Bakkhylides XI and the rule of the douloi at Argos

Abstract

<p>After the Lakedaimonians defeated the Argives at Sepeia c.494 BC, Herodotus reports, the government of Argos fell into the hands of 'the slaves'. His account is often interpreted to imply that the Argive citizens, depleted in numbers, shared control of the state with the members of a lower social order. Further evidence, however, including a passage from an epinikian ode of Bakkhylides that significantly predates Herodotus' <i>Histories</i>, rather suggests that the new citizens belonged to the elite among the perioikic communities of Argolis.</p>