Megacles
Megacles or Megakles (
First archon
The first Megacles was possibly a legendary
Archon eponymous
The second Megacles was a member of the
Alcmaeonidae
The third Megacles, the grandson of the above eponymous archon, son of
This Megacles earlier had competed with Hippocleides, a future archon of Athens, to marry Agarista, the daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon. They had two sons. The elder was Hippocrates, whose children were another Megacles (ostracized 486 BC) and a daughter Agariste, the mother of Pericles and Ariphron (himself the father of Hippocrates of Athens who died 424 BC). The younger son was Cleisthenes, who was allegedly the grandfather of Deinomache (or Dinomache), mother of Alcibiades (d. 404 BC). Thus, Megacles the elder was great-grandfather of Pericles and the great-great-grandfather of Alcibiades.
Battle of Marathon
The fourth Megacles, grandson of the above, son of Hippocrates, and nephew of Cleisthenes is sometimes described as the father of Deinomache and thus the maternal grandfather of Alcibiades. Other sources, notably William Smith, insist that his uncle Cleisthenes was the grandfather of Alcibiades.
In 490 BC, in the aftermath of the
In 486 BC, Megacles was
He was honored by Pindar as exiled winner in the chariot race of Pythian Games 486 BC.[5]
Megacles of Epirus
Megacles of Epirus was an officer in the service of Pyrrhus of Epirus, who accompanied that monarch on his expedition to Italy, 280 BC. He is mentioned as accompanying Pyrrhus when he reconnoitered the Roman camp previous to the battle of Heraclea ; and in that action was the means of saving the king's life, by exchanging armour with him, and thus directing the efforts of the assailants upon himself, instead of Pyrrhus. He fell a victim to his devotion, being slain by a Roman named Publius Decius Mus.
Bibliography
- Monica Berti, "L’antroponimo Megakles sugli ostraka di Atene. Considerazioni prosopografiche, storiche e istituzionali". Minima Epigraphica et Papyrologica 5 (2001), pp. 8-69
- Monica Berti, "‘Megakles, non eretrizzare!’ Una nuova proposta di lettura e d’interpretazione di un ostrakon attico". In Syggraphé. Materiali e appunti per lo studio della storia e della letteratura antica. Ed. D. Ambaglio. Como: Edizioni New Press, 2001, pp. 41-57
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Megacles". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. (Plut. Pyrrh. 16, 17 ; Zonar. viii. 3.)