Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 415

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Around 482 BCE, two Spartans, SPERTHIAS AND BULIS, were sent to die in PERSIA in order to atone for the killing of Persian HERALDS sent a decade earlier by DARIUS I (7.134–36). Although Sperthias and Bulis were spared by XERXES, years later during the PELOPONNESIAN WAR, their sons—Aneristus and Nicolaus, respectively—traveled as MESSENGERS of SPARTA “to ASIA,” but they were betrayed in THRACE and turned over to the Athenians, who executed them (7.137). THUCYDIDES gives further details about this incident, which occurred in the summer of 430 (2.67).

Herodotus further identifies the younger Aneristus as the man who captured the Peloponnesian city of HALIEIS (held by EXILES from TIRYNS at the time) in a surprise attack, with a merchant ship (7.137.2). This exploit is not otherwise recorded, but is most likely to have taken place between 461 and 450, during the so‐called “First Peloponnesian War” (cf. Macan 1908, I.1: 181).

Herodotus claims that the deaths of Aneristus and Nicolaus fulfilled the divine retribution demanded by TALTHYBIUS for the killing of Darius’ heralds (7.137.2). This story supports the Greek notion that PUNISHMENT for the crimes of a FAMILY or community can be inflicted on subsequent generations (see Gagné 2013, 296–306).

The Athenians’ execution of Aneristus and Nicolaus is the latest event explicitly and unambiguously mentioned by Herodotus and has often been viewed as a terminus post quem for the “publication” and/or final composition of the Histories. However, allusions to even later events have been posited, and recently it has been argued that Herodotus does, in fact, refer to an event of 413 in Book 9 (Irwin 2013a). Some scholars see the references to Aneristus’ exploit at Halieis and to his and Nicolaus’ deaths as later additions to the text by the author himself, as revealed by perceived rough edges in the Greek syntax (Wilson 2015, 139).

SEE ALSO: Aneristus father of Sperthias; Athens and Herodotus; Date of Composition; Nicolaus father of Bulis; Reciprocity; Treachery