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Document Details : Title: Eucrate, Lisicle e Agnone Author(s): SALDUTTI, Vittorio Journal: Ancient Society Volume: 43 Date: 2013 Pages: 75-100 DOI: 10.2143/AS.43.0.2992605 Abstract : The Aristotelian Athenian Constitution suggests that the decline of Athens began either during or after the government of Pericles, due to the increasing importance of leaders who were not aristocratic landowners. The so-called comic diadochè of demagogues in the Knights of Aristophanes and some verses of the Plutoi of Cratinus help us in reconstructing the careers of Eucrates, Lisicles and Hagnon, who made their first steps in the political arena during the hegemony of Pericles, thanks to previous economic successes. They were all involved in trade and industry, so their wealth grew with the development of the empire during the first decades of the second half of the fifth century. After the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war and the spread of the plague which killed Pericles and other well-born scions, they rose to the leadership of the demos. The two steps of their political careers — their economic and political rise, then their achieved leadership — make us understand the relationships between economy and politics in classical Athens and why Aristotle split in two times the beginning of the fall of the city. |
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