Theramenes

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Theramenes ( Greek Θηραμένης Thēraménēs ; * circa 455 BC; † 404 BC), the son of Hagnon , was a politician in ancient Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC).

His upbringing was under the influence of the sophist Prodikos . As a politician, he was a supporter of the oligarchy and a seedy person in the Peloponnesian War. First he participated in the oligarchical overthrow in 411 BC. Under the rule of the Council of Four Hundred , but later he re-placed himself at the head of the people who supported democracy in 410 BC. Restored in Athens. After the fall of the rule of the Four Hundred, Theramenes did not shy away from accusing his old party friends Archeptolemus , Onomakles and Antiphon of treason and accusing them of having an embassy to Sparta to harm Athens under all circumstances in order to rise in the favor of the people Want to make peace with the Spartans.

In 406 BC He took part as trierarch in the victorious battle of the Arginus and was accuser of the eight strategists of the battle in the subsequent Arginus trial . This swaying earned him the nickname "der Kothurn " because it fits both feet.

405-404 BC He negotiated with the Spartan Lysander about the surrender of Athens. After the surrender of Athens he was a member of the oligarchic dictatorship and fell out with Kritias as a representative of a moderate oligarchy . This caused his sentencing to death in 404 BC. Chr.

One can see his inglorious end as a consequence of his wavering between democratic and oligarchic sentiments, although Aristotle pronounces a favorable judgment on him in his “ Athenian Constitution ”.

Xenophon narrates in the Hellenica that Theramenes poured out the last drops while drinking the hemlock cup, like playing Kottabos , and cynically dedicated them to “the beautiful Critias”.

literature

  • Johannes Engels: The Michigan papyrus on Theramenes and the formation of the "Theramenes myth" . In: ZPE 99 (1993), pp. 125–155 ( online as PDF )
  • Herbert Heftner : The tría kaká des Theramenes. Reflections on Polyzelos fr. 3 and Aristophanes fr. 563 Kassel-Austin. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 128 (1999), pp. 33–43 ( online as PDF )
  • 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 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg : "The revolution eats its own children" - Kritias vs. Theramenes . In: Leonhard Burckhardt , Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg (Ed.): Great trials in ancient Athens . Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46613-3 , p. 144–156, here p. 155 .
personal data
SURNAME Theramenes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Athenian politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 455 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 404 BC Chr.