684/3 (O1. 24.1)

Archon

kreonPA 8781

The name of the first annual archon is preserved by Synkellos (ed. Dindorf I p. 400), Kastor of Rhodes (FGH 250 F4) and Velleius 1.8.3, and there is no reason to doubt it (Cadoux, JHS 1948, 88; Jacoby, Atthis 172, 348 n.26). The date here given is contrary to those of Cadoux and Samuel, Chron. 198. MP A 32 gives this date; Cadoux says MP can make mistakes of a year or two, but it ought not to be in error in dating the first annual archon back from the archonship of Diognetos. It seems a fortiori probable that this was the official Athenian version. Too much confidence cannot be placed in Dionysios AR 1.71.5, whose date of 752/1 for the first year of the decennial archonship renders 682/1 for the first annual one; it is suspicious because of the synchronization with the founding of Rome, which was itself a matter of chronological dispute and had been subject to different synchronization (see Dion. AR 1.74). As for other sources, Kastor does not cause a problem (Jacoby, Atthis 346 n.22). Error in Eusebios would not be unusual and if his date was 682/1 (Arm.), it could in any case be no more than correspondence with Dionysios or the tradition in which he stood. Eusebios is also tied in with Pausanias in regard to the dating of the Messenian Wars, on which Pausanias' derived dates for archonships depend.