Email this article Between Tyranny and Democracy: Political Exiles and the History of Heraclea Pontica
Abstract
In the surviving fragments of his treatise On Heraclea the historian Memnon assigns a central role to the exiles from Heraclea. As opponents of tyranny, they represented a destabilising element, a constant danger to the survival of the Clearchid regime. This article explores the events that led to the banishment of the exiles, reconstructs the politics of expulsion implemented by the tyrants, and clarifies the status of the exiles and their political orientation in the light of Memnon’s frequent juxtaposition of the exiles’ demand to return to their homeland and the restoration of democracy.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Ameling 1994
W. Ameling, Prosopographia Heracleotica, in L. Jonnes (ed.), The Inscriptions of Heraclea Pontica with a Prosopographia Heracleotica, (IK, 44), Bonn 1994, 115-168.
Avram 2008
A. Avram, Héraclée du Pont et ses colonies pontiques: antécédents milésiens (?) et empreinte mégarienne, in M. Lombardo - F. Frisone (a cura di), Colonie di colonie. Le fondazioni sub-coloniali greche tra colonizzazione e colonialismo, Galatina 2008, 209-227.
Barat 2012
C. Barat, Relations et solidarités entre les cités grecques de la côte sud de la mer Noire (VIIe-IIIe s. av. J.-C.), Pallas 89 (2012), 217-244.
Baynham 2021
E. Baynham, “Selling Alexander”: The Concept and Use of “Propaganda” in the Age of Alexander, in E. Baynham - J. Walsh (eds.), Alexander the Great and Propaganda, London 2021, 1-13.
Baynham-Walsh 2021
E. Baymham - J. Walsh (eds.), Alexander the Great and Propaganda, London 2021.
Bettalli 1990
M. Bettalli (a cura di), Enea Tattico. La difesa di una città assediata (Poliorketika). Introduzione, traduzione e commento, Pisa 1990.
Billows 2010
R. Billows, s.v. Nymphis (432), in Brill’s New Jacoby Online 2010.
Bittner 1998
A. Bittner, Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft in Herakleia Pontike: eine Polis zwischen Tyrannis und Selbstverwaltung, Bonn 1998.
Bosworth 1988a
A. B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire. The Reign of Alexander the Great, Cambridge 1988.
Bosworth 1988b
A. B. Bosworth, From Arrian to Alexander. Studies in Historical Interpretation, Oxford 1988.
Burstein 1976
S. M. Burstein, Outpost of Hellenism. The Emergence of Heraclea Pontica on the Black Sea, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1976.
Carlsson 2010
S. Carlsson, Hellenistic Democracies: Freedom, Independence and Political Procedure in Some East Greek City-states (Historia Einzelschriften 206), Stuttgart 2010.
Carney 1988
E. D. Carney, The Sisters of Alexander the Great: Royal Relicts, Historia 37.4 (1988), 385-404.
Carney 2013
E. D. Carney, Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon. A Royal Life, Oxford 2013.
Cavallo 2019
B. Cavallo, Eraclea Pontica: le tirannidi e i segni del potere, Aristonothos 15 (2019), 45-60.
Culasso Gastaldi 2004
E. Culasso Gastaldi, Le prossenie ateniesi del IV secolo a.C. Gli onori asiatici, Alessandria 2004.
D’Agostini 2020
M. D’Agostini, Can Powerful Women Be Popular? Amastris: Shaping a Persian Wife into a Famous Hellenistic Queen, in R. A. Faber (ed.), Celebrity, Fame, and Infamy in the Hellenistic World, Toronto, Buffalo, London 2020, 70-89.
D’Agostini 2021
M. D’Agostini, Alexander the Great and his Sisters: Blood in the Hellenistic Palace, in M. D’Agostini, E. M. Anson - F. Pownall (eds.), Affective Relations and Personal Bonds in Hellenistic Antiquity: Studies in Honor of Elizabeth D. Carney, Oxford, Philadelphia 2021, 17-36.
Dana 2011
M. Dana, Culture et mobilité dans le Pont-Euxin. Approche régionale de la vie culturelle des cités grecques, Bordeaux 2011.
Dana 2019
M. Dana, Regards grecs sur le Pont-Euxin: réflexes changeants d’un espace «colonial», in V. Cojocaru - L. Ruscu - Th. Castelli - A.-I. Pázsint (eds.), Advances in Ancient Black Sea Studies. Historiography, Archaeology and Religion, Cluj-Napoca 2019, 55-78.
Davaze 2013
V. Davaze, Memnon, historien d’Héraclée du Pont: commentaire historique, Université du Maine 2013 (diss.):
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00951324/document
Debord 1999
P. Debord, L’Asie Mineure au IVe siècle (412-323 a.C.). Pouvoirs et jeux politiques, Bordeaux 1999.
De Luna-Zizza 2016
M. E. De Luna - C. Zizza (a cura di), Aristotele, La politica. Libri V-VI, Roma 2016.
Desideri 1967
P. Desideri, Studi di storiografia eracleota I, SCO 16 (1967), 366-416.
Desideri 1991
P. Desideri, Cultura eracleota: da Erodoro a Eraclide Pontico, in B. Remy (éd.), Pontica I. Recherches sur l’histoire du Pont dans l’Antiquité, Istanbul 1991, 7-24.
Dmitriev 2004
S. Dmitriev, Alexander's Exiles Decree, Klio 86.2 (2004), 348-381.
Dueck 2006
D. Dueck, Memnon of Herakleia on Rome and the Romans, in T. Bekker Nielsen (ed.), Rome and the Black Sea Region, Aarhus 2006, 43-62.
Düring 1951
I. Düring (ed.), Chion of Heraclea. A Novel in Letters, Edited with Introduction and Commentary, Göteborg 1951.
Fredricksmeyer 2000
E. Fredricksmeyer, Alexander the Great and the Kingship of Asia, in A. B. Bosworth - E. Baynham (eds.), Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, Oxford 2000, 136-166.
French 2004
D. French, The Inscriptions of Sinope, Bonn 2004.
Gallotta 2014
S. Gallotta, Appunti su Memnone di Eraclea, Erga-Logoi 2.2 (2014), 65-77.
Gallotta 2017
S. Gallotta, Riflessioni sull’alleanza tra Sinope, Eraclea Pontica e i Persiani, RDE 7 (2017), 217-224.
Gehrke 1985
H.-J. Gehrke, Stasis. Untersuchungen zu den inneren Kriegen in den griechischen Staaten des 5.und 4.Jahrhunderts v. Chr., München 1985.
Grainger 2017
J.D. Grainger, Great Power Diplomacy in the Hellenistic World, London, New York 2017.
Gray 2015
B. Gray, "Stasis" and Stability. Exile, the Polis, and Political Thought, c. 404-146 BC, Oxford 2015.
Grieb 2008
V. Grieb, Hellenistische Demokratie. Politische Organisation und Struktur in freien griechischen Poleis nach Alexander dem Großen (Historia Einzelschriften 199), Stuttgart 2008.
Heinemann 2010
U. Heinemann, Stadtgeschichte im Hellenismus. Die lokalhistoriographischen Vorgänger und Vorlagen Memnons von Herakleia, München 2010.
Heuss 1937
A. Heuss, Stadt und Herrscher des Hellenismus in ihren Staats- und völkerrechtlichen Beziehungen (Klio Beihefte 26), Leipzig 1937.
Jefremov 2006
N. V. Jefremow, Договор о симмахии между Синопой и Гераклеей Понтийской (попытка исторической интерпретации), Voprosy Epigrafiki 1 (2006), 78-105.
Lana 1974
I. Lana, La lotta al tiranno nell'epistolario apocrifo di Chione di Eraclea, PPol 7.2 (1974), 265-282.
Landucci 1992
F. Landucci, Lisimaco di Tracia: un sovrano nella prospettiva del primo ellenismo, Milano 1992.
Lester-Pearson 2021
M. Lester-Pearson, Tyranny under Alexander the Great and the Diadochi: The Clearchids of Heraclea Pontica, in S. Lewis (ed.), Tyranny: New Contexts (DHA Suppl. 21), Besançon 2021, 141-160.
Loddo 2016
L. Loddo, The kathodos of Tegea's Exiles: Civic Laws and Royal diagrammata, in C. Bearzot - F. Landucci (eds.), Alexander's Legacy: Texts, Documents, Fortune, Rome 2016, 237-255.
Lund 1992
H. S. Lund, Lysimachus: A Study in Early Hellenistic Kingship, London, New York 1992.
Ma 1999
J. Ma, Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor, Oxford 1999.
Mack 2015
W. Mack, Proxeny and Polis. Institutional Networks in the Ancient Greek World, Oxford 2015.
Malosse 2004
P. L. Malosse (éd.), Les Lettres de Chion d’Héraclée, Salerno 2004.
Mavrojannis 2017
T. Mavrojannis, Alexander the Great «King of Asia» at Arbela and Babylon in October 331 BC. His Ecumenical Macedonian–Persian Ideology, Geographia Antiqua 26 (2017), 121-150.
Mehl 1986
A. Mehl, Seleukos Nikator und sein Reich, Lovanii 1986.
Mossé 1962
C. Mossé, Un aspect de la crise de la cité grecque au IVe siècle. La recrudescence de la tyrannie, RPhilos 152 (1962), 1-20.
Muccioli 2004
F. Muccioli, „Il re dell’Asia“: ideologia e propaganda da Alessandro Magno a Mitridate VI, Simblos 4 (2004), 105–158.
Müller 2013
S. Müller, The Female Element of the Political Self-Fashioning of the Diadochi: Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and their Iranian Wives, in V. Troncoso - E.M. Hanson (eds.), After Alexander. The Time of the Diadochi (323-281 BC), Oxford 2013, 199-214.
Nawotka 2012
K. Nawotka, Persia, Alexander the Great and the Kingdom of Asia, Klio 94.2, 2012, 348-356.
Paganoni 2015
E. Paganoni, Bithynia in Memnon’s Perì Herakleias. A Case Study for the Reappraisal of Old and New Proposals, AHB 29 (2015), 57-79.
Paganoni 2019a
E. Paganoni, Bitinia e Paflagonia tra Alessandro ei Diadochi (334-301 a. C.), in L. Prandi (a cura di), EstOvest: confini e conflitti fra Vicino Oriente e mondo greco-romano, Roma 2019, 137-167.
Paganoni 2019b
E. Paganoni, Forging the Crown. A History of the Kingdom of Bithynia from its Origin to Prusias I, Roma 2019.
Poddighe 2004
E. Poddighe, Atene e le lotte tra i diadochi nell’anno dell’arconte Archippo II (318/7 a.C.), AHB 18.1–2 (2004), 1–24.
Poddighe 2013
E. Poddighe, Propaganda Strategies and Political Documents: Philip III’s diagramma and the Greeks in 319 BC, in V. Alonso Troncoso - E.M. Anson (eds.), After Alexander. The Time of the Diadochi (323-281 BC), Oxford 2013, 225-240.
Prandi 2020
L. Prandi, Bisanzio prima di Bisanzio. Una città greca fra due continenti, Roma 2020.
Robinson 1997
E. W. Robinson, The First Democracies. Early Popular Governments outside Athens (Historia Einzelschriften 107), Stuttgart 1997.
Robinson 2011
E. W. Robinson, Democracy Beyond Athens. Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age, Cambridge 2011.
Rosenmeyer 2006
P. A. Rosenmeyer, Ancient Greek Literary Letters. Selections in Translation, Oxford, New York 2006.
Rubinstein 2013
L. Rubinstein, Forgive and Forget? Amnesty in the Hellenistic period, in K. Harter-Uibopuu - F. Mitthof (hrsgg.), Vergeben und Vergessen? Amnestie in der Antike, Holzhausen 2013, 127-162.
Seibert 1979
J. Seibert, Die politischen Flüchtlinge und Verbannten in der griechischen Geschichte, Darmstadt 1979.
Saprykin 1997
S. J. Saprykin, Heracleia Pontica and Tauric Chersonesus before Roman Domination / VI – I Centuries B.C., Amsterdam 1997.
Saprykin 2020
S. J. Saprykin, The Pontic Kingdom and the Seelucids, in R. Oetjen (ed.), New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics. Studies in Honor of Getzel M. Cohen, Berlin, Boston 2020, 225-239.
Squillace 2004
G. Squillace, Βασιλεῖς ἢ τύραννοι. Filippo II e Alessandro Magno tra opposizione e consenso, Soveria Mannelli 2004.
Tarn 1969
W. W. Tarn, Antigonos Gonatas, Oxford 1969 [1913].
Tober 2013
D. J. Tober, The Autobiographical Community: Local Historiography in Classical and Hellenistic Greece, Princeton (diss.):
https://www.proquest.com/docview/1474913681?pqorigsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
Trundle 2006
M. Trundle, Money and the Great Man in Fourth Century BC. Military Power, Aristocratic Connections and Mercenary Service, in S. Lewis (ed.), Ancient Tyranny, Edinburgh 2006, 65-76.
Veligianni Terzi 1997
C. Veligianni Terzi, Wertbegriffe in den attischen Ehrendekreten der klassischen Zeit (Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien 25), Stuttgart 1997.
Wallace 2018
S. Wallace, Alexander the Great and Democracy in the Hellenistic World, in M. Canevaro - B. Gray (eds.), The Hellenistic Reception of Classical Athenian Democracy and Political Thought, Oxford 2018, 45-72.
Waterfield 2021
R. Waterfield, The Making of a King. Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon and the Greeks, Chicago 2021.
Whitehead 1990
D. Whitehead, Aineias the Tactician. How to Survive under Siege, Oxford 1990.
Yarrow 2006
L. M. Yarrow, Historiography at the End of the Republic. Provincial Perspectives on Roman Rule, Oxford 2006.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199277544.001.0001
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7358/erga-2022-001-llod
Copyright (©) 2022 Rita Laura Loddo – Editorial format and Graphical layout: copyright (©) LED Edizioni Universitarie
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Announcements
Erga/Logoi accepts books for review
The books are to be sent to the Executive Editor
Call for papers Vol. 13 (2025)
Authors have to read through the Information for Authors and the Author guidelines carefully before beginning the submission process.
Erga-Logoi. Rivista di storia, letteratura, diritto e culture dell'antichità
Registered by Tribunale di Milano (20/09/2012 n. 353)
Online ISSN 2282-3212 - Print ISSN 2280-9678
Executive Editor: Cinzia Bearzot
Editorial Staff: Paolo A. Tuci (Coordinator) - Marcello Bertoli - Livia De Martinis - Laura Loddo - Annabella Oranges - Alessandra Valentini
Editorial Board: Gaetano Arena - Ralf Behrwald - Margherita Cassia - Paolo Cesaretti - Bernard Eck - Michele Faraguna - Massimo Gioseffi - Dominique Lenfant - Lauretta Maganzani - Roberto Nicolai - Giovanni Parmeggiani - Marina Polito - Umberto Roberto - Francesca Rohr - Marco Sannazaro - Stefan Schorn - Paolo A. Tuci - Gianpaolo Urso - José Vela Tejada - Robert Wallace
Emeritus Editorial Board: Serena Bianchetti - Giovannella Cresci - Lia Raffaella Cresci - Ugo Fantasia - Franca Landucci - Rosalia Marino - Riccardo Vattuone
© 2001 LED Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto