Note 476 — Chapter LI · FROM THE TROUBLES IN KORKYRA, IN THE FIFTH YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, DOWN TO THE END OF THE SIXTH YEAR.

Thucyd. viii, 54. Καὶ ὁ μὲν Πείσανδρος τάς τε ξυνωμοσίας, αἵπερ ἐτύγχανον πρότερον ἐν τῇ πόλει οὖσαι ἐπὶ δίκαις καὶ ἀρχαῖς, ἁπάσας ἐπελθὼν, καὶ παρακελευσάμενος ὅπως ξυστραφέντες καὶ κοινῇ βουλευσάμενοι καταλύσουσι τὸν δῆμον, καὶ τἆλλα παρασκευάσας, etc.

After having thus organized the hetæries, and brought them into coöperation for his revolutionary objects against the democracy, Peisander departed from Athens to Samos: on his return, he finds that these hetæries have been very actively employed, and had made great progress towards the subversion of the democracy: they had assassinated the demagogue Androklês and various other political enemies,—οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ τὸν Πείσανδρον—ἦλθον ἐς τὰς Ἀθήνας,—καὶ καταλαμβάνουσι τὰ πλεῖστα τοῖς ἑταίροις προειργασμένα, etc. (viii, 65.)

The political ἑταίρεια to which Alkibiadês belonged is mentioned in Isokratês, De Bigis, Or. xvi, p. 348, sect. 6. λέγοντες ὡς ὁ πατὴρ συνάγοι τὴν ἑταίρειαν ἐπὶ νεωτέροις πράγμασι. Allusions to these ἑταιρεῖαι and to their well-known political and judicial purposes (unfortunately they are only allusions), are found in Plato, Theætet. c. 79, p. 173, σπουδαὶ δὲ ἑταιρειῶν ἐπ᾽ ἀρχὰς, etc.: also Plato, Legg. ix, c. 3, p. 856; Plato, Republic, ii, c. 8, p. 365, where they are mentioned in conjunction with συνωμοσίαι—ἐπὶ γὰρ τὸ λανθάνειν ξυνωμοσίας τε καὶ ἑταιρείας συνάξομεν—also in Pseudo-Andokidês cont. Alkibiad. c. 2, p. 112. Compare the general remarks of Thucydidês, iii, 82, and Demosthenês cont. Stephan. ii, p. 1157.

Two Dissertations, by Messrs. Vischer and Büttner, collect the scanty indications respecting these hetæries, together with some attempts to enlarge and speculate upon them, which are more ingenious than trustworthy (Die Oligarchische Partei und die Hetairien in Athen, von W. Vischer, Basel, 1836; Geschichte der politischen Hetairien zu Athen, von Hermann Büttner, Leipsic, 1840).