Aristophanes (diplomat)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aristophanes ( Greek Ἀριστοφάνης Aristophánēs ; * around 425 BC; † 389 BC in Athens ), son of Nicophemus , was like his father in the years after the Peloponnesian War (which lasted from 431 to 404 BC ) active in the foreign affairs of the city of Athens. Both were in close contact with the famous admiral Konon , who at times also served the Persian great king, and with Konon's friend Euagoras I , the ruler of the island of Cyprus .

394 BC BC Konon, who was then in command of the Persian fleet, defeated the Spartan fleet at Knidos on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor . He installed his colleague Nikophemus as governor on the island of Kythera, south of the Peloponnese . His military victories allowed Konon to make considerable fortunes privately as well. Nicophemus, the father of Aristophanes, should also have earned well through his services on behalf of Konons.

Aristophanes himself traveled in 393/392 BC. BC on behalf of Konon to Sicily to persuade the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse to enter into an alliance with Euagoras, the friend and ally of Athens, and to adopt a hostile attitude towards the Lacedaemonians in favor of the Athenians. Since Dionysius owed his position of power in Sicily not least to his good relations with Sparta, this mission was delicate and difficult. However, Aristophanes seems to have handled them with great skill. Although he did not succeed in seducing the Syracusan to change the alliance, he persuaded him to remain militarily silent and refrain from any aid he had promised Sparta.

Later (after 391 BC), when Euagoras strove to make itself independent from Persia , which was making threatening preparations for the conquest of Cyprus, Aristophanes in Athens was eager to get aid to Euagoras from public and private funds bring. The Athenians provided him with ten triremes as reinforcement for their Cypriot ally. One of these ships was commanded by Demos , the stepbrother of the philosopher Plato , known for his beauty . The small Athenian fleet was intercepted and defeated on its way to Cyprus by the Spartan Admiral Teleutias , who had 27 ships and was on its way to Rhodes .

Soon after, probably 389 BC. BC, Nicophemus and Aristophanes were - as the famous rhetor Lysias announced in his speech about the fortunes of Aristophanes (or. 19) - as a result of an unknown accusation, which is perhaps connected with the failure of this auxiliary expedition in favor of the Euagoras, which they advised and operated , imprisoned in Athens and sentenced to death and executed in summary proceedings (without the possibility of defense and individual examination).

Since the assets of those who were executed fell into the hands of the state treasury, the Aristophanes family got into great trouble. The widow of Aristophanes was a granddaughter of the respected Athenian general Xenophon , son of Euripides, who was involved in the siege of Potidaia at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War († 429 BC). She had three underage children who now had to be looked after and raised by their brother. Her first marriage was to Phaedrus of Myrrhinous , known from Plato's dialogues , a friend and admirer of the speaker and lawyer Lysias. In the speech mentioned, Lysias describes part of the trial (which probably took place in 387 BC) of the legacy of the two executed.

swell

  • Lysias: " About the wealth of Aristophanes " (or. 19).
  • Xenophon: " Hellenika ". (Book IV 8.8).

literature

personal data
SURNAME Aristophanes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Athenian diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH around 425 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH 389 BC Chr.
Place of death Athens