Остракизм в Афинах

As regards Athenian losses in the Peloponnesian war, we assess these casualties in their totality (losses in battles, deaths during the epidemic, etc.) as 3335 thousands of adult citizens. The figure is undoubtedly very large; however, we should not forget also the factors that operated «in the opposite direction», such as continuous natural increase through births and return to Athens of cleruchs after the concluding of peace. All this taken into account, we derive, that after the war the number of citizens was at least 25000. Therefore, the Peloponnesian war in general was not a demographic catastrophe for Athens, although it caused the city very significant damage in manpower, which is above any argument. In connection with the chief topic of the book we can assert with all possible responsibility: the demographic factor was not of primary meaning when Athenians were giving up using ostracism; it operated in the best case only as one among others. If it had been the only or main reason, just after the end of the war it would have been quite possible to conduct ostracisms again: the number of citizens allowed doing it without any serious difficulties. As ostracism was not restored to life, it means that there were other and weightier causes for the cessation of its use.

Об авторе

Игорь Евгеньевич Суриков (1965 г. рожд.), выпускник кафедры истории древнего мира МГУ им. М. В. Ломоносова, доктор исторических наук, ведущий научный сотрудник Института всеобщей истории РАН. Область исследовательских интересов — политическая и культурная история античной Греции. Автор более 100 работ, в том числе монографий: «Из истории греческой аристократии позднеархаической и раннеклассической эпох» (М., 2000), «Эволюция религиозного сознания афинян во второй половине V в. до н. э.» (М., 2002), «Проблемы раннего афинского законодательства» (М., 2004), «Античная Греция: политики в контексте эпохи. Архаика и ранняя классика» (М., 2005).