyce Mitchel

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The course of Athenian history during the fifteen or twenty years after the battle at Chaeronea was strongly influenced by the dominating spirits of two men, one of whom was ever present and the other far away. The latter, of course, is Alexander, whose departure from Europe with the major portion of Macedon's fighting strength afforded the opportunity for the Greek states to develop resistance and opposition to Macedonian control which the fiery young king, had he been present, would hardly have tolerated. The former is Lycurgus son of Lycophron, the only Athenian after Pericles who so successfully dominated his city's policies and left such an indelible mark upon the city, its institutions and buildings, that his twelve-year period of influence rightly bears his name. Furthermore, so many of the things that were accomplished or attempted during this period seem to have been initiated in conscious imitation of the Golden Age, that we are justified in calling it the Silver Age of Lycurgus. His is the comprehensive programme of reconstruction, reform, and revitalization that the present paper proposes to describe.

Type: Research Article
Information: Greece & Rome , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , October 1965 , pp. 189 - 204

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500015357 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1965

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References

^{page 189 note 2} J. ix. 4.

^{page 190 note 1} Aeschin. iii. 77; Plut. Dem. xxii, Phoc. xvi.Google Scholar

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^{page 190 note 4} A. i. 7. 2–3; Ael. VH xii. 47.Google Scholar

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^{page 190 note 6} D. xvii. 15. 1–5; 25. 6–26. 3; A. i. 10. 4–6; J. xi. 4. 9–12; cf. Serve ii. no. 823.

^{page 190 note 7} D. xvii. 22. 5.

^{page 190 note 8} D. xvi. 75. 1–2.

^{page 190 note 9} D. xvi. 77. 2; Plut. Phoc. xiv. 2–5Google Scholar. Cf. Dem. xviii. 87–93.

^{page 190 note 10} Cf. Schäfer, A., Demosthenes und seine Zeit, ii ² (Leipzig, 1886), 483–4Google Scholar. Hereafter quoted as Schafer.

^{page 190 note 11} Aeschin. iii. 239 and 156 . Cf. Plut. Dem. xx.Google Scholar

^{page 190 note 12} Tod, ii. 199 with commentary.Google Scholar

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^{page 191 note 2} A. i. 16. 6, 29. 5–6, iii. 6. 2.

^{page 191 note 3} A. i. 19. 8.

^{page 191 note 4} D. xvii. 25. 6, 26, 27. 3. Cf. Berve, ii. no. 329 and no. 378.Google Scholar

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^{page 193 note 1} This is the generally accepted date for the beginning of Lycurgus' three quadrennia in office; cf. Dürrbach, , op. cit. 21–25Google Scholar; Meritt, B. D., Hesperia, xxix (1960), 2–4Google Scholar, no. 3. The question of the beginning and the end of the twelve year period is still disputed.

^{page 193 note 2} Perlman, S., Athenaeum, xli (1963), 327–55Google Scholar maintains that all the orators were of the same economic stratum, middle or upper middle class. Jones, A. H. M., Athenian Democracy (Oxford, 1957)Google Scholar, has suggested that even the ordinary citizens who attended the assemblies and served on juries were reasonably well off.

^{page 193 note 3} Berve, , ii. nos. 112, 675, and 404 respectively.Google Scholar

^{page 194 note 1} Andreades, A. M., History of Greek Public Finance, i (Cambridge, Mass., 1933), 376–8.Google Scholar

^{page 194 note 2} Meritt, B. D., Hesperia, xxix (1960), 2–4.Google Scholar

^{page 194 note 3} Aeschin. iii. 25 . Cf. Cawkwell, G. L., JHS (1963), 47–67.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 194 note 4} Meritt, op. cit. 3.

^{page 194 note 5} Hyp. Fr. 118: ‘Having been elected Administrator of the Revenue, he found sources of income.’

^{page 194 note 6} Andreades, , op. cit. 377 and n. 4.Google Scholar

^{page 195 note 1} [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 841D.Google Scholar

^{page 195 note 2} I.G. ii ². 1623. 276–308Google Scholar is a decree of 335/4 to send out the general Diotimus with two fast ships. It is known from [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 844AGoogle Scholar that Lycurgus passed a decree in the following year to honour Diotimus. The decree survives as I.G. ii ². 414aGoogle Scholar, as restored by Schweigert, , Hesperia, ix (1940), 340–1Google Scholar. The later colony to the Adriatic was also to guard against pirates. The decree, moved by Lycurgus' friend and supporter, Cephisophon of Cholargus, is typically Lycurgan in its provisions; cf. Tod, ii. 200.Google Scholar

^{page 195 note 3} Tod, ii. 189Google Scholar. There were many foreigners in Athens at this time, not only for trade, but for refuge from Macedonian oppression. It may have been at this time that a law was passed setting forth general regulations for granting enktesis; cf. Pritchett, W. K., Hesperia, xv (1946), 159–60, no. 16.Google Scholar

^{page 195 note 4} [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 841E.Google Scholar

^{page 195 note 5} I.G. ii ². 505. 1–30.Google Scholar

^{page 195 note 6} Aeschin. iii. 27–31.

^{page 195 note 7} I.G. ii ². 244Google Scholar concerns the walls of Munychia and Etioneia. The date 337/6 is based on the known activity and on the ‘litterae aetatis Lycurgeae propriae’. Cf. Maier, F. G., Griechische Mauerbauinschriften, i (Heidelberg, 1959), 40.Google Scholar

^{page 196 note 1} [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 841D and 843FGoogle Scholar; Tod ii. no. 198; I.G. ii ². 1627. 382–4Google Scholar; Thompson, H. A., Hesperia, vi (1937), 77–115.Google Scholar

^{page 196 note 2} I.G. ii ². 333.Google Scholar

^{page 196 note 3} Lewis, D. M., Hesperia, xxviii (1959), 239–47CrossRef Google Scholar. This fragment is the upper part of I.G. ii ². 334Google Scholar (S.I.G. ³271)Google Scholar. Hesperia, vii (1938), 295Google Scholar, no. 20 also concerns the management of a major festival; the mention of a musical contest makes the Greater Panathenaea a possibility.

^{page 196 note 4} Robert, L., Hellenica, xi (Paris, 1960), 189–203.Google Scholar

^{page 196 note 5} Shear, J. P., Hesperia, ii (1933), 246.Google Scholar

^{page 196 note 6} Thompson, M., Hesperia, xi (1942), 213–29, esp. 218–20.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 196 note 7} It was started 347/6 (I.G. ii ². 1168)Google Scholar and near completion in 330/29, when the supervisors of the shipyards listed surplus materials (I.G. ii ². 1627. 279 ff.)Google Scholar, indicating that the walls were up and the roof was on. One of its new doors had already been removed to a warehouse (418–20). The number of shipsheds remained constant after 330/29; cf. I.G. ii ². 1627. 397–405 with 1628. 552–9 and 1631. 253–6.Google Scholar

^{page 197 note 1} The number of four hundred given in [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 841CGoogle Scholar is borne out by the naval lists. In spite of its fine fleet Athens lost both engagements of the Hellenic war, probably because they could not pay for the best oarsmen.

^{page 197 note 2} A portion near Syntagma Square was found during construction work; cf. Travlos, J., Arch. Am. lv (1940), 165Google Scholar and ᾽Εξέλιξις τῶν ᾽Αθηνῶν (Athens, 1960), 75–78; Threpsiades, J., Arch. Delt. xiv (1960), 25–27Google Scholar; a newly found boundary stone, found in situ, indicates that the moat extended at least from the Dipylon to the Diochares Gate. The inscription is late fourth-century in my opinion: Vierniesel, G. Gruben-K., Arch. Anz. lxxix (1964), 414.Google Scholar

^{page 197 note 3} The date is discussed in Jones, J. E., Sackett, L. H., Eliot, C. W. J., BSA. lii (1957), 181–9Google Scholar and confirmed by subsequent investigation: Jones, , Sackett, , Graham, A. J., BSA. lvii (1962), 100–1Google Scholar. McCredie, J., Hesperia, Supplement xiGoogle Scholar (forthcoming) will argue for a later date.

^{page 197 note 4} This seems to have been the case at Rhamnous at least; cf. Poullioux, J., La Forteresse de Rhamnonte (Paris, 1954), 55–56, 62–66.Google Scholar

^{page 198 note 1} See my note in Hesperia, xxxiii (1964), 344, note 34.Google Scholar

^{page 198 note 2} Aristotle, , Ath. Pol. xliiGoogle Scholar; Mitchel, F., TAPA xcii (1961), 347–57.Google Scholar

^{page 198 note 3} [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 841D.Google Scholar

^{page 198 note 4} Travlos, J., op. cit. 90–92Google Scholar, Plate iii. See also Vanderpool, E., Arch. Eph. (1953–1954), 126–8.Google Scholar

^{page 198 note 5} Lycurgus' high regard for philosophers is well known. He was Plato's pupil, Xenocrates' friend and supporter, and it was probably he who commissioned the statue of Socrates to be made by Lysippus and set up in the Pompeion.

^{page 198 note 6} [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 843F.Google Scholar

^{page 198 note 7} Ibid. 843D; Lye. Leocr. 53Google Scholar; D. xvi. 88.

^{page 199 note 1} Bradeen, D. W., Hesperia, xxxiii (1964), 55–58Google Scholar; no. 16. For the epigram, see Tod ii. 176.

^{page 199 note 2} Dem. xviii. 285–9.

^{page 199 note 3} Diller, A., Race Mixture among the Greeks before Alexander (Urbana, 1937), 112 and note 54.Google Scholar

^{page 199 note 4} Arist. Ath. Pol. 42–69.Google Scholar

^{page 200 note 1} Ancient Corinth: A Guide, 6th ed. (Athens, 1960), 51–53.Google Scholar

^{page 200 note 2} Scranton, R. L. and Thompson, H. A., Hesperia, xii (1943), 291–301.Google Scholar

^{page 200 note 3} Pickard-Cambridge, A. W., The Theatre of Dionysos in Athens (Oxford, 1946), chap, iv, 134 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 200 note 4} The Athenian Agora: A Guide (Athens, 1962), 47–48Google Scholar; cf. Hesperia, vi (1937), 140–72.Google Scholar

^{page 200 note 5} Ibid. 76–78.

^{page 200 note 6} Ibid. 106–7, 206–7.

^{page 201 note 1} See above, p. 200, n. 3.

^{page 201 note 2} [Plut.] Vit. X Or. 841FGoogle Scholar. A surviving copy of the Lycurgan original is the famous Lateran Sophocles. The statues of Aeschylus and Euripides are discussed by Richter, G. M. A., Greek Portraits, iv (Brussels, 1962), 24–29.Google Scholar

^{page 201 note 3} I.G. ii ². 3042.Google Scholar

^{page 201 note 4} I.G. ii ². 3055 and 3056 respectively.Google Scholar

^{page 201 note 5} Andreades, , op. cit. 377.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 1} Cf. Plut. Per. xii. 5–7.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 2} Xen. Vect. vi. 1.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 3} Ibid. ii. 6.

^{page 202 note 4} Aeschin. i. 81–82.

^{page 202 note 5} Dem. iii. 29; [xiii.] 28–30.

^{page 202 note 6} Dem. xxii. 76–78.

^{page 202 note 7} I.G. ii ². 457 and 3776.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 8} I.G. ii ². 4259.Google Scholar

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