Peisander (oligarch)
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Peisander (fl. 429 - 411 BC) was an Athenian from the demos of Acharnae, who played a prominent part in the Athenian coup of 411 BC, which briefly replaced the Athenian democracy with an oligarchy controlled by a group called the Four Hundred.
Several of the Athenian comic poets mentioned him in unflattering terms. A fragment of the lost play The Babylonians (427 BC) by Aristophanes suggests that he was satirised in it as having been bribed to help bring about the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC).[1][2][3] A fragment of the Άστράτευτοι or Άνδρογύνοι of Eupolis says, Πείσανδρος εἰς Πακτωλὸν ἐστρατεύετο, Κἀνταῦθα τῆς στρατιᾶς κάκιστος ἦν ἀνήρ ("Peisander served at Pactolus, and was the worst man in the army"). Pactolus is a river in Lydia (in modern Turkey), fabled in antiquity for its gold.[4]
It further appears from the Symposium of Xenophon that in 422 BC he shrank pusillanimously from serving in the expedition to Macedonia under Cleon.[5] Meineke suggested that he may have been tried on a charge of ἀστρατείας γραφή (astrateias graphe, cowardice)[6] (although there is no evidence for this); saying that that would explain the line in the Maricus of Eupolis, ἄκουε νῦν Πείσανδρος ὡς ἀπόλλυται ("listen now to Peisander perishing").[7]: i:178, ii:501, 503 Meineke dates the play Peisander by the comic poet Plato, in which he was the main subject, to the same period. Aristophanes ridiculed him for trying to conceal his cowardice under a blustering manner. He gave further occasion for satire to Aristophanes, Eupolis, Hermippus and Plato by his gluttony and his unwieldy bulk, the latter of which procured for him the nicknames of ὀνοκίνδιος and ὔνος κανθήλιος ("donkey-driver" and "donkey"); appropriately, as the donkeys of Acharnae were noted for their size.[8][9][7]: ll cc, ii:384, 385, 648, 685
