Hagnon, son of Nikias () was an

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

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

Amphipolis Amphipolis (; ) was an important ancient Greek polis (city), and later a Roman city, whose large remains can still be seen. It gave its name to the modern municipality of Amphipoli, in the Serres regional unit of northern Greece. Amphipol ...

in Thrace; in the

Peloponnesian War The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek war fought between Classical Athens, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Ancien ...

, 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. Background In 425 BC, the Spartans had lost the battles of Pylos and Sphacteri ...

and the alliance between Athens and

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

. 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 is in 440 BC, when he is mentioned as one of the

generals A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. Ma ...

bringing 40

triremes A trireme ( ; ; cf. ) was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans. The trireme derives its name from its thre ...

from Athens to reinforce

Pericles Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed ...

at the Siege of Samos. In 437/6 BC, 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 (, died 422 BC) was the most distinguished Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War. He died during the Second Battle of Amphipolis while winning one of his most spectacular victories. Biography Brasidas was ...

, 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 Miletu ...

of 440 BC and commanding a force that attempted to capture

Potidaea __NOTOC__ Potidaea (; , ''Potidaia'', also Ποτείδαια, ''Poteidaia'') was a colony founded by the Corinthians around 600 BC in the narrowest point of the peninsula of Pallene, Chalcidice, Pallene, the westernmost of three peninsulas at t ...

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 Classical Athens, Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place from 415–413 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Classical Athens, Athens on one side and Sparta, Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse and Co ...

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 (; ; died 404/403 BC) was an Athenian military leader and statesman, prominent in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War. He was active during the two periods of oligarchic government at Athens, the 400 and later the Thirty Tyrants, ...

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