Hellenica Oxyrhynchia is an Ancient Greek history of Greece in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BCE known only from papyrus fragments unearthed at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. The author, whose name is not recorded in the surviving fragments, is usually known by scholars simply as the "Oxyrhynchus historian". [1] [2]
One of the two major fragments, called the London papyrus, found in 1906, deals with battles in the late Peloponnesian War, particularly the Battle of Notium. [3] The other, the Florentine papyrus, found in 1934, deals with events in the early 4th century BCE. [4] [5] The entire history seems to have been a continuation of Thucydides covering events from 411 BCE to 394 BCE, much like Xenophon's Hellenica (a fragment of which has also been found at Oxyrhynchus).
The discovery of the first papyrus in 1906 led to a shift in the degree of credence that historians assigned to the ancient sources of the period. In the 19th century, Xenophon, a contemporary of the events he described, was presumed to be universally preferable to the much later Diodorus Siculus. The papyrus was found to agree more with Diodorus's account than with Xenophon's on several key issues. This led to a re-evaluation of the values of these sources, and modern historians now prefer Diodorus' account at a number of points.[ citation needed ]
While the historian's identity has been extensively debated by modern scholars, a consensus has not been achieved. Among the authors suggested at early stages have been prominent historians such as Ephorus and Theopompus, [6] although most of these have been strongly objected to on grounds of style, presentation, or subject matter. The most likely candidate seems to be Cratippus, an Athenian historian of the 4th century BCE. [7] The style, biases, and coverage (Cratippus's work is known to have been a continuation of Thucydides) support the identification, although issues have been raised. [1] Bruno Bleckmann, an expert on ancient historiography, has pleaded again for Theopompus as the author of the Hellenica. [8]
The work is praised for its pragmatism and style, [1] but it is not without its detractors. The writing, in the words of the classicist H.D. Westlake, is that of a "competent and most conscientious historian who derives his material from the best possible sources, [and] makes an effort to interpret it impartially, but somehow lacks distinction in thought and style. He is a second-rate Thucydides." [9]
Alcibiades was an Athenian statesman and general. The last of the Alcmaeonidae, he played a major role in the second half of the Peloponnesian War as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician, but subsequently fell from prominence.
Theramenes was an Athenian military leader and statesman, prominent in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War. He was active during the two periods of oligarchic government at Athens, the 400 and later the Thirty Tyrants, as well as in the trial of the generals who had commanded at Arginusae in 406 BC. A moderate oligarch, he often found himself caught between the democrats on the one hand and the extremist oligarchs on the other. Successful in replacing a narrow oligarchy with a broader one in 411 BC, he failed to achieve the same end in 404 BC, and was executed by the extremists whose policies he had opposed.
Theopompus a student of Isocrates and an ancient Greek historian and rhetorician.
Cratippus was a Greek historian. There are only three or four references to him in ancient literature, and his importance derives from him being identified by several scholars with the author of the historical fragment discovered by Grenfell and Hunt. The fragment itself was published in Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. v, and is known as the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia. It may be regarded as a fairly certain inference from a passage in Plutarch that he was an Athenian writer, intermediate in date between Thucydides and Xenophon, and that his work continued the narrative of Thucydides, from the point at which the latter historian stopped down to the Battle of Cnidus.
The Battle of Cyzicus took place in May or June 410 BC during the Peloponnesian War. During the battle, an Athenian fleet commanded by Alcibiades, Thrasybulus, and Theramenes routed and destroyed a Spartan fleet commanded by Mindarus. The victory allowed Athens to recover control over a number of cities in the Hellespont over the next year. In the wake of their defeat, the Spartans made a peace offer, which the Athenians rejected.
Thespiae was an ancient Greek city (polis) in Boeotia. It stood on level ground commanded by the low range of hills which run eastward from the foot of Mount Helicon to Thebes, near modern Thespies.
Hellenica simply means writings on Greek (Hellenic) subjects. Several histories of 4th-century Greece, written in the mould of Thucydides or straying from it, have borne the conventional Latin title Hellenica. The surviving Hellenica is an important work of the Ancient Greek writer Xenophon and one of the principal sources for the last seven years of the Peloponnesian War not covered by Thucydides, as well as the war's aftermath.
The Second Athenian League was a maritime confederation of Greek city-states that existed from 378 to 355 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Athens. The alliance represented a partial revival of the Delian League, which had been disbanded in 404 BC following the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. The new League was centered in the Aegean and included over 60 states, among which were Kos, Mytilene, Rhodes, and Byzantium. It was primarily formed as a defensive alliance against Sparta and secondly the Persian Empire. The new League's main objective was to preserve peace in Greece and counterbalance Sparta's growing hegemony and aggression. The League largely revived Athenian influence in the Greek world, reestablishing it as the strongest naval power in the eastern Mediterranean. This time, Athens made conscious efforts to avoid the strict terms that had eventually rendered the previous Delian League unpopular. The alliance lasted until 355 BC, when most of the allied cities became independent following the Social War that broke out in 357 BC.
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.
Hellenic historiography involves efforts made by Greeks to track and record historical events. By the 5th century BC, it became an integral part of ancient Greek literature and held a prestigious place in later Roman historiography and Byzantine literature.
Hegesandridas or Agesandridas, son of a "Hegesander" or "Agesander", who could have been a member of the last Spartan embassy sent to Athens before the Peloponnesian War. Hegesandridas was a Spartan general in the Peloponnesian War. In 411 BC he was placed in command of a fleet of 42 ships instructed to further a revolt in Euboea. News of their being seen off Las of Laconia arrived in Athens at the time when the Four Hundred were building their fort of Eëtioneia on a promontory commanding Piraeus, and the coincidence was used by Theramenes as evidence of their treasonable intentions. Further intelligence that the same fleet had sailed over from Megara to Salamis coincided again with the riot in Piraeus, and was held to be certain proof of Theramenes' allegations.
Ariaeus was a Persian general who fought alongside Cyrus the Younger at the Battle of Cunaxa and later was involved in the assassination of Tissaphernes.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 28 is a manuscript consisting of fragments of the third book of Hellenica by Xenophon, written in Greek. It was discovered by Grenfell and Hunt in 1897 in Oxyrhynchus. The fragment is dated to the second century. It is housed in the library of the University of St Andrews. The text was published by Grenfell and Hunt in 1898.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 217 is a letter to a king of Macedon by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the third century AD. Currently it is housed in the Cambridge University Library (35) in Cambridge.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 226 is a fragment of the Hellenica (VI,5) of Xenophon, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the first or second century. Currently it is housed at Columbia University in New York City.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 842 is a papyrus manuscript, written in Ancient Greek, discovered during the 1906 excavations in Oxyrhynchus in modern Egypt by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt. It contains a history of classic Greece for the years 396-395 BCE. Along with PSI XII 1304, it makes up the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 581 is a papyrus fragment written in Ancient Greek, apparently recording the sale of a slave girl. Dating from 29 August 99 AD, P. Oxy. 581 was discovered, alongside hundreds of other papyri, by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt while excavating an ancient landfill at Oxyrhynchus in modern Egypt. The document's contents were published by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1898, which also secured its donation to University College, Dundee, later the University of Dundee, in 1903 – where it still resides. Measuring 6.3 x 14.7 cm and consisting of 17 lines of text, the artifact represents the conclusion of a longer record, although the beginning of the papyrus was lost before it was found. P. Oxy. 581 has received a modest amount of scholarly attention, most recently and completely in a 2009 translation by classicist Amin Benaissa of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Erythrae is an ancient Ionian city in Asia Minor.
Dorieus of Ialysos in Rhodes commanded small naval contingents supporting the Spartan fleet during the last decade of the Peloponnesian War and is attributed with a Rhodian revolt from Athens and a synoecism. He was also a renowned Olympic athlete.
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