Anytus (; ; probably before 451 – after 388 BCEDavies, Athenian Propertied Families 600-300 B.C.(APF) §1324, p. 40.), son of Anthemion of the deme Euonymon, was a politician in Classical Athens. Anytus served as a general in the Peloponnesian War of 431 to 404 BCE, and later became a leading supporter of the democratic forces opposed to the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens from 404 to 403 BCE. He is best remembered as one of the prosecutors of the philosopher Socrates in 399 BCE; probably because of that role, Plato depicted Anytus as an interlocutor in the dialogue Meno.
Ancestry Anytus appears to have been one of the nouveaux riche of Athens, that is, of the commercial class and not one of the landed aristocracy that had ruled the city since time immemorial. His father is believed to be the Anthemion, son of Diphilus, that dedicated a statue on the Acropolis in thanks for his rise to class of “knight”. The Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia had this attribution:In the Acropolis there is a votive offering, a statue of Diphilus, bearing this inscription:
“Anthemion, the son of Diphilos, has dedicated this statue to the Gods, when from the status of a Thetis he had been raised to the status of a Knight.”
And a horse stands in evidence beside the man, implying that this was what was meant by belonging to the rank of Knight.Atheneion Politeia §7.4. There were four classes of citizens from the time of Solon (early 6th century BCE): pentacosiomedimnus (the richest of the rich), hippeis (knights, or members of the cavalry – i.e., they had the means to provide their own horse), zeugates (those who could afford to outfit themselves for the infantry), and thetis (the poorest, who served as oarsmen in the Athenian navy). Aristotle appears to have misunderstood the inscription; the statue was of Anthemion, not Diphilus. See also Plutarch, Life of Solon, §18.2 and von Fritz and Kapp, Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens, p. 75 and notes on p. 155.Though this connection for Anytus is not certain, most modern historians accept it based on Socrates’s comment in Plato’s Meno to the effect that Anytus was:the son of Anthemion, a man of property and good sense, who didn’t get his money out of the blue or as a gift ... but earned it by his own brains and hard work.Plato, Meno90a. See also Davies, APF §1324, p. 41.The family wealth was generated by Anthemion’s tannery and shoemaking businesses.Xenophon, Apology, 29; Dio Chrysostom, Discourse on Homer and Socrates, lv.22. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/55*.html#ref15 ; Scholion to Plato, Apology, 18b, quoted in Tell (not paginated) Anytus inherited and continued to manage these.Davies, APF, op cit.; Xenophon, Apology, §30.
Career Little is known of Anytus’s activities during his adult years – just a few incidents in which he was involved.
He was appointed to the post of general (strategos) in late years of the Peloponnesian War.Devlin, Athenian Officials, p. 169. In 409/8 BC, he was assigned the task of taking a fleet of ships to defend the outpost of Pylos in the western Peloponnese. Athens had captured this rocky crag in 425 BC and staffed it with runaway helots who harassed the Spartans in the region in the following years. In the spring and summer of 409 BC, it was under attack by the Spartans, and the Athenians sought to bolster its defenses with the force led by Anytus. He failed to complete the mission because storms at sea prevented his sailing around the southern reaches of the Peloponnese. When he returned to Athens he was prosecuted for treason, something frequently done to generals who failed to complete the tasks assigned to them. In this case, he was acquitted on the charge, allegedly because he bribed the jury – the first person to have done so.Atheneion Politeia, xxvii.4; Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, xiii.64.5–6. (This was not easy to do, given that Athenian juries numbered between 200 and 2,000 men.Bers and Lanni, “An Introduction to the Athenian Legal System”,
page 5, paragraph 10.)
Relationship with Alcibiades Anytus was reportedly a lover of the young Alcibiades, former ward of Pericles, profligate playboy, and (later) general at Athens. Both Plutarch and Athenaeus described an incident where Anytus was hosting a dinner party during which Alcibiades rudely commandeered half the gold and silver cups at the table and presented them as a gift to Thrasyllus, another of the evening’s guests who was quite poor. When their companions expressed indignation at Alcibiades’s effrontery, Anytus responded that his beloved had not been inconsiderate, but just the opposite, since he had the power to take everything and yet left half behind.Athenaeus, Dneipnosophists, xii.47; Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades §33.1. There are significant differences in the two reports, which suggests each had his own separate source for the incident.
Tyranny of the Thirty After the battle of Aigospotami in 405 BC, in which the Athenian fleet was destroyed, the city was besieged by the Spartans and eventually capitulated.Xenophon, Hellenica, ii.1.17 ff. The Spartans demanded that the city take down its walls, recall its exiles (oligarchic sympathizers all), and restore the ancient government – i.e., dismantle its democracy. At their "suggestion", a ruling body of thirty governors was selected, mimicking Sparta’s own ruling board of thirty, the gerousia.
At this time many of those opposed to this coup abandoned the city and took refuge in such places as Thebes and Argos. The leader of these democratic partisans was Thrasybulus, and Anytus was among his lieutenants.Atheneion Politeia, xxxiv.3. Lysias, in one of his forensic orations, related an incident where one Agoratus, who had cooperated with the Thirty at first, later tried to join the exiles at Phyle, a fortress in northern Attica where they were organizing a counter coup. As soon as they saw him they laid hold of him [Agoratus] and dragged him straight away to be killed in the place where they executed ordinary pirates or robbers that fell into their hands. Anytus, who was the general, said that they ought not to do that, on the ground that they were not yet in a position to punish certain of their enemies; at that moment they should rather keep quiet. If ever they returned home, they would then proceed to punish the guilty.Lysias, Against Agoratos, xiii.78–9.The counter coup was ultimately successful and democracy restored at Athens.Xenophon, Hellenica, ii.4.10–43. One of the means implemented to reconcile the warring parties was a general amnesty,Andocides, On the Mysteries, i.81; Atheneion Politeia, §38–39. which was resented by many who had lost loved ones and property during the carnage perpetrated by the Thirty. They chafed under the proscription of suing those who had wronged them and occasionally tried to seek recompense in the courts in spite of the law forbidding it. Isocrates wrote the defense speech in one such case and pointed out that certain wealthy and influential men and foregone such suits, even though they had the political pull to succeed in such efforts when ordinary men might fail. He specifically named Thrasyboulus and Anytus as:men of greatest influence in the city, although they have been robbed of large sums of money and know who gave in lists of their goods, nevertheless are not so brazen as to bring suit against them or to bring up old grudges against them; on the contrary, even if, in respect to all other claims, they have greater power than others to accomplish their ends, yet in matters covered by the covenant at least they see fit to put themselves on terms of equality with the other citizens.Isocrates, Against Callimachus, xviii.23–24.
Trial of Socrates In 399 BC, Anytus joined Meletus and Lycon in bringing an indictment against Socrates.Plato, Apology, iii; Diodorus Siculus, xiv.37.7; Xenophon, Apology, 29. We have two statements that purport to quote the specific charges, one from Plato and another from Diogenes Laertius. In his Apology, Plato had Socrates read out the complaint: Socrates is guilty of criminal meddling in that he inquires into things below the earth and in the sky, and makes the weaker argument defeat the stronger, and teaches others to follow his example.Plato, Apology, 19b. Diogenes, on the other hand, wrote: