Hyperbolus ( grc-gre, Ὑπέρβολος, ''Hyperbolos''; died 411 BC) 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 active during the first half of the
Peloponnesian war, coming to particular prominence after the death of
Cleon
Cleon (; grc-gre, Κλέων, ; died 422 BC) was an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself. He strongly advocat ...
. In 416 or 415 he was the last Athenian to be
ostracised
Ostracism ( el, ὀστρακισμός, ''ostrakismos'') was an Athenian democracy, Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be exile, expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed ...
.
Life
A fragment of
Theopompus
Theopompus ( grc-gre, Θεόπομπος, ''Theópompos''; c. 380 BCc. 315 BC) was an ancient Greek historian and rhetorician.
Biography
Theopompus was born on the Aegean island of Chios. In early youth, he seems to have spent some time at Athen ...
suggests that Hyperbolus was the son of Chremes, but surviving ostraka prove that his father's name was actually Antiphanes. Some ancient sources claim that Hyperbolus was from a slave family, though the fact that his father had a Greek name makes this unlikely.
Hyperbolus was a
demagogue
A demagogue (from Greek , a popular leader, a leader of a mob, from , people, populace, the commons + leading, leader) or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, ...
, and an allusion in
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his for ...
' play ''
The Knights
''The Knights'' ( grc, Ἱππεῖς ''Hippeîs''; Attic: ) was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, who is considered the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of cla ...
'' suggests that he – like
Cleon
Cleon (; grc-gre, Κλέων, ; died 422 BC) was an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself. He strongly advocat ...
, another demagogue of the late fifth century – supported an ambitious Athenian foreign policy. The precise details of his political career are unknown, but he seems to have been a member of the
boule and possibly a
trierarch
Trierarch ( gr, τριήραρχος, triērarchos) was the title of officers who commanded a trireme (''triēres'') in the classical Greek world.
In Classical Athens, the title was associated with the trierarchy (τριηραρχία, ''triēr ...
.
Hyperbolus was a frequent target of the authors of
Old Comedy
Old Comedy (''archaia'') is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy, according to the canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians.Mastromarco (1994) p.12 The most important Old Comic playwright is Aristophanes – whose works, with the ...
. The first to satirise him was supposedly
Hermippus
Hermippus ( grc-gre, Ἕρμιππος; fl. 5th century BC) was the one-eyed Athenian writer of the Old Comedy, who flourished during the Peloponnesian War. Life
He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger t ...
;
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
the comic poet and
Eupolis
Eupolis ( grc-gre, Εὔπολις; c. 446c. 411 BC) was an Athenian poet of the Old Comedy, who flourished during the time of the Peloponnesian War.
Biography
Nothing whatsoever is known of his personal history. His father was named Sosipolis. ...
wrote plays about him; and there are allusions to Hyperbolus in seven of
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his for ...
' surviving plays, from
Acharnians
''The Acharnians'' or ''Acharnians'' (Ancient Greek: ''Akharneîs''; Attic: ) is the third play — and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays — by the Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BC on behalf of the young drama ...
in 425 to
The Frogs
''The Frogs'' ( grc-gre, Βάτραχοι, Bátrakhoi, Frogs; la, Ranae, often abbreviated ''Ran.'' or ''Ra.'') is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus in ...
in 405 BC. By contrast, only a single "contemptuous" reference to Hyperbolus is found in Thucydides.
In 416 or 415, Hyperbolus proposed an ostracism, and was himself ostracised. In 412/11 he was murdered on
Samos
Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...
. According to Thucydides, the Athenian general Charminus was involved in the killing. Theopompus claims that Hyperbolus' body was stuffed into a wineskin and thrown into the sea; this may be derived from a comedy.
Ostracism
Sometime in the years 417–415 BC Hyperbolus was
ostracised
Ostracism ( el, ὀστρακισμός, ''ostrakismos'') was an Athenian democracy, Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be exile, expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed ...
. According to
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
, who described the ostracism in three of his ''Lives'', the ostracism was proposed by Hyperbolus himself, intending to have either
Nicias
Nicias (; Νικίας ''Nikias''; c. 470–413 BC) was an Athenian politician and general during the period of the Peloponnesian War. Nicias was a member of the Athenian aristocracy and had inherited a large fortune from his father, which was inve ...
or
Alcibiades –
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routle ...
says Alcibiades or
Phaeax – ostracised; the two politicians put aside their differences and persuaded their supporters to vote to ostracise Hyperbolus instead.
The date of the ostracism is uncertain. It was traditionally thought that Hyperbolus was ostracised in 417, six years before he was murdered. However, an inscription naming Hyperbolus as the proposer of an amendment to a law was restored in 1949 by A. G. Woodhead, which suggests that he was still active after an ostracism in 417 ought to have taken place. As Nicias and Alcibiades were potential victims of the ostracism, however, it cannot have taken place any later than 415; 415 and 416 are thus the only possible years that the ostracism can be dated to. P. J. Rhodes suggests that 415 is slightly more likely.
Legacy
Ostracism does not seem ever to have been used again in Athens after Hyperbolus, though the practice was never formally abolished. According to Plutarch, this was because the Athenians were so disgusted with the outcome of the ostracism that they abandoned the practice. Rhodes argues, however, that ostracism was in fact abandoned because it was too imprecise, and from the late fifth century the Athenians began to use more targeted methods for holding office-holders to account. For instance, 415, the probable date of the last ostracism, is also the earliest date the ''
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 ...
'' is known to have been in use.
References
Works cited
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External links
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{{Authority control
Ostracized Athenians
5th-century BC Greek people
411 BC deaths
Year of birth unknown
Ancient Greek statesmen
Ancient Greeks who were murdered