# Hipponicus III

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5th-century BC Athenian military commander

Hipponicus III Native name Ἱππόνικος Born c. 485 BC Died 422/1 BC (aged c. 63) Allegiance Athens Children Callias III, Hipparete and Hermogenes

**Hipponicus III** ([/hɪˈpɒnɪkəs/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English); [Greek](/source/Greek_language): Ἱππόνικος; c. 485 BC – 422/1 BC) was an [Athenian](/source/Athens) military commander. He was the son of [Callias II](/source/Callias_II) of the deme Alopece and [Elpinice](/source/Elpinice) of Laciadae (sister of [Cimon](/source/Cimon)). He was known as the "richest man in Greece".[1]

Shortly after 455 BC, Hipponicus married the former wife of [Pericles](/source/Pericles), whose name is unknown. By her, he had two children: [Callias III](/source/Callias_III) and a daughter, [Hipparete](/source/Hipparete) who later married [Alcibiades](/source/Alcibiades).[2] A second son, Hermogenes was probably illegitimate since he received none of his father's estate.[3]

Hipponicus' wealth came from, among other things, his owning six hundred slaves working at the silver mines at [Laurion](/source/Mines_of_Laurion) in southern Attica.[4]

In 445/4 BC he was secretary of the Athenian Council (*boule*)[1] and was still active as late as 426 BC when he, [Nicias](/source/Nicias) and [Eurymedon](/source/Eurymedon_(strategos)) commanded Athenian regiments in an incursion into [Boeotian](/source/Boeotia) territory where they successfully engaged Tanagran and Theban forces at [Tanagra](/source/Tanagra).[5]

Hipponicus was reported by [Andocides](/source/Andocides) to have been slain at the [Battle of Delium](/source/Battle_of_Delium) in 424 BC,[6] but this appears to have been an error, either on Andocides' part or a later transcriber, for Thucydides reported that the general at Delium was Hippocrates.[7] According to [Athenaeus](/source/Athenaeus), Hipponicus died shortly before [Eupolis](/source/Eupolis) exhibited his comedy *Flatterers* during the archonship of Alcaeus ( 422/1).[8]

[Aelian](/source/Claudius_Aelianus), in his Varieties of History, reports this anecdote about Hipponicus:[9]

*Hipponicus* son of *Callias* would erect a Statue as a Gift to his Country. One advised him that the Statue should be made by *[Polycletus](/source/Polykleitos)*. He answered, "I will not have such a Statue, the glory whereof will redound not to the Giver, but to the Carver. For it is certain that all who see the Art, will admire *[Polycletus](/source/Polykleitos)* and not me."

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_1-1) Nails, Debra. *The People of Plato, p. 172-3*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Davies, J. K. *Athenian Propertied Families (APF), 7826.9*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Nails. *The People of Plato, p. 162*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Xenophon. *Ways and Means, iv.15*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Thucydides. *History of the Peloponnesian War, iii.91.4*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Andocides. *Against Alcibiades, §13*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Thucydides. *History of the Peloponnesian War, iv.90 ff*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Athenaeus. *The Deipnosophists, §59*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Aelian. *Varieties of History, xiv.16*.

### Sources

- Aelian. *Varieties of History.* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/aelian/index.xhtml](http://penelope.uchicago.edu/aelian/index.xhtml)

- Athenaeus. *The Deipnosophists*. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a2013.01.0003](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a2013.01.0003) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman)

- Davies, J. K. *Athenian Propertied Families*. Oxford: OUP, 1971.

- Nails, Debra. *The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics*. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing, 2002.

- Thucydides. *History of the Peloponnesian War*. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0200](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0200)

- Xenophon. *Ways and Means*. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0210%3atext%3dWays](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0210%3atext%3dWays)

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