Medeios’ links with the Delian affaires surely show his own importance as a distinguished personality in the Delian commercial and economic activities. Medeios probably had a main role in crushing the slave mutiny.ĭuring the decade of the 90s, Medeios had also a surprising continuity of public charges, like the director of the public bank at Delos (100/99), στρατεγὸς ἐπὶ τὰ ὅπλα in Athens (99/98), and so more both in Athens and Delos. During the uprising, the slaves ruined the Athenian countryside, resulting in a serious influence in Athenian economy. Our sources say little about this fact, but it seems clear that the number of rebel slaves where very high (μυρíοι), and the revolt last at least until 97 BC. During this charge, he must manage questions like the slave revolt in Atica in 100 BC. He was also a leading politician, and in 101/0 BC he was Eponymous Archon. Descendant of Lycurgus of Butadea, Medeios’ family was in charge of some important hereditary priesthoods of Athen. No doubt, the context when his political activity took place and the consequences of his government make Medeios a leading figure of his times.įirst, we must consider Medeios as a prominent member of the Athenian traditional aristocracy. He is, in fact, the only case we know of an Athenian in charge of the main archonship so often, and there is no record of any other Archon to have held this position three times steadily. Aristocrat, descendant of one of the main Athenian families, Medeios stands out among his fellow citizens of all ages for being the unique Athenian to have taken the office of Eponymous Archon four times in his life (101/100, 91/90, 90/89, 89/88), three of them consecutively. Medeios III son of Medeios of the Piraeus is maybe the most enigmatic and controverted character of the history of ancient Athens. Medeios, the Legal TyrantĬlassical Athens Eponymous Archon Dorians / Wikimedia Commons Economic crisis, impoverishment and elite conflict lead Athens to be managed by individual rulers, the last tyrants of Athens. Athenian decline in the early Ist Century BC had to be analysed also with the responsibility some personalities had in the events that drove Athens to suffer Sulla’s wrath, and almost destruction. In contrast, the causes of the fall were full of unresolved questions. The reasons of his rise under Roma protection after the destruction of Corinth in 147 BC are well known. Thus, since the excellent prosperity gained as a result of the loyalty to Rome until the shocking siege and sack of the city by Sula in 87/6, Athens lived intensely a Bronze Age, after the Golden age in Pericles’ times and the Silver one by the hands of Lycurgus of Butadae. The period of the first decades of the Ist Century BC was certainly one of the most conflictive and notable moments in the history of ancient Athens. Athenian Roman Agora / Mark Forte, FineArtAmericaĮconomic crisis, impoverishment, and elite conflict led Athens to be managed by individual rulers, the last tyrants of Athens.
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