Clidemo di Atene

Kleidemos of Athens wrote, perhaps after 378/7, a Protogonia (or Atthis),\r\nextending from mythical age up to 415 at least (§ 1-2). Several of the 27\r\nsure fragments have been preserved by late lexicographers or erudites,\r\nbut approximately half of them are quoted by four 2nd century authors\r\n(Harpocration, Athenaeus, Pausanias, Plutarch): it is disputed whether\r\nany of those four scholars directly read Kleidemos’ original text; in my\r\nopinion, at least Plutarchs probably did (§ 3). In any case, the main\r\ndebate about Kleidemos concerns political tendency: Jacoby and many\r\nother scholars perceive a democratic bias in the preserved fragments,\r\nwhereas Harding and others oppose this interpretation. In effect a careful\r\nreading of the historical fragments (mainly F 17-18 about Theseus; F\r\n15 about Peisistratus; F 7-8 about Kleisthenes; F 21 about Themistokles;\r\nF 22 about the battle of Plataea; F 10 about an omen against the departure\r\nof the Sicilian expedition) suggests a democratic bias affecting\r\nstrictly historical passages, as well as a democratic interpretation of\r\nevents pertaining to mythical ages. Unfortunately it is impossible to\r\ndetermine whether this democratic attitude was a peculiar, extensive\r\ncharacter of Kleidemos’ Atthis, or only episodic in its manifestation; nor\r\nit is easy to understand what kind of democracy Kleidemos intended to\r\npraise with his work, although he apparently appreciates a moderate\r\nconduct in foreign policy, perhaps in a Thrasybulian manner (§ 4-5).