Among the nearly nine thousand ostracos (potsherds preserved from the famous Athenian ostracophoria), found in the 1960s by German archaeologists on the outer Pottery and only now gradually introduced into scientific use, there are, as recently turned out, three ostracons directed against a certain Arifron, son of Xanthippus 1. D. Lewis identified this Arifron as Pericles ' brother, known from written sources (the name and patronymic coincide) 2, which led him to a number of conclusions, which indeed naturally follow from such an identification. First of all, the name of Arifron on Ostracus confirmed the researcher in the opinion that Ostracus and Ceramicus, as has been suggested more than once in recent years 3 , should be dated to the 470s BC, the time after the campaign of Xerxes, linking them to the hypothetical second ostracism of Alcmaonides Megacles, son of Hippocrates (Lys. XIV. 39). The arguments put forward earlier in defense of such a revision of dating did not seem particularly strong; a number of experts, including the author of these lines, preferred to adhere to the traditional chronology, referring the monuments under consideration to the 480s BC. 4
The appearance on ostrak of the name of Arifron, son of Xanthippus and brother of Pericles, could be a decisive argument. Indeed, in the 480s, Arifron, being a minor, could in no way be among the "candidates" for exile. In addition, according to Lewis, only after the death of Xanthippus himself was it possible for his son to appear among such "candidates". The last mention of Xanthippus in the sources (Herod. IX. 120-121) occurs in the spring of 478 BC (Thuc. I. 89.2) 5 . Another conclusion suggested by Lewis is that initially, as a political successor, Xanthippus is one of the most powerful figures in the Athenian empire.
Willemsen F., Brenne S. 1 Verzeichnis der Kerameikos-Ostraka // MDAI (A). 1991. 106. S. 150. In the previous list of ostracism with Ceramics, published by R. Thomson (Thomson R. The Ori ...
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