Callippos (Athens)

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Kallippos ( Greek Κάλλιππος Kállippos ; * around 390 BC; † 352 or 351 BC in Rhegion ) was an ancient Greek officer and politician. For thirteen months (354–353) he was the leading statesman in the then democratic city of Syracuse .

Life in Athens

Callippus came from Athens . Around 366/365 BC He was a trierarch . He was a sub-commander of the Athenian general Timomachus , on whose behalf he was in 361 BC. Chr. Kallistratos , the brother-in-law of Timomachus, took a warship from Methone and brought it to Thasos . Since Kallistratos was in exile at the time, this step was illegal. Because of this and possibly for other reasons, Apollodorus accused Kallippus .

Probably also in order to evade court proceedings, he and his brother Philostratus joined the mercenary force of Dion , which went to Sicily in 357 to overthrow the tyrant Dionysius II of Syracuse . Dion had played a prominent role at the court of tyrants in his hometown of Syracuse, but had been exiled by Dionysius II in 366 and lived in Greece ever since. In Athens, where Dion stayed longer, Callippus had become his host. The two were initiated together into the small and large mysteries of Eleusis . Both also belonged to Plato's academy . Plato later emphatically denied in his Seventh Letter that there had ever been any philosophical agreement between Dion and Callippus.

Participation in Dion's campaign

As an officer and close confidante of Dion, Callippus played an important role in the campaign against the tyrant. Since the population of Syracuse rose against Dionysius II, the attackers quickly reached their goal. When Dion moved into Syracuse and was enthusiastically received by the inhabitants, Callippus was at his side. Tyranny was abolished, democracy restored and Dion elected commander in chief of the Syracusan armed forces.

After the victory, a serious conflict broke out between the aristocratic-minded Dion and the naval commander ( Nauarch ) Herakleides . Herakleides agitated against Dion and relied on the strong democratic forces. When Dion's supporters murdered Herakleides with his approval in 354, the Syracusans became convinced that Dion wanted to become the new tyrant. As a result, the already strong opposition to him grew. Under these circumstances, Dion could only rely on his mercenaries and their officers. In particular, he trusted Callippus, who had given him no cause for suspicion. The financing of the pay payments, on which the reliability of the mercenaries depended, became more and more difficult because the citizens refused to pay for them. This weakened Dion and found himself in a very precarious position. At the same time, however, the democrats had become leaderless because of the death of Heracles. Callippus used this power vacuum to prepare for a coup. Since Dion had also entrusted him with intelligence duties - he was supposed to investigate the mood among the mercenaries in order to denounce rebels - he had a free hand in his partly conspiratorial, partly incitatory activity. Dion received repeated warnings but did not intervene. He was already so weakened that Kallippus dared to openly renounce him. Finally, Kallippus had key positions in the city occupied by his people and Dion was murdered in his house by mercenaries.

Leadership, fall and death

Southern Italy around the middle of the 4th century

With Dion's death, Callippus, who appeared as a savior from the threatening tyranny, became the decisive man in the city. The mercenaries were subordinate to him and were now financed by the citizens again. He assumed the supreme command within the framework of the democratic state order and had Dion's sister Aristomache and his pregnant widow Arete imprisoned. In prison, Arete gave birth to a son. Presumably, by imprisoning the women, Kallippus wanted to prevent possible dynastic claims of the Dion family.

Despite his position of power, Callippus was not a tyrant; the hostile tradition does not claim that either. Rather, he upheld democracy in Syracuse and took military action to eliminate tyrannical rule in other cities in Sicily.

Dion's followers left Syracuse and gathered in the city of Leontinoi (now Lentini , Syracuse Free Community Consortium ). Their leader was Hipparinos , a half-brother of the fallen tyrant Dionysius II and nephew of Dion. As Callippos in 353 BC BC undertook a campaign against the city of Katane ( Catania ), which apparently was still controlled by a garrison of the tyrant Dionysius II, Hipparinos used his absence to take Syracuse in a coup and to make himself a tyrant.

Callippus, thus driven out, crossed over to the mainland in Calabria with his mercenaries ; there, too, he fought against tyranny. In Rhegion ( Reggio Calabria ) he succeeded in driving out the garrison stationed there by Dionysius II, whereupon he granted the citizens autonomy. However, like Dion once, it was his undoing that he no longer had the means to satisfy the mercenaries' demands. In Rhegion he was born in 352 or 351 BC. Killed by two of his officers, Leptines and Polyperchon.

Sources and reception

The main sources are Plato's Seventh Letter, the Dion biographies by Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos, and Diodor's library . In ancient posterity, the image of Callippus was predominantly shaped by negative judgments. The speaker Demosthenes described him as an unpleasant person whose character is known. Dion's friend Plato and the tradition influenced by him, including Plutarch in particular, saw in Kallippus primarily an insidious traitor and murderer of a hero. According to Plutarch's report, Kallippus even swore perjury to clear his suspicions. Aristotle, on the other hand, pointed out that Callippus had openly acknowledged his attitude even before Dion's death; therefore his fault is very little.

In modern research, opinions about Callippus differ widely. Partly he was seen in the sense of Plutarch's view as a “criminal person” who acted out of sheer lust for power, partly as a real champion of democracy, who saved the democratic system from Dion's dark intentions out of conviction and wanted to free all of Sicily from arbitrary rule. The main point of dispute is whether Callippus turned against his previous friend out of sincere democratic convictions or just out of ambition. Helmut Berve believes that after the murder of Heracles, Kallippus recognized Dion's position as untenable and therefore took the initiative to prevent the old tyrant dynasty from regaining power in the chaos.

literature

  • Helmut Berve : Dion. Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, among others, Mainz 1957 ( Academy of Sciences and Literature. Treatises of the humanities and social sciences class. 1956, 10, ISSN  0002-2977 ).
  • Lionel J. Sanders: Callippus. In: Mouseion. Journal of the Classical Association of Canada. 2, 2002, ISSN  1496-9343 , pp. 1-21.
  • John S. Traill: Persons of Ancient Athens. Volume 10: K- to Kōphos. Athenians, Toronto 2001, ISBN 0-9685232-2-6 , pp. 149–151 (compilation of the sources for the biography).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, pp. 65f.
  2. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, p. 43f .; Lionel J. Sanders: Callippus. In: Mouseion 2, 2002, pp. 1–21, here: p. 2 and note 6 (and the literature cited there).
  3. ↑ Plato, Seventh Letter 333d – 334c; see Andrea Wörle: The political activity of Plato's students , Göppingen 1981, p. 88f.
  4. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, pp. 73, 115.
  5. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, pp. 116f .; but Lionel J. Sanders: Callippus is different. In: Mouseion 2, 2002, pp. 1–21, here: 12–15.
  6. ↑ Aristotle, Rhetorik 1373a19 ff.
  7. ↑ On the details Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, pp. 119f.
  8. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 57.
  9. ↑ Lionel J. Sanders: Callippus . In: Mouseion. Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 2, 2002, pp. 1–21, here: 18f., 21.
  10. ^ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, p. 123f .; Lionel J. Sanders: Callippus. In: Mouseion 2, 2002, pp. 1–21, here: 17–21.
  11. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, p. 124.
  12. ↑ Demosthenes, Speech Against Polykles , or. 50.49.
  13. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, pp. 118f. thinks this news is credible.
  14. ^ So Hermann Breitenbach: Platon and Dion , Zurich 1960, p. 69; Lionel J. Sanders provides a compilation of similar judgments: Callippus. In: Mouseion 2, 2002, pp. 1–21, here: 1f.
  15. ^ So Lionel J. Sanders: Callippus. In: Mouseion 2, 2002, pp. 1–21, here: 10–21.
  16. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, p. 115f .; similar to Kai Trampedach: Platon, the Academy and the Contemporary Politics , Stuttgart 1994, p. 123. Plutarch, a sharp opponent of Kallippos, already points out that the expectations of both the Syracusans and the mercenaries were directed towards Kallippos because of the power vacuum ( Dion 54).
personal data
SURNAME Callippus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 390 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 352 BC BC or 351 BC Chr.
Place of death Rhegion