Euphemus (archon) explained

Euphemus (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Εύφημος) was archon of Athens in 417/416 BC. In Thucydides, he is given a speech which portrays Athens as a tyrannical city.

Archonship

Euphemus gives his name to the year of his archonship in 417/416 BC.^[1] During his archonship, the Argive alliance with Athens is renewed and the Melian expedition is undertaken.^[2]

Thucydides

His speech rendered in Thucydides, Book 6 (72-88.2), as Athenian ambassador to Camarina gives reply to Hermocrates the Syracusan: "Euphemus responds in terms that characterize all Athenian political strategy as an assessment of imperial expediency."^[3] Athens has become a tyrant.^[4]

Notes and references

1. Benjamin D. Meritt, "The Spartan Gymnopaidia", Classical Philology, Vol 26, No 1, (January 1931), pp 70-84, accessed 23 November 2011.
2. Jacob Geerlings, "The Athenian Calendar and the Argive Alliance", Classical Philology, Vol 24, No 3 (July 1929), pp 239-244 accessed 23 November 2011.
3. Thomas F. Scanlon, "Thucydides and Tyranny", Classical Antiquity, Vol 6, No 2 (Oct, 1987), pp 286-301, accessed 23 November 2011
4. P. J. Rhodes, "Democracy and Empire" in Loren J. Samons II (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles, Cambridge University Press, 2007, Cambridge Collections Online accessed 24 November 2011