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The date and purpose of the pseudo-Xenophon constitution of Athens*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Harold B. Mattingly
Harold B. Mattingly
Affiliation:
Cambridge
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Extract

This short political pamphlet has survived to our day through the lucky chance of being included in the minor works of Xenophon, and for over 150 years it has been the subject of lively scholarly debate. The unknown author was a confirmed oligarch, but with an insider's insight into Athenian democracy. Though he cannot approve of this form of government, he is astute enough to see that the system works well on its own terms and that it is therefore popular; it will prove very hard to overthrow. The work has proved difficult to tie down to an historical context.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , December 1997 , pp. 352 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1997

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References

1 Roscher, W.Werke und Zeitalter des Thukydides(Klio1[1842],409–529).Google Scholar

2 On 443 see G. W. Bowersock, HarvStud 71 (1966), 33–46. For c. 410–6 see Maria Jose Fontana, L'Athenaion Politeia del V secolo a.c. (Palermo, 1968), pp.32f. and 55–84. For the full range of datingsGoogle Scholar seeFrisch, .H,The Constitution of the Athenians(Copenhagen, 1942), pp49f., 55–62,79–86; G. Serra, RendAcadLin 17 (1962), 285–90; Fontana, pp. 6f., n. 5.Google Scholar

3 H. Nesselhauf, Klio Beiheft 30 (1930), 44–7 and 71–5: B. D. Meritt, AJA 29 (1925), 246–50 and 252–7 with Athenian Financial Documents (Michigan, 1934), pp. 16–20 and A TL 3, 68 and 70: Bowersock, op. cit. (n. 2), 38. Nesselhauf anticipated my view on the administrative detailsGoogle Scholar

4 See AJA 29 (1925), 252: Athenai Diades, Tenedos, Galepsos, Phokaia, and Neapolis (Hellespontine). Meritt was unhappy about Neapolis and in ATL 1 (1949), 352 and 354 (Register), the crucial evidence was transferred to Neapolis (Kavalla) in Thrace. For Phokaia see IG I3 266.1.11 (irregular), 269.1.14 (name and 2 talent tribute restored), 270.1.12 (2 T in 442/1). For changes within periods see IG I3 61.5–7 (Methone): Nesselhauf, op. cit. (n. 3), p. 68f: ATL 3, 64f. and 67Google Scholar

5 For Abydos' tribute record see ATL 1, 216; IG I3 267.II.3 and 269.11.12 with 270.II.8 (442/1), 271.11.29 and 272.1.31Google Scholar

6 See H. B. Mattingly, BSA 65 (1970), 133–6 and M. Pierart, BCH108 (1984), 172–6.Google Scholar

7 See IG I3 71.26–33: M. Pierart, op. cit. (n. 6), p. 176. R. Meiggs, however, thought that this provision implied a failure to have an assessment in 426 (Athenian Empire [Oxford,1972], pp. 322f. and 533).Google Scholar

8 See Roscher, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 529. He was countered by H. Helbig, RhMus 16 (1861), 522: H. Muller-Strubing, Philologos Suppl. 4(1880), 36f.; A. W. Gomme, HarvStud Suppl. 1 (1940), 224f.Google Scholar

9 See Thuc. 4.78–79.2, 80, and 83.4–6 with Gomme, Historical Commentary on Thucydides 3, p. 551 and 85.3–5 (Brasidas at Akanthos). Later Spartans, lacking Brasidas' advantages, could not get through with their troops to Macedon: see Thuc. 4.132 and 5.12–13.Google Scholar

10 Lysias 21.2 (409/8) and IG II2 3025 (fourth century) confirm choregoi for the Lesser Panathenaia. Perhaps these contests were not tribal and so irrelevant to IG 112 1138 (a record of Pandionis).Google Scholar

11 For the institution of the Hephaistia in 421/1 see A. Kirchoflf in IG 1 Suppl. p. 64; Stengel, GriechKulturAltertum1 (1920), 224 and 250f. and RE 8, col. 290; L. Ziehen, Leges Sacrae (1906), p. 53 n. 27. For major reordering see Hiller in IG I2 84; E. Kalinka, Die PseudoXenophontische (Berlin, 1913), pp. 278f.Google Scholar

12 I keep Kirchhoff's supplement in line 32f. against IG I3 82, which prefers Ziehen's . The penteteris will be the Great Panathenaia. I reject Kirchhoff's in line 33, which IG retains. As Oehler and Schwoboda showed (RE 7, col. I987f. and 9, col. 256), the lampas in the fourth century was still organized by gymnasiarchs. The introduction of h[ in line 35 as something new seems a further argument against in line 32fGoogle Scholar

13 For compare IG I3 32.18f., 52.24f., 78.23f. Bendis's festival was certainly instituted in 413/2: see Plato, Republic I.327–8A. Unluckily IG I3 136 (Bendis) is more fragmentary than 82, so that nothing can be won by close comparison of the two texts.Google Scholar

14 Only survives of the name in IG V 82.5, but such Attic names are extremely rare. Hyperbolos marginally the least uncommon inGoogle ScholarOsborne, M. J., Byrne, S. G.,Lexicon of Greek Personal Names II, Attica(Oxford,1994)Google Scholarhas just five certain Athenian entries. For Hyperbolos as Councillor probably in 421/0 see Plato fr. 166f. in J. D. Edmonds, Frag. Gr. Com. I, p. 559f.; RE 9, col. 256Google Scholar

15 For Kleon see Aristophanes, Knights 923–6 and 773–6 with Thuc. 3.19.1 and 36.2–6; for Thoudippos see IG 13 71.4 and 55. Thoudippos is an exceptionally rare Attic name (only three entries in LGPN 2): Kleon Thoudippou Araphenios, tamias in 337/6 (PA 8669), was evidently named after his maternal grandfatherGoogle Scholar

16 See IG I3 61.34 and 68.5 and 27f.; D. N. Lewis, ZPE 60 (1984), 108, with my comments in EMG 32 (1988), 321. S. Hornblower, Commentary on Thucydides 1 (Oxford, 1991), p. 517f., on Thuc. 3.104, gave my idea a cautious welcome.Google Scholar

17 L. Ziehen, Leges Sacrae (1906), p. 53 n. 27.Google Scholar

18 AJPh 72 (1951), 182 n. 2; Hist 10 (1961), 179Google Scholar

19 See Helbig, op. cit. (n. 8), p. 519 n.; T. Bergk, Griechische Literaturgeschichte 4 (1887), 238f. n. 3.; Kalinka, op. cit. (n. 11), pp. 286–8.Google Scholar

20 Frisch, op. cit. (n. 2), p. 317, thought that Kalinka's ‘sensazionelle Monstreprozesse’ made far too much of the context, which in his view dealt with routine religious misdemeanours. He erred the other way. On p. 287 n. 3 Kalinka claimed that 'Eine Anspielung auf die Hermokopiden des Jahres 415… ist durch die Entstehungszeit der ausgeschlossenGoogle Scholar

21 See Gomme, op. cit. (n. 8), pp. 226–8 and 240–5: Serra, op. cit. (n. 2), pp. 299–307.Google Scholar

22 Bergk, op. cit. (n. 190, p. 238f.). On atimia see Andokides 1.73–6 and RE2, coll. 2101–4.Google Scholar

23 For the scare see Thuc. 6.93.1 and Andok. 1.43. For the evacuation policy compare Thuc. 2.13.2,14.1 and 20–2.Google Scholar

24 See Thuc. 6.93.1 and 105.1–2 with 7.18–19.Google Scholar

25 See Thuc. 7.28.4 with K. J. Dover, Hist. Comm. Thuc. 4, p. 402. The change was a response to the tough financial situation created by the permanent enemy presence at Dekeleia. As Dover saw, this must have taken some time before it really came home. 26Google Scholar

26 Thuc. 3.31.1 (Alkidas); Thuc. 8.64.3^1; Thuc. 8.35.1 with 3.8.1 and Xen. Hell. 1.1.2, and 5.19 (Dorieus at Rhodes and Thourioi) with Andok. 4.12 (exiles at Thourioi). For Thourioi see also Thuc. 6.104.2 with 7.33.5–6 and 57.11 (still pro-Athenian); 'Plutarch' Moralia 835.d-e (pro-Athenians expelled in 413/2).Google Scholar

27 Seech. 1.2–9.Google Scholar

28 Ch. 1. lOf. He first quipped that Athenians were so ugly and badly dressed that you might hit one by mistake, thinking him foreign or a slaveGoogle Scholar

29 by mistake, thinking him foreign or a slave. 29 Ch. 2.20. For Alkibiades see Miiller-Strubing, op. cit. (n. 8), p. 74; Serra, op. cit. (n. 2), pp. 304–7. For Periander see IG I3 174.4 and Aristophanes, Peace 394f. (422/1) with IG I3 472.3E (Hephaistion statues, 421–415) and Andok. 1.27, 36, and 43 with Birds 1556–61(415). For Charikles see Andok. 1.36 with Thuc. 7.20.1. Andok. 1.36 seems to make him a crypto-oligarch. Most scholars therefore see him as the Charikles of the Thirty: Andok. 1.101, Xen. Hell. 2.3.2 and Mentor. 1.2.31–7, and Aristotle Politics 1305 b 25 b.Google Scholar

30 See Kalinka, op. cit. (n. 11), pp. 7–16; Gomme, op. cit. (n. 8), pp. 217–19Google Scholar

31 Kalinka, op. cit. (n. 11), pp. 9–12. See Acharnians 377–84, 502–19, 630–49. For attack on the handling of Assembly business see lines 16–173Google Scholar

32 On Kleon's reaction to the Knights see Wasps 1015–37 and Kalinka, op. cit. (n. 11), pp. 9–11. I have profited greatly from Ian Story's excellent study of these issues in Scholia 4 (1995), 3–23. He thinks that Kleon's second attack on Aristophanes may have been provoked by Clouds 575–94 rather than Knights and that Wasps was Aristophanes' rejoinder. He may well be rightGoogle Scholar

33 See Acharnians 818–32 and 910–28; Fontana, op. cit. (n. 2), p. 95 ('verbo forse tolto del linguagio comico'); Antiphon 5.78 and 80 with 6.43.Google Scholar

34 See Fontana, op. cit. (n. 2), p. 87, seeing a fourth-century usage and missing the comic parallels. For them see Muller-Strubing, op. cit. (n. 8), p. 177; Kalinka, op. cit. (n. 11), p. 166; Frisch, op. cit. (n. 2), p. 229Google Scholar

35 Lysias 12.21 and 20.4 with 25.24 and 27 show how atimoi could become supporters of an oligarchic coup. See Birds 766f. for 414. Some editors have wrongly taken this to be of the victims of the Hermokopidai investigation. See A. Somerstein, Birds (1987), p. 101, and N. Dunbar, Birds (1995), pp. 473f. But those were exiles, not atimoi. See earlier n. 22.Google Scholar

36 Thuc. 8.67.4 stresses how formidable the task of overthrowing democracy was. And ch. 92.11 and 97 with 99.1 show the strength of the underlying attachment to democracy leading to the early replacement of the Four Hundred by the Five Thousand. In the summer following Kyzikos the full democracy would return.Google Scholar