Listed 1 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "KILI Ancient demos ATHENS" .
KILI (Ancient demos) ATHENS
Archinus (Archinos). An Athenian statesman and orator. He was a native of Coele,
and one of the leading Athenian patriots, who together with Thrasybulus and Anytus
occupied Phyle, led the Athenian exiles back, and overthrew the government of
the Thirty tyrants, B. C. 403 (Demosth. c. Timocrat.). It was on the advice of
Archinus that Thrasybulus proclaimed the general amnesty (Aeschin. de Fals. Leg.).
Archinus, moreover, carried a law which afforded protection to those included
in the amnesty against sycophantism (Isocrat. in Callim.). Although the name of
Archinus is obscured in history by that of Thrasybulus, yet we have every reason
for believing that he was a better and a greater man. Demosthenes says, that he
was often at the head of armies, and that he was particularly great as a statesman.
When Thrasybulus proposed, contrary to law, that one of his friends should be
rewarded with a crown, Archinus opposed the illegal proceeding, and came forward
as accuser of Thrasybulus (Aeschin. c. Ctesiph.). He acted in a similar manner
when Thrasybulus endeavoured in an illegal way to procure honours for Lysias (Plut.
Vit. X. Orat.; Phot. Cod. 260). There are several other passages of ancient writers
which attest that Archinus was a skilful and upright statesman. He is also of
importance in the literary history of Attica, for it was on his advice
that, in the archonship of Eucleides, B. C. 403, the Ionic alphabet (Ionika grammata)
was introduced into all public documents (Suid. s. v. Samion ho demos).
Some ancient as well as modern writers have believed that Archinus wrote a funeral
oration, of which a fragment was thought to be preserved in Clemens of Alexandria
(Strom. vi. p. 749). But this is a mistake which arose with Dionysius of Halicarnassus
(De adm. vi dicend. in Demosth.) from a misunderstood passage of Plato (Menex.).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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