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86 F 8
Author(s): John Buckler
Source: The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1977), pp. 333-334
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/638430 .
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ON AGATHARCHIDES
F. GR. HIST.
86 F 8
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This incident has never found its place either in the history of the Theban
hegemony or in the life of Epameinondas,' and even Jacoby's commentary on the
the fragment sheds virtually no light on the matter.2
The first problem is to determine the location of Sidai, and the only clues to
that are the fact that the pomegranate grew there in abundance and that the
place was on the Boiotian-Attic border. Although the early travellers are generally
silent on this subject, C. Bursian suggested that Sidai was located in the fertile
Skourta plain or else in the Oropia, and in this he was followed by Zwicker in
RE.3 Yet according to Professor E. Vanderpool, who has for years explored the
Skourta plain, Sidai was not likely to have been situated in the plain because the
climate there is too cold to permit the growth of the pomegranate.4 Instead
E. Arrigoni has recently argued that Sidai was located in the first valley of the
Asopos river on the road from Athens and the Amphiareion, which runs over
Mt. Pentelikon, to Oropos.5 He also pointed out that this valley is ideally suited
for the cultivation of the pomegranate because it is well watered and low lying.6
Once Sidai is located in the Oropia, the historical setting for this incident is
obvious. In 366 B.C. Themison, tyrant of Eretria and ally of the Boiotian
Confederacy, conspired with some exiles of Oropos to seize the city.7 They did
so, and then handed Oropos over to a Theban army. In response the Athenians
sent an army under Chabrias to regain the city, but there was little that he could
do in the face of the victors of Leuktra. Instead, on the advice of Kallistratos,
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1958), pp.71-2.
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6 C. Miller, Fragmenta Historicorum
Graecorum, iii (Paris, 1884), 193, had earlier
JOHN BUCKLER
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