Πόλεις (fr. 251)

305

fr. 251 K.-A. (237 K.)
zVE0Barb Ar Ra 97Q
(Θηραμένης) ότι δοκεΐ προσγεγράφθαι τι) πολιτεία, Άγνωνος αύτόν ποιησαμένου,
ώς Εϋπολις Πόλεσιν
(Theramenes) He seems to have been added to the list of citizens, since Hagnon adopted
him,144 according to Eupolis in Poleis

Discussion Raspe 1832. 104; Storey 2003. 227
Citation context A gloss on the words ού Χίος άλλα Κεΐος (“not a Chian but
a Keian”; Dionysus’ capping description of Theramenes as a man capable of
getting out of any difficult situation) by a commentator who took the point
to be that Theramenes was not actually an Athenian but from Ceos (thus also
Plu. Nic. 2.1), and who offered the reference to Eupolis in partial support of
that thesis.145
Interpretation Hagnon son of Nikias of the deme Steiria (PA 162 + 171; PAA
107380) was active in Athenian political and especially military affairs from
at least ca. 440 BCE to 412/11 BCE, when he served as one of the probouloi
appointed to manage the city after the disaster in Sicily (Lys. 12.65).
This is the earliest reference to Theramenes (PA 7234; PAA 513930; see in
general Davies 1971. 227-8), who otherwise comes to the attention of our
sources only in 411 BCE, when as one of the city’s generals he took part in
the overthrow of the democracy (Th. 8.68.4; Lys. 12.65; [Arist.] Ath. 33). By
adroitly changing sides again and again, Theramenes survived until 404 BCE,
when he was one of the Thirty Tyrants but was nonetheless put to death by
an extremist faction within them led by Critias (X. HG 2.3.23-56; [Arist.]
Ath. 37.1; D.S. 14.5.3). Theramenes is also mentioned in comedy at Ar. Ra. 541
(see Dover 1993 ad loc.\, fr. 563; Philonid. fr. 6. For his career and subsequent
evaluations of it, see Harding 1974.
That Theramenes was Hagnon’s adopted rather than biological son is al-
most certainly a comic slander. Cf. Cratinus’ claim that Hagnon’s father Nikias

144 For this sense of the middle of ποιέω (garbled at Rusten 2011. 259 “when Agnon
had made him one”), see LSJ s.v. A.III.
145 For Ar. Ra. 970 “not a Chian but a Keian”, see Dover 1993 ad loc. Theramenes is
described as a student of Prodicus of Ceos in a number of late sources (e. g. Ath.
5.220b; Plu. Mor. 836f; ΣνΕ Ar. Nu. 361), which may simply be an inference from the
reference to the island in the line from Frogs.