Hipponicus III
Template:Short description Template:Infobox military person Hipponicus III (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx; Template:Circa 485 BC – 422/1 BC) was an Athenian military commander. He was the son of Callias II of the deme Alopece and Elpinice of Laciadae (sister of Cimon). He was known as the "richest man in Greece".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>
Shortly after 455 BC, Hipponicus married the former wife of Pericles, whose name is unknown. By her, he had two children: Callias III and a daughter, Hipparete who later married Alcibiades.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A second son, Hermogenes was probably illegitimate since he received none of his father's estate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Hipponicus' wealth came from, among other things, his owning six hundred slaves working at the silver mines at Laurion in southern Attica.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 445/4 BC he was secretary of the Athenian Council (boule)<ref name=":0" /> and was still active as late as 426 BC when he, Nicias and Eurymedon commanded Athenian regiments in an incursion into Boeotian territory where they successfully engaged Tanagran and Theban forces at Tanagra.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Hipponicus was reported by Andocides to have been slain at the Battle of Delium in 424 BC,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but this appears to have been an error, either on Andocides' part or a later transcriber, for Thucydides reported that the general at Delium was Hippocrates.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to Athenaeus, Hipponicus died shortly before Eupolis exhibited his comedy Flatterers during the archonship of Alcaeus ( 422/1).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Aelian, in his Varieties of History, reports this anecdote about Hipponicus:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Hipponicus son of Callias would erect a Statue as a Gift to his Country. One advised him that the Statue should be made by Polycletus. He answered, "I will not have such a Statue, the glory whereof will redound not to the Giver, but to the Carver. For it is certain that all who see the Art, will admire Polycletus and not me."
References
Sources
- Aelian. Varieties of History. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/aelian/index.xhtml
- Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a2013.01.0003 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman
- Davies, J. K. Athenian Propertied Families. Oxford: OUP, 1971.
- Nails, Debra. The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing, 2002.
- Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0200
- Xenophon. Ways and Means. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0210%3atext%3dWays