Bakkhylides 11 and the Rule of the «Slaves» at Argos

Abstract

At Sepeia in the Argolid, Herodotos reports, the Lakedaimonians under the command of king Kleomenes defeated and massacred the Argives. He goes on to relate certain events that followed the battle, generally dated c. 494 B.C. ... His report is generally interpreted to imply that the Argive citizens, depleted in numbers, either lost control of the state to the members of a lower social order or shared it with them. Further evidence, however, including a passage from an epinikian ode of Bakkhylides that appears to significantly predate Herodotos' account, rather suggests that those who had been invited to join with their counterparts in Argos in governing the state belonged to the elite among the perioikic communities of Argolis. Bakkhylides 11 is an ode for the victory of Alexidamos of Metapontion in the boys' wrestling at the Pythian games.