Themistoklés praetorsága és a korkyrai háború (Nepos, Them. 2, 1–3)

Absztrakt

It is unquestionable that there are several historical inaccuracies in Nepos’ Book on Foreign Generals, but this fact does not give enough basis for rejecting those data as well, which can be found only in the vitae of the author. Some examples of this kind of data can be found in a troublesome-looking section of the Life of Themistocles (2, 1–3); here Nepos writes that the first step of the career of the Athenian was the „praetorship” in a war against Corcyra. By examining the text we raise the following
question: is it evidently an error or it can be reconciliated with other sources and our present knowledge? On the basis of the hypothesis that Nepos was the first biographer, who tried to co-ordinate the well-known contradictory sources concerning the deeds of Themistocles, we may get an inside view of Nepos’ principles of sourcecriticism as well. As a result it will be argued that the authenticity of the Corcyrean war cannot be refuted by any of the extant sources, and it can be assumed that in this war – datable to the late 490s – Themistocles was one of the strategoi.