Ptolemy I Soter by Edward M. Anson;

Author:Edward M. Anson; [Anson, Edward M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350260825
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2023-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

When a young man, the son of a brave father, but not himself having any reputation for being a good soldier, suggested the propriety of his receiving his father’s emoluments, Antigonos said: “My boy, I give money and presents for the excellence of a man, not for the excellence of his father.”

Plut. Mor. 183D

During the reign of Alexander, our sources often use the two terms interchangeably primarily because their sources were writing during the transitional period and because the two terms with respect to function often were identical. While a king’s philoi in many respects at the various Hellenistic royal courts were similar in function to the former hetairoi, they also served in the capacity of those who in the earlier period were more commonly called xenoi and proxenoi. This was a practice that began in the Greek Archaic Age (800–479). The aristocratic elites of the various communities established relations based on the institution of xenia, guest-friendship. Proxenia was a more formal and state-oriented form of this ancient practice. Xenia was a system of hospitality establishing reciprocal, often hereditary, relationships between individuals and families in which significant services would be provided as a matter of courtesy.25 These services could be as little as personal generosity or the providing of political or military support (Mitchell 2002: 13). These individuals remained in their home communities serving in the capacity designated by the terms as xenoi and proxenoi. There were no permanent foreign embassies in the various states (Perlmann 1958: 187). At a formal level, states established connections with foreign governments through local individuals given the honor of representing a foreign state’s interests in a relationship between the two states. This was called proxenia.26 Here a state would contract a relationship with a proxenos, a person representing the interests of the contracting state in their own community (Antiph. frg. 67). These were then relationships on the state level. Those who served as proxenoi were usually prominent individuals who took active roles in the political life of their own cities. In this traditional relationship the proxenos was not a foreign agent working for the foreign party at the expense of his own state. Loyalty to one’s own state was paramount. In the words of Plato (Leg.1. 642b):

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