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MAURIZIO GIANGIULIO

Università di Trento, Italy

The name (properly a patronymic, meaning “the descendants of Bacchis”) by which a number of prominent Corinthian families (more than 200 according to later sources) identified themselves as an elite group, claiming descent from the fifth king of CORINTH, the Heraclid Bacchis. In the Histories the Bacchiadae are mentioned by the Corinthian SOCLES in the speech he allegedly gave before the ASSEMBLY of the ALLIES of SPARTA c. 504 BCE, when the Spartans proposed to restore HIPPIAS as TYRANT of ATHENS (5.91–92). Socles, whose aim was to show how tyranny is unjust and bloodthirsty, began by reporting the rise to power of the tyrant CYPSELUS SON OF EËTION at the expense of the Bacchiadae who ruled the city as an OLIGARCHY and married only among themselves (5.92). Here the word oligarchy, however, is chronologically inconsistent, as it is unattested before the fifth century BCE, and endogamy may be a rationalizing inference from the story of Cypselus’ mother LABDA who had to marry outside the FAMILY. Late historical tradition (Diod. Sic. 7.9; Paus. 2.4.4) has the Bacchiadae rule Corinth for ninety years after the fall of the last of the kings. A chief official called prytanis was chosen among themselves to carry out the functions of the king.

SEE ALSO: Cleomenes; Heracleidae; Marriage