Hesperia

One Hundred Heroes of Phyle?

by Martha C. Taylor

Hesperia, Volume 71, Issue 4
Page(s): 377-397
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3182042
Year: 2002
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ABSTRACT:

Reconsideration of Archinos's decree for the heroes of Phyle shows that it honored men who withstood the siege of the Thirty very soon after Thrasyboulos's men took the stronghold. It is not evidence, as is sometimes claimed, that Thrasyboulos's forces were overwhelmingly foreign. On the contrary, at least half were Athenians, and the most conservative restoration of the decree suggests that almost all of Thrasyboulos's troops were Athenians at this point. Archinos's decree, however, does not honor only Athenians. Although their presence is often overlooked, one to three of the men listed were certainly either metics or Eleutherians. Finally, A. E. Raubitschek's early position that the decree honored over 100 men divided into two lists (with forty or so foreigners included in a second, lost, list) remains most likely.