Aristocrates (Athens)

Aristocrates ( Greek  Ἀριστοκράτης ; * around 455 BC; † 406 BC ), the son of Skelias (or Skellios), was a politician, general and admiral in classical Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) . Chr.). He came from a family belonging to the oldest Athenian nobility.

Plato mentions him in his dialogue with Gorgias as the donor of a precious votive gift in the Pythian temple, which suggests that Aristocrates had a considerable fortune.

For many years Aristocrates was active in Athenian politics and for the Athenian state. He rendered loyal service to democracy, but was politically on the side of the oligarchic party, of which he was one of the leading figures.

421 BC He was among the Athenian ambassadors who swore and thus concluded the so-called "Peace of Nicias " and the subsequent alliance between Athens and Sparta .

Aristophanes plays in his 414 BC Chr. Premiered comedy The birds on the name and politics of Aristocrates and criticized it.

412 BC In the 3rd century BC, Aristocrates was on duty as a general for his hometown in the Peloponnesian War, which flared up again, and drove on their behalf to the island of Chios , which is allied with Athens, to check their loyalty to the alliance.

Aristocrates is considered a party friend of the moderately oligarchic politician Theramenes . With this he worked mainly in 411 BC. In the abolition of the rule of the four hundred , with which both politicians were no longer satisfied, closely together.

408 BC At the instigation of Theramenes, the former Athenian general Alcibiades returned , who was charged with desecrating the Mysteries of Eleusis in 415 BC. He fled to the Spartans , returned to his hometown and was immediately proclaimed commander in chief of the armed forces with unrestricted authority. Aristocrates, who, as Theramenes' comrade in arms, probably also participated in this recall, was appointed general for the land forces together with Adeimantos . In the same year Alkibiades, Aristocrates and Adeimantos led an unsuccessful expedition against the island of Andros .

After Alcibiades was deposed as commander-in-chief in the same year, Aristocrates was appointed to one of the ten commanders who should replace him. The following year, 406 BC He was involved as an Athenian admiral in the naval battle of the Arginus , where he was responsible for commanding the left wing. Athens achieved a glorious victory in this battle. Since the admirals were unable to rescue the sailors from sunken ships or at least rescue the corpses due to a storm, six of them were brought to justice by the angry and incited people's assembly and executed at the instigation of Theramenes. Among them were Pericles the Younger , a son of the famous statesman Pericles , Aristocrates, Erasinides , Diomedon , Lysias and Thrasyllos . The philosopher Socrates was among the judges that day and was the only one who withstood the pressure of the angry crowd and refused to approve the condemnation of the admirals and thus their execution .

swell

• Aristophanes: The Birds , verse 126.
• Aristotle: The State of the Athenians . Section 33.2.
• Demosthenes: Against Theocrinus , p. 1343.
• Diodorus: 13, 69; 13, 74; 13, 101.
• Lysias: Against Eratosthenes . Section 66.
• Plato: Gorgias (472a).
• Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War . (V. 19, 24; VIII. 89, 92)
• Xenophon: Hellenika . I. 4. § 21; 5. § 16; 6. § 29; 7. § 2, 34

literature

• Edward Elder: Aristocrates . In: William Smith (Ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . tape 1 : Abaeus – Dysponteus . Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1870, p. 303 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).