AlkmaionidaiPETER HAARER

The Alkmaionidai were a leading GENOS

competing for political power in Athens from

the late seventh to the late fifth centuries BCE.

The most well-known members are KLEIST-

HENES, PERIKLES, and ALKIBIADES.

The family’s origins are obscure, and

although Eupatrid (see EUPATRIDAI), they lacked

the same pedigree as some other families in

Athens (e.g., the Boutadai). The story that

the family’s wealth derived from a visit by

ALKMAION to CROESUS (Hdt. 6.125) seems chro-

nologically impossible and practically implau-

sible. The first prominent Alkmaionid was

Megakles (1) who, as archon in Athens ca.

632, successfully thwarted KYLON’s attempt to

become tyrannos, but over-zealously elimi-

nated his supporters, transgressed the laws of

supplication, and caused the family to become

cursed. This curse haunted the Alkmaionidai

regularly, especially in the run-up to the

Peloponnesian War (Thuc. 1.126).

MEGAKLES OF ATHENS (2), grandson of

Megakles (1), married Agariste, daughter of

KLEISTHENES OF SIKYON, the Orthagorid tyrant.

He led a faction called the paralioi, “men of

the coast,” and along with LYCURGUS and

PEISISTRATOS and their respective parties was a

protagonist in the fight for power at Athens

during the mid-sixth century. He married his

daughter to Peisistratos to cement an alliance,

but this purportedly dissolved when it was

revealed that Peisistratos had lain with the

bride “not according to custom” (Hdt. 1.61.1).

The power struggle ended in the tyranny and

supposedly the Alkmaionidai went into exile as

tyrant haters (Hdt. 6.123.1), but a list of epon-

ymous archons inscribed on a stele in Athens in

ca. 425 (IG I3 1031) shows that in 525–24 under

Hippias and Hipparchos the archonship was

held by Kleisthenes, the son of Megakles (2).

Kleisthenes brought the Alkmaionidai back to

power in Athens by orchestrating the removal

of Hippias by the Spartans, and winning the

ensuing struggle against ISAGORAS and his party.

The expulsion during one round of this contest

of 700 households for supporting Kleisthenes

shows the extent of the Alkmaionid network.

Kleisthenes disappears soon after the insti-

tution of democracy at Athens in 508–7, and

perhaps simply died about then, but the

Alkmaionidai decline rapidly thereafter. We

find them mired in the slander, surely untrue,

that they helped the Persians after MARATHON,

and Megakles (4), son of Hippocrates, and

Xanthippos (the father of Perikles) were ostra-

cized in 486 and 484 respectively ([Arist.] Ath.

Pol. 22.5–6). Direct male descendants enjoy

minor significance to the end of the fifth cen-

tury, including a Euryptolemos who defended

the generals tried after ARGINOUSAI, but the

main branch of the family disappeared alto-

gether during the fourth century. Members of

other branches occasionally buck the trend

during the fifth century, including Perikles

and Alkibiades.

The Alkmaionidai typify Late Archaic aris-

tocratic families. Aside from the active interest

in winning political power, and the use of

dynastic marriages in pursuit of this aim, they

owned substantial real estate on good agricul-

tural land to the south of Athens around the

demes of Alopeke, Agryle, and Xypete. One use

of this land must have been the breeding of the

horses with which Alkmaionidai repeatedly

won the tethrippos, starting with Alkmaion at

Olympia in 592 (Hdt. 6.125.5).

SEE ALSO: Athens; Democracy, Athenian;

Tyranny.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Anderson, G. (2005) “Before turannoi were tyrants:

rethinking a chapter of early Greek history.”

Classical Antiquity 24.2: 173–222.

Davies, J. K. (1971) Athenian propertied families

600–300 B.C., no. 9688. Oxford.

Thomas, R. (1989) Oral tradition and written

record in Classical Athens. Cambridge.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 320–321.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02013

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