Rhinon

Rhinon , the son of Charicles of Paiania, was a Greek politician who briefly determined the fate of the city in classical Athens after the end of the Peloponnesian War (431 BC - 404 BC). His exact life dates are not known. He came from Paiania , an Attic demos consisting of two districts , who belonged to the Pandionis tribe and was located near Aphidnai .

According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle , he played after the fall of the rule of the thirty tyrants in 403 BC. The leading role in the (second) from a ten-man college (so-called "Dekaduchoi") formed government, which was set up by the ( oligarchic ) Athenian people's assembly to bring about a reconciliation with the democratic opposition that was occupying the port area of Piraeus . The first Decaduch government under the leadership of the former "thirty men" Pheidon and Eratosthenes was, as Aristotle describes in his book The State of Athens , voted out by the popular assembly because it had proven incapable of bringing about this reconciliation under the leadership of Pheidon.

Considering his career, Rhinon, who may also have belonged to the first ten-man government, must have belonged to the moderate wing of the oligarchic party in Athens and was likely one of the followers of Theramenes , who is considered to be the main representative of that wing. Rhinon worked closely with his colleague Phayllos von Acherdos in his reconciliation efforts. Both of them sent messages to the democratic "rebels" in Piraeus even before the arrival of a Spartan army under King Pausanias and tried to get the democrats back into the lap of the mother city of Athens even after Pausanias arrived. The reconciliation of the Athenians was brought to a close by Pausanias himself, who later had ten arbitrators come from Sparta.

The comedy writer Archippus wrote a play called Rhinon , which probably relates to the events of 403 BC. And the person of the Rhinon of Paiania concerned. This piece, which could give us further important information about this epoch, has not survived. Aeschines , a student of Socrates, is also said to have written a dialogue entitled Rhinon , which, however, has not survived.

The philosopher , publicist and orator Isocrates (* 436 BC; † 338 BC) reports in his speech Against Callimachus of an incident in which a certain Callimachus spoke of the official Patrokles, one of the archons under the ten-man government was charged and detained in the street on a sum of money belonging to the State of Athens. Rhinon joins the scene and dissolves the turmoil by referring the dispute to the competent authority.

Rhinon and his counterparts were expressly praised for their people-friendly attitude in a resolution of the Athenian people's assembly. Although they had taken on their difficult tasks in the oligarchy, as Aristotle says, “they gave an account of them in democracy and no one brought any complaint against them, either from those who stayed in the city or from those who did returned from Piraeus ”. Because of his successful administration, the Athenians immediately made Rhinon a strategist (general) for the year 403/402 BC. Elected. In the year 402/401 BC He was possibly active as a tax officer or treasurer of Athens. These appointments show the city's gratitude for his achievements.

After his brief and successful appearance on the political stage of his hometown, Rhinon seems to have returned to the second political link or even into private life, since the sources give us no details about his further career or his further life.

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• Aristotle: The State of the Athenians. (Chapter 38). Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006. Universal Library, Volume 3010.
• Isocrates: Speech against Callimachus . (18.6).

literature

• Robert Develin: Athenian Officials 684 - 321 BC Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1989, ISBN 0-521-32880-2 , pp. 147, 185, 201.
• Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. Hackett Indianapolis IN et al. 2002, ISBN 0-87220-564-9 , pp. XVIII; P. 6, 219.
• PJ Rhodes: A Commentary on the Aristotelian "Athenaion Politeia". Clarendon Press, Oxford 1993, ISBN 0-19-814942-5 , pp. 459, 462.
• Karl Friedrich Scheibe: The oligarchic upheaval in Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War and the archonate of Euclid. TO Weigel, Leipzig 1841, chapter 15 , especially p. 120 .