Ariston of Cyrene

Ariston (Ancient Greek: Ἀρίστων) was the leader of the democratic political party in Cyrene, Libya in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE, and a leader in the civil war that broke out around the turn of the century.[1]

After an election that led to a tie between the democratic party and the party of the aristocratic nobles, Ariston led an insurrection against the aristocratic party. He obtained possession of the town and executed about 50 of the nobles (Diodorus Siculus gives the number as 500), and expelled a great deal more from the city, most of whom decamped to the nearby city of Euesperides.[2][3]

There the nobles raised an army of 3000 Messenian mercenaries, and marched on Cyrene. The fighting was severe, but ended in a stalemate. [2]

Afterwards, the two sides came to an agreement and the powers of government were divided, with each party agreeing to alternate running the state for one year each.[4][5][3]

Some scholars believe it was this event that the philosopher Aristotle was referring to in his Politics when describing the "revolution at Cyrene".[6][3]

"Ariston" was an exceptionally common name in Cyrene at this time, and there are several other people named "Ariston of Cyrene" in the literature:[7]

References
  1. Fage, J. D.; Clark, John Desmond; Oliver, Roland Anthony, eds. (1975). "The Greek colonization of Cyrenaica; the Battiadai and the Republic". The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 113. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  2. Applebaum, Shim'on (1979). "The Greek Colonization". Jews and Greeks in Ancient Cyrene. Vol. 28. Brill Publishers. p. 35. ISBN 9789004059702. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  3. Robinson, Eric W. (2011). Democracy Beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 130–135. ISBN 9781107377042. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  4. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 14.34
  5. Pausanias, Description of Greece 4.26.2
  6. Aristotle, Politics 1319b, 1-19
  7. Cairns, Francis (2016). "Epitaphs: Epigraphic or Epideictic?". Hellenistic Epigram: Contexts of Exploration. Cambridge University Press. p. 273. ISBN 9781107168503. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  8. van Bremen, Riet (2007). "The Entire House is Full of Crowns: Hellenistic Agones and the Commemoration of Victory". In Morgan, Catherine; Hornblower, Simon (eds.). Pindar's Poetry, Patrons, and Festivals: From Archaic Greece to the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 360. ISBN 9780199296729. Retrieved 2023-04-02.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Ariston (3)". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 309.

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