Callixeinus ( grc, Καλλίξεινος) was an

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

politician who lived around 400 BC, the time of

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

. After the

Battle of Arginusae The naval Battle of Arginusae took place in 406 BC during the Peloponnesian War near the city of Canae in the Arginusae islands, east of the island of Lesbos. In the battle, an Athenian fleet commanded by eight strategoi defeated a Spartan fle ...

, Callixeinus argued that the generals who failed to rescue Athenian shipwreck victims should be tried together by the Assembly. Euryptolemus brought a suit (''

graphe paranomon The ''graphḗ paranómōn'' ( grc, γραφή παρανόμων), was a form of legal action believed to have been introduced at Athens under the democracy sometime around the year 415 BC; it has been seen as a replacement for ostracism, which fe ...

'') against Callixeinus claiming that the proposal was unlawful, but was forced to drop it in the face of public opinion. At the trial, the remaining generals – two, Aristogenes and Protomachus, had already fled Athens rather than face trial – were found guilty, and sentenced to death. A later rhetorical work by

Aelius Aristides Publius Aelius Aristides Theodorus ( grc-gre, Πόπλιος Αἴλιος Ἀριστείδης Θεόδωρος; 117–181 AD) was a Greek orator and author considered to be a prime example as a member of the Second Sophistic, a group of celebr ...

claims that Callixenus also proposed that the generals should not be buried, though this is certainly ahistorical. As public opinion turned against the motion brought by Callixeinus, a case was brought against him and he fled Athens. He returned in the general amnesty of 403, and died in Athens of starvation.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * {{Ancient Athenian statesmen 406 BC Ancient Greek statesmen 5th-century BC Athenians