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Non-Phylarchean Tradition of The Programme of Agis IV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Alexander Fuks
Alexander Fuks
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
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Extract

It is generally held that Plutarch's authority in his Vita Agidis was Phylarchos and that, consequently, our knowledge of Agis' programme derives solely from the Phylarchean, pro-Spartan, and generally unreliable tradition. There is little doubt that Plutarch's biography of Agis is based on Phylarchos. However, our knowledge of the programme of Agis does not depend solely on the Phylarchean tradition.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , May 1962 , pp. 118 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1962

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References

page 118 note 1 See the recent study by Gabba, E., Athenaeum xxxv (1957), 3 ff., 193 ff.Google Scholar

page 118 note 2 See my forthcoming ‘Agis, Cleomenes, and Equality’ in C.P.

page 118 note 3 Teletis Reliquiae, recognovit Hense, O., editio secunda (Tübingen, 1909), p. 23.Google Scholar

page 118 note 4 … Teles, , loc. cit.Google Scholar

page 118 note 5 Dittenberger, , Sylloge 3, no. 502.Google Scholar

page 118 note 6 Ag. 6. 5.Google Scholar

page 119 note 1 Ag. 16. 5.Google Scholar

page 119 note 2 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U., Antigonos von Karystos (Berlin, 1881), pp. 300 ff.Google Scholar; cf. also Droysen, J. G., Gesch. d. Hell. 2 iii. 1. 407 f., 435Google Scholar; Dittenberger, , Sylloge 3, no. 502 ad loc.Google Scholar; P.W. s.vv. Hippomedon, Teles. On Teles in general see Hense, , op. cit., Prolegomena, ix ff.Google Scholar; Wilamowitz, , op. cit., pp. 292 ff.Google Scholar, Dudley, D. R., A History of Cynicism (London. 1937). PP. 85 ff.Google Scholar

page 119 note 3 Teles, , op. cit., pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

page 119 note 4 On the see especially Plut, . Lye. 27. 3–4Google Scholar; Inst. Lac. 19–20Google Scholar; Arist, . Fragm. 543Google Scholar; Plat, . Leg. 950 bGoogle Scholar; Prot. 342 cGoogle Scholar; [Xen.] Lac. Resp. 14. 4Google Scholar; Thuc, . 1. 144. 2; 2. 39. 1Google Scholar; Aristoph, . Av. 1012–13Google Scholar; also Plut, . Ag. 10. 3–5.Google Scholar On the extreme rareness of inclusion of non-Spartans in the citizen-body see, e.g., Hdt. 9. 35; cf. also Plut, . Dion 17. 3Google Scholar; Demosth, . 23. 212Google Scholar; Dion, . Halic. 2. 17.Google Scholar—According to Arist, . Pol. 1270a34–37Google Scholar there existed a tradition that under the kings of old non-Spartans were admitted to the body-politic (cf. also Inst. Lac. 22 for a similar tradition). This may have some connexion with the question of citizen-rights in the time of the second Messenian war (see Newman, W. L., The Politics of Aristotle, ii [Oxford, 1887], 331Google Scholar; Busolt-Swoboda, , Griech. Staatsk., p. 658, n. i.Google Scholar). The suppressed clause in the sentence of Aristotle is ‘but they now do not’ or ‘though they do not now’ (Newman, , loc. cit.Google Scholar). To Aristode exclusiveness was a characteristic of Sparta as he knew her (cf. Fragm. 543Google Scholar). [Xen.] Lac. Resp. 14 says that Spartans started going abroad, not that they opened their citizen-body.

page 119 note 5 Ag. 8. 3–4.Google Scholar Teles speaks also of inclusion of former helots, not mentioned in the rhetra: … Ag. 8. 3Google Scholar— … Teles, , loc. cit.Google Scholar; cf. also Wilamowitz, , op. cit., p. 303, n. 16Google Scholar; Tarn, in The Hellenistic Age (Cambridge, 1923), p. 134Google Scholar; Porter, , Plutarch's Life of Aratus (Cork University Press, 1937), pp. lxii f.Google Scholar Can it be supposed that Teles' words (Teles, , loc. cit.Google Scholar) have some connexion with Agis' attack on king Leonidas: (Ag. 10. 4Google Scholar), supported by Lysandros with a reference to an alleged ancient law which (Ag. II. 2)?Google Scholar

page 120 note 1 Cf. Ag. 10. 3 ff.Google Scholar

page 120 note 2 Tarn, commenting on Agis' reforms in C.A.H. vii. 743Google Scholar, remarks: ‘The proposed inclusion of metics excited great interest in Greece, for some might even be Asiatics.’ He quotes (ibid., note 1) Alexander, of Aetolia, , Anth. Pal. 7. 709.Google Scholar This epigram is a fictitious epitymbion on Alkman in which the poet is made to eulogize himself on becoming a Spartan in spite of his Asiatic origin, and being made by Heliconian Muses ‘greater than die tyrants Daskyles and Gyges’. It is hard to see how it echoes Agis' proposals unless it is supposed that in such an oblique way Alexander of Aetolia wanted to remind his readers that granting citizenship to foreigners was once a Spartan practice. That would not seem a very likely supposition. (Alkman might well have been an Asiatic Greek who was granted Spartan citizenship; cf. Crates ap. ‘Suid’, s.v. see Schmid-Stahlin, , Griech. Literaturgesch. i. 1. 457, n. 2.)Google Scholar

page 120 note 3 Cf. Pohlenz, M., Antikes Fiihrertum, Cicero de officiis und das Lebensideal des Panaitios (Berlin, 1934), p. 116.Google Scholar

page 120 note 4 On Lysandros' role see Ag. 8. 1; also 6. 3–4; 9. 1; 11. 1–2; 13. 3; 19. 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 120 note 5 See Pohlenz, , op. cit., p. 118.Google Scholar

page 121 note 1 For starting after Agis' death see Polyb, . 4. 34. 3–9Google Scholar; Ag. 16. 4–5Google Scholar; Cleom. 1. 1; 18. 3.Google Scholar