Eukrates

Eukrates ( Greek Εὐκράτης Eukrátēs ) was a brother (or half-brother) of the famous Athenian general Nikias (* around 480 BC; † 404 BC). He was himself a general in the service of the city in 405/404 BC. Chr.

Eukrates and his brother Diognetus were probably sons from a second marriage of the wealthy Athenian Nikeratos. The historian Xenophon reports that the family's wealth came from the yield of silver mines in the Attic Laurion . In the Athens sanctuary of Dionysus , excavations found common tripods of Nikias, Eukrates and Diognetus, a form of offering that only wealthy families could afford.

According to the speaker Andokides , Eukrates was one of the victims of the false information given by the bribed informer Diokleides after the so-called Hermenfrevel , a mutilation of religiously significant statues, in Athens in 415 BC. However, he was evidently able to evade arrest and later - when Diocleides had been exposed - to return unmolested.

As the speaker Lysias mentions, Eukrates was born after the sea ​​battle at Aigos Potamoi lost by the Athenians in 405 BC. Chr. Elected general in an extremely difficult military situation.

Lysias also reports that Eukrates was in 404 BC. Was asked by the Thirty Tyrants to join the oligarchic government. In this situation, the People's Party was already defeated. The request made to him gave Eukrates the opportunity to rise to the government of Athens. He refused, however, because he obviously did not agree with the policy of the thirty, which was too subservient to the Athenian arch enemy Sparta , and - as is reported in Lysias - "did not want to see the walls razed, the ships surrendered to the enemy ..." and our people should be "in bondage." In other words: Eukrates rejected the peace treaty and its conditions negotiated with the Spartans by Theramenes , one of the oligarchical politicians. Since he presumably represented this decision publicly and was brought in connection with a democratic conspiracy against the oligarchic rule, the tyrants had to eliminate him as a dangerous critic and "enemy of peace" and sentenced him to death by drinking the hemlock cup . Also the nephew of Eucrates, the ever-popular in Athens and rich Niceratus , was a victim of tyranny.

There is a speech by Lysias dating from around 395 BC. Was written in defense of a (not known by name) son of Eucrates, who fought in court against the expropriation of his inherited property and tried to influence the judges with a speech written by Lysias in his favor.

swell

• Andokides: About the Mysteries. (P. 24).
• Lysias: About the confiscation of the property of Nicias' brother. (§§ 4, 5, 24).

literature

• Christoph Löhr: Greek family consecrations. Investigations into a form of representation from its beginnings to the end of the 4th century. v. Chr .; Publishing house Marie Leidorf. Rahden / Westphalia 2003. [Cat.-No. 62] (57)
• Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. Indianapolis / Cambridge 2002. p. 212 ff.