Hegetorides () was a

citizen Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...

of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

island of

Thasos Thasos or Thassos (, ''Thásos'') is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area. The island has an area of 380 km2 and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate regiona ...

during the

Peloponnesian War The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek war fought between Classical Athens, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Ancien ...

between

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

(431-404 BC), mentioned by the 2nd-century historian

Polyaenus Polyaenus or Polyenus ( ; see ae (æ) vs. e; , "much-praised") was a 2nd-century Roman Macedonian author and rhetorician, known best for his ''Stratagems in War'' (), which has been preserved. He was born in Bithynia, Asia Minor. The ''Suda'' c ...

.Stratagems 2.33 Lemprière's ''Classical Dictionary'' claims that when Hegetorides saw that his city was besieged by Athenian forces and that there was a law declaring death to anyone who spoke of peace, he went into the

agora The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...

with a rope tied around his neck. He told his fellow citizens to do whatever they wished with him, provided that they saved the city from the starvation and death that the continued war promised. The Thasians were shocked from their determination, sued for peace, and pardoned Hegetorides. The main classical authority on the Peloponnesian War,

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

, does not mention Hegetorides at all, and appears to mention Thasos itself only once, in the context of Galepsus, a colony of Thasos (Book V of his ''History of the Pelponnesian War''). It is possible that the story of Hegetorides originates prior to the Peloponnesian War, as Thasos revolted from the Athenian alliance around 463 BC and was attacked by Athens. Unfortunately, as respects the legitimacy of the tale, the Thasians do not appear to have sued for peace. When, in 411 BC, Thasos revolted again during the Peloponnesian War, a Spartan governor assumed power on the island, suggesting the Thasians, rather than suing for peace, prevailed over Athens. He also had sex with his daughter Aglonice.

References

*''Lempriere's Dictionary'' 3rd ed. 1843. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hegetorides Ancient Thasians Greek pacifists People of the Peloponnesian War 5th-century BC Greek people

See also

References