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Friends and Enemies in Athenian Politics1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Lynette G. Mitchell  and
P. J. Rhodes
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Extract

The Greeks divided their world into a number of contrasting categories which cut across and dissected each other: Greek and barbarian, slave and free, friend and enemy, insider and outsider, us and them. This essentially bipartite view of the world (although the dualism changed according to circumstance) affected the way Greek society worked, and the way that the Greeks thought about themselves. In this pair of papers, Professor Rhodes and I will be concerned only with one of these oppositions, friends and enemies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , April 1996 , pp. 11 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1996

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References

NOTES

2. Calhoun, G. M., Athenian Clubs in Politics and Litigation (Austin, 1913), 128Google Scholar; Connor, W. R., The New Politicians of Fifth-Century Athens (Princeton, 1971)Google Scholar, esp. 25–32; Rhodes, P. J. (Historia 44 [1995], 153–67)Google Scholarcontra Hansen, M. H., The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (Oxford, 1991), 266–87Google Scholar.

3. Connor (n. 2), 26; see also Hutter, H., Politics as Friendship (Waterloo, 1978), 27–8Google Scholar.

4. Cimon married Isodice, daughter of Euryptolemus, an Alemaeonid; Callias, son of Hipponicus, of the Ceryces, married Elpinice, who was probably Cimon's half-sister (see Davies, J. K., Wealth and the Power of Wealth in Classical Athens [New York, 1981], 119Google Scholar; hereafter, I will cite as: Davies, Wealth; cf. id. Athenian Propertied Families [Oxford, 1971], 302–5; hereafter, I will cite as: Davies, APF; for Thucydides' marriage to a sister of Cimon: 232). This was further strengthened by the marriage of Cimon's sister to Thucydides, son of Melesias, but see also Connor (n. 2), 17 for the implication of the rivalry between Thucydides, son of Melesias, and PericlesGoogle Scholar.

5. Connor (n. 2), 18–22.

6. Davies, , APF 318–19Google Scholar.

7. In practice, however, there were certain undemocratic developments, such as the official in charge of administration (ὁ ἐπτᾑ δικσήσει): see Rhodes, P.J., CJ 74 (1979/1980), 305–23Google Scholar.

8. We should note here the manipulation of this device. Elsewhere, Aeschines complains that Demosthenes writes speeches against his friends (Aeschin. 1.131, 3.52), the very thing that he now finds meritorious: on this kind of manipulation, see p. 14.

9. Note however that Hansen, M. H. (Eisangelia [Odense, 1975], 91) argues for Timotheus' conviction from Lysias fr. 228 SauppeGoogle Scholar.

10. This is a reference to Demosthenes' connections with Aeschines and Philocrates: see Rhodes below, p. 27.

11. See Sealey, R., JHS 75 (1955), 79 n 81CrossRefGoogle Scholar (= Essays in Greek Politics [New York, 1967], 181 n. 81)Google Scholar.

12. Davies, , Wealth 119–20: although, as I will argue in this paper, I do not entirely agree with his conclusion that these men relied ‘instead on their professional skill as orators and administrators to carry them towards a position of political pre-eminence’. Although oratorical ability was, of course, important, it does not provide the whole answerGoogle Scholar.

13. Rhodes, , JHS 106 (1986), 144Google Scholar; Davies, , Wealth 116–17Google Scholar.

14. See Fox, R. Lane in Osborne, R. and Hornblower, S. (edd.), Ritual Finance, Politics: Athenian Democratic Accounts Presented to David Lewis (Oxford, 1994), 135–55Google Scholar.

15. See Davies, , APF 543–7; Lane Fox (n. 14), 138Google Scholar.

16. Lane Fox (n. 14), 139 is tempted ‘to see the marriage as Aeschines' route to success’.

17. Lane Fox (n. 14), 140–1.

18. Davies, , APF 99–100Google Scholar.

19. Archedemus of Peleces, Epicrates, and Aristogeiton: see Davies, , Wealth 117Google Scholar.

20. Sealey (n. 11), 80 (=176).

21. It has been argued that the word hetairos did not have its technical meaning of membership of a hetaireia and can be interchanged with philos (Connor [n 2], 298 n. 43). This is misunderstanding the generic nature of philos, and of the non-political nature the hetaireia still could have. Yet if you called someone your hetairosin the fourth century, the political overtones of this surely could not be missed.

22. Strauss, B. S., Athens After the Peloponnesian War (London, 1986), 20–1Google Scholar, claims that many of the political leaders in this post-war era did not belong to hetaireiai, but formed new kinds of philianetworks. This is largely an argument ex sikntio, and, I think, trying to make a helaireia an entity which could not be described in other terms.

23. Cf. Dem. 52.14–15.

24. See Sealey, , Demosthenes and his Time (Oxford, 1993), 35Google Scholar.

25. Aeschines must surely have been aware of the overtones of this term: whether it was intended as a slur on Demosthenes or not, Demosthenes and Philocrates were certainly political associates between 348 and 346.

26. Although, of course, all the negotiators realized that there could only be peace on Philip's terms.

27. Davies, , APF 397–8Google Scholar.

28. See Lane Fox (n. 14), 142; Davies, , APF 396–7Google Scholar; compare Harris, E. M., Historia 43 (1994), 378–84, who denies that Nausicles became a member of Demosthenes' groupGoogle Scholar.

29. Davies, , APF 396Google Scholar.

30. Sealey (n. 24), 117–18.

31. See Tritle, L. A., Phocion the Good (London, 1988), 97–8, 101–7Google Scholar.

32. See Sealey (n. 24), 117.

33. Tritle (n. 31), 101–3, 106.

34. Sealey (n. 24), 118; though cf. Dem. 19.198 (and schol. on 197), 20.137.