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Androtion F 6: τότє πρῶτον

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Mortimer Chambers
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles

Extract

Androtion, FGrH 324 F 6, and Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 22, seem to differ about the date when ostracism was introduced in Athens. But the words τότє πρῶτον in the text of Androtion have been attacked as unsatisfactory Greek. I hold that, on the contrary, they are perfectly acceptable and idiomatic.

For reference, I cite the text of Androtion, which is quoted in the lexicon of Harpocration, and of Aristotle.

Harpocration, s.v. Ἵππαρχος … ἄλλος δέ ἐστιν Ἵππαρχος ὁ Χάρμου … περὶ δὲ τούτου Ἀνδροτίων ἐν τῇ β̄ φησὶν ὅτι συγγενὴς ἦν Πεισιστράτου τοῦ τυράννου καὶ πρῶτος ἐξωστρακίσθη, τοῦ περὶ τὸν ὀστρακισμὸν νόμου τότε πρῶτον τεθέντος διὰ τὴν ὑποψίαν τῶν περὶ Πεισίστρατον, ὅτι δημαγωγὸς ὢν καὶ στρατηγὸς ἐτυράννησεν.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1979

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References

1 For the apparatus to Harpocration I rely on Keaney, J., Historia xix (1970) 1Google Scholar.

2 BICS xi (1964) 79–86. Bloch, H., Gnomon xxxi (1959) 493Google Scholar, also objected that ‘the description of the law in Harpokration as “then given for the first time” is senseless’. Some critics also cite Kaibel, G., Stil und Text der Πολ. Ἀθ. (Berlin 1893) 174Google Scholar, as having condemned F 6 as an ‘elendes Excerpt’ from Aristotle; but Kaibel did not object to τότє πρῶτον as meaningless, rather as lacking a chronological reference. Other criticisms of the text of F 6 are listed by Busolt-Swoboda, . Griechische Staatskunde ii 884Google Scholar n. 2, and by Jacoby, , FGrH Suppl. ii 115Google Scholar n. 7.

3 Androtion in fact differed with the communis opinio in the fourth century: Philochorus (see Jacoby on 328 F 30) and Ephorus (in Diodorus xi 55) seem to have shared Aristotle's view, that the law was passed by Cleisthenes, presumably c. 508 (for we may pass over the attempts to bring Cleisthenes out of retirement, or back to life, in order to enable him to pass the law c. 488). Dover, K. J., CR xiii (1963) 256Google Scholar, produced another argument against the usual theory (viz. that Aristotle and Androtion disagreed). Dover shows that they need not have disagreed, although they may have done so: if Androtion, like Aristotle, wrote that the Athenians made Hipparchus the first victim of a law ὃς ἐτέθη διὰ τὴν ὑποψίαν κτλ., Harpocration may not have realized that Androtion intended ἐτέθη to have a pluperfect meaning; and he may have paraphrased Androtion wrongly, making him say that the law was passed just at the time of Hipparchus' ostracism. If Dover's reconstruction is accepted, the responsibility for the phrase τότє πρῶτον τєθέντος (to which Dover made no objection) lies with Harpocration. I prefer, however, to accept that Harpocration quoted or paraphrased Androtion without distorting his meaning.

4 Loc. cit. (n. 1). Keaney discussed reactions to his article, Historia xxv (1976) 480–2.

5 The Origin of Ostracism (Humanitas iv: Copenhagen 1972) 51 ff.

6 It is worth noticing that words meaning ‘first’ in some other languages by no means always imply that an action or state of affairs will be repeated. Cum primum ueni means ‘just as I arrived’, and Ich bin erst jetzt gekommen, ‘I've only just now got here’; compare er ist erst zwanzig, ‘he's only twenty’.

7 I find unconvincing the attempt of Carcopino to interpret τότє as meaning ‘in that general period’: this weakens Androtion's purported words to the point of emptiness (L'ostracisme athénien 2 [Paris 1935] 25 ff.; revived by Kagan, D., Hesperia xxx [1961] 394)Google Scholar.

8 Keaney, , Historia xix (1970) 2Google Scholar, points out that τότє πρῶτον are found only in manuscripts PABG of Harpocration; the archetype, according to his stemma, will have had τότє πρῶτον, which is well and truly meaningless. Keaney supposes that τότє πρῶτον is either a further corruption or a correction by three scribes. The latter is possible—but it is also possible that τότє πρῶτον is the true reading, somehow transmitted, despite its absence from the archetype.