Pheidon (Athens)

Pheidon was one of the thirty tyrants who lived in Athens after the end of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta (431–404 BC) in August 404 BC. Until March 403 BC. Established an oligarchical reign of terror and maintained it for several months - most recently with the help of a Spartan occupying force. His exact life dates are not known.

Pheidon seems to have been assigned to the moderate wing of the oligarchs in his political work (like his colleague Eratosthenes ), because he is described as an opponent of the agitator Critias and he was trusted to have a conciliatory effect after the overthrow of the "Thirty Tyrants". He was therefore like Eratosthenes 403 BC. Elected to a member of the first college of ten men (the so-called "Decaduches"), who were installed as government. This government was also based on oligarchic principles. But she was tasked with bringing about reconciliation with the residents of the port city of Piraeus . Pheidon disappointed these hopes, however, because after a short time he traveled to Sparta to request military and financial support for the continuation of the military struggle against the democratic resistance.

As reported in Athenaion politeia , the ten-man government under Pheidon was voted out of office after a while and replaced by a second Decaduch College under Rhinon of Paiania , who tried more seriously than Pheidon to achieve reconciliation with the democratic opposition. The two governments of the ten men lasted only a short time. They did not receive sufficient support from Sparta and were ultimately overwhelmed by the military events. The Spartan King Pausanias succeeded in working together with Rhinon and the democratic Piraeus party to bring about a reconciliation between the Athenians.

Nothing is known about Pheidon's further fate. It is possible that he (like his colleague Eratosthenes at first) continued to live in Athens as a simple private individual, trusting the negotiated amnesty, and died there.

swell

• Aristotle: The State of the Athenians ( Athenaion Politeia ). Cape. 38.
• Lysias : Speech against Eratosthenes .
• Xenophon : Hellenika . Book II. 3. § 2; II. 4. Sections 23, 28.

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.