Eratosthenes (oligarch)

Eratosthenes was a politician in ancient Athens . After the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) he was one of the thirty tyrants who died in the city from August 404 BC. Until March 403 BC. With the approval and support of the Spartans , who later also maintained an occupation force there, established a reign of terror based on oligarchic principles. His exact life dates are not known.

Activity in the Government of the Four Hundred

Eratosthenes played - according to the famous speaker Lysias (* around 445 BC; † 380 BC) in his court speech against Eratosthenes - as early as 411 BC. A leading role within the then oligarchical government of the four hundred .

After Athens' defeat by Sparta in 404 BC. According to Lysias, he was at the side of Critias one of the leading figures of the oligarchic party and already played in the preparation of the oligarchic overthrow of 404 BC. An active role.

Official service in the Government of the Thirty Tyrants

When the oligarchic government (the so-called " Rule of Thirty ") had to pay the Spartan occupation troops that they had requested and thus got into financial difficulties, its members Peison and his colleague Theognis developed the plan, the so-called residents of Athens who had traveled to Athens Loot metics who did not have full political rights. Since these people are dissatisfied with the new system of government anyway, the government should use this as an excuse to criminalize them as political opponents and rob them of their property in order to fill the state coffers. Eratosthenes also took part in this action. Among those affected was the speaker Lysias, who was just able to flee abroad himself. His brother Polemarchus, whose philosophical endeavors were valued by Plato , was less fortunate: he was arrested by Eratosthenes and thrown into prison, where he had to drink the hemlock.

The thirties government by the exile -driven Democrats , the u. a. also received support from Thebes , fought heavily, in the end in the manner of a guerrilla war. After the military defeat at Munychia against the democratic troops under Thrasybulus , at which u. a. the leading oligarchs Critias and Charmides , both relatives of Plato, died, the oligarchic party split in the city of Athens into a numerically smaller radical wing and a mostly moderate wing.

Member of the ten-man government

Most of the radical thirty men, representing an uncompromising line, fled to the fortified neighboring town of Eleusis . Eratosthenes, on the other hand, who must be counted among the compromising wing of the oligarchic group, stayed in Athens. He was elected there together with his tyrant colleague Pheidon into the still oligarchic college of ten men , the Dekadouchoi . The oligarchical council gave this government the task of bringing about a reconciliation with the democratic party concentrated in Piraeus . Under Pheidon and Eratosthenes, however, the ten-man government also tried to gain military strength and, with Spartan money, recruited its own troops to fight the People's Party in Piraeus. As the philosopher Aristotle reports in his book "The State of Athens", it was therefore voted out and replaced by a second Decaduch College under Rhinon von Paiania, who tried more seriously to achieve a reconciliation with the opposition. After lengthy struggles and negotiations, a reconciliation finally came about between the oligarchic and democratic parties under Spartan pressure, which, in addition to the reintroduction of the democratic system, also included an amnesty . Trusting in this amnesty, Eratosthenes stayed in Athens.

Court process

The speaker Lysias complained to him shortly after his return to the city, probably in the year 403 BC. BC, for the murder of his brother Polemarchus on trial. Eratosthenes testified at the trial that he had spoken out against the robbery and murder of the Lysias family, but that his opinion would not get through. After all, he would only have taken part in the campaign against the Metoks out of fear of his colleagues in the 1930s government. It is not clear whether Eratosthenes was convicted and executed on the basis of Lysias' accusation speech.

swell

• Aristotle: The State of the Athenians . ( Athenaion Politeia , chap. 38).
• Lysias: Speech against Eratosthenes . (Speech XII).
• Xenophon : Hellenika . (Book II. 3. § 2, 21).

literature

• György Németh: Kritias and the Thirty Tyrants. Studies on the politics and prosography of the ruling elite in Athens 404/403 BC Chr. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-515-08866-0 .
• Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Classical Athens. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1999.

Remarks

1. ↑ Franz Kiechle, in: Der Kleine Pauly , Vol. 2 (1967), Col. 344: "Accused, but acquitted".