The Date of Cylon: A Study in Early Athenian History

By John Henry Wright

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The Date of Cylon: A Study in Early Athenian History is a history of the first recorded event of Athens,,the Cylonian Affair.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles River Editors
• Release date: Mar 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781518375613

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THE DATE OF CYLON: A STUDY IN EARLY ATHENIAN HISTORY

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John Henry Wright

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Copyright © 2016 by John Henry Wright

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.: INTRODUCTORY

II.: THE PROBLEM.

III.: THE STORY OF CYLON: OUR SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

IV.: MEGACLES AS ARCHON.

V.: CYLON A YOUNG MAN.

VI.: THE ALCMEONIDAE BEFORE PEISISTRATUS.

VII.: THEAGENES OF MEGARA.

VIII.: THE DATE OF EPIMENIDES.

IX.: RESULTS.

The Date of Cylon: A Study in Early Athenian History

By

John Henry Wright

THE DATE OF CYLON.

I.

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INTRODUCTORY

THE FIFTY YEARS PRECEDING THE legislation of Solon witnessed most significant changes in the political, social, and economic conditions of Athens, and in the relations of that little state to the world without. The main features of these changes were, as regards internal development, first, the dawning of popular political consciousness—the birth, from the throes of economic distress, of Democracy,—and, secondly, an increased intensity of factional feeling among the several families of the ruling Aristocracy; and, as regards both domestic and foreign relations, we have to note the development of local industries and of foreign trade, i.e. the beginnings of the commercial enterprise which subsequently aided in giving Athens her political supremacy among the Greek states.

The dates of a few events in these and in earlier important movements have been preserved to us. If we are to place any confidence in the recorded lists of Olympic and Pythian victors, of Attic archons, etc.,—many of which were made up contemporaneously,—and in the chronological studies of ancient Greek scholars, which were based upon these lists, we must regard most of these dates as fairly well established.

Attic history opens with the rule of kings by right of birth; this early merges into that of kings by election, for such must we regard the so-called life-archons. About the middle of the eighth century b.c., the last life-archon gives place to the decennial archon: this is evidently a movement on the part of the aristocratic families in the direction of greater control. In the first half of the seventh century b.c., the decennial archontate is replaced by a board of nine chief magistrates annually chosen. According to the recently discovered treatise on the Athenian Commonwealth, this board was historically developed in the following way: at a very early date the office of Polemarch (‘Field-marshal’), and afterwards that of Archon (‘Regent’), were established for the purpose of providing coadjutors for the King; very much later—when the elections became annual—this board of three was enlarged by the addition of the six Thesmothetae. At some date not to be determined, perhaps not before the time of Solon, but possibly when the archontate became annual, the Archon took precedence of the King and this precedence was ever afterward retained. All these changes in the nature and tenure of the chief magistracy clearly testify to the increasing influence of the leading families, seeking to limit and circumscribe, as far as might be, the power of rivals in office. It should be remembered that throughout these times, and probably for long afterward, the privilege of election to this board of officials belonged for the most part to the nobles, commonly called Eupatrids, and that the number of families constituting this class was not large. In the seventh century b.c. Athens was a community of ancient and powerful families, with social and political conditions very different from those that prevailed subsequently.

The archontate, at least before the time of Solon, and to a certain extent in the sixth century b.c., though then somewhat shorn of its powers, was not only nominally but actually the highest office in the state; it combined the widest executive and judicial functions, and was the prize eagerly sought after by the ambitious. The archons in this period are commonly men of note and importance,—not the figureheads of the fifth and later centuries, when the choice was by lot from a considerable number of selected persons,—and their election attested the triumphs of family or of political factions, thus having something