Hagnon, son of Nikias ( grc-gre, ῞Αγνων ὁ Νικίου) 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 ...

general and statesman. In 437/6 BC, he led the settlers who founded the city of

Amphipolis Amphipolis ( ell, Αμφίπολη, translit=Amfipoli; grc, Ἀμφίπολις, translit=Amphipolis) is a municipality in the Serres (regional unit), Serres regional unit, Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is ...

in Thrace; in the

Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of th ...

, he served as an Athenian general on several occasions, and was one of the signers of the

Peace of Nicias The Peace of Nicias was a peace treaty signed between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta in March 421 BC that ended the first half of the Peloponnesian War. In 425 BC, the Spartans had lost the battles of Pylos and Sphacteria, a severe d ...

and the alliance between Athens and

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

. In 411 BC, during the oligarchic coup, he supported the oligarchy and was one of the ten commissioners ('' probouloi'') appointed to draw up a new constitution. Hagnon's first appearance in the historical records comes in 437/6 BC, when he led a group of Greek colonists to found a city at the mouth of the river Strymon. Two previous attempts to found an Athenian colony on this valuable location (the site was desirable both because of its strategic position on the trade routes between the Hellespont and mainland Greece and because it was the primary outlet for trade from the wealthy Strymon valley) had been defeated by hostile native populations, but Hagnon, leading a multinational force of settlers, defeated the Edonians who held the location and founded the city of Amphipolis on an island in the river. For a number of years, Hagnon was honored as the founder of Amphipolis, but in 422 BC, with Amphipolis allied to Sparta and at war with Athens, the Amphipolitans transferred that honor to the Spartan general

Brasidas Brasidas ( el, Βρασίδας, died 422 BC) was the most distinguished Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War who fought in battle of Amphipolis and Pylos. He died during the Second Battle of Amphipolis while winning o ...

, who died fighting outside that city while preventing an Athenian attempt to recapture it. Hagnon held military command for Athens on several occasions, sharing in the command of the force that sailed against Samos in the

Samian War The Samian War (440–439 BC) was an Ancient Greek military conflict between Athens and Samos. The war was initiated by Athens's intervention in a dispute between Samos and Miletus. When the Samians refused to break off their attacks on Miletus ...

of 440 BC and commanding a force that attempted to capture

Potidaea __NOTOC__ Potidaea (; grc, Ποτίδαια, ''Potidaia'', also Ποτείδαια, ''Poteidaia'') was a colony founded by the Corinthians around 600 BC in the narrowest point of the peninsula of Pallene, the westernmost of three peninsulas at ...

in 430 BC. In 421 BC, he was one of the Athenian signers of the

, the treaty, negotiated by an Athenian general with the same name as his father (no relation), that brought an end to the so-called Archidamian War, the first stage of the Peloponnesian War; he also signed the alliance between Athens and Sparta that was concluded in that same year. In 411 BC, when revolutionary forces at Athens took advantage of the disorder in the wake of the

Sicilian Expedition The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place from 415–413 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Athens on one side and Sparta, Syracuse and Corinth on the other. The expedition ended in a devas ...

to overthrow the Athenian democracy and replace it with an oligarchy, Hagnon was a member of the government of 400 oligarchs that was established, and served as one of the ten commissioners charged with drafting a new constitution. His son

Theramenes Theramenes (; grc-gre, Θηραμένης; died 404 BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian statesman, prominent in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War. He was particularly active during the two periods of Oligarchy, oligarchic government at ...

, meanwhile, played a central role in both the establishment and the overthrow of that government."Theramenes," from ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'',

Simon Hornblower Simon Hornblower, FBA (born 1949) is an English classicist and academic. He is Professor of Classics and Ancient History in the University of Oxford and senior research fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Biography Born in 1949, he was educate ...

and Antony Spawforth, ed.

Notes

References

* Hornblower, Simon, and Anthony Spawforth ed., ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (Oxford University Press, 2003) *

External links

Livius.org: Hagnon
{{Authority control Ancient Athenian generals 5th-century BC Athenians Settlers in Amphipolis Athenians of the Peloponnesian War