(V.) Azoulay The Tyrant-Slayers of Ancient Athens. A Tale of Two Statues. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Pp. xxii + 276, ills, maps. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017 (originally published as Les Tyrannicides d'Athènes. Vie et mort de deux statues, 2014). Cased, £22.99, US$35. ISBN: 978-0-19-066356-8.

Abstract

This is a highly readable English translation of the French original of 2014 (reviewed in CR 65.2 [2015], 612-13). A. combines his penchant for innovative biography, exemplified by his recent book on Pericles, with his sensitivity to the political valence of material objects (see his analysis of the rise and fall of Demetrius of Phalerum's portrait statues, Annales HSS 64 [2009], 303-40). The introduction promises a work that is both materialbiographical (with a reference to the 'social life of things') and 'micro-historical'. A. proposes to study the statues of the Athenian Tyrannicides, mostly the Critius and Nesiotes group but to a lesser extent the original Antenor group as well, as being possessed of a 'life', one which was not only continuously redefined by various social actors over time, but which also directly affected the world, 'even exerting a measure of power' (p. 6). Despite that promise, this is not really a study in New Materialism or actor-network theory, wherein objects no less than human beings are seen as agential. It rather succeeds best as an excellent micro-historical case study of the famous monument in the Athenian Agora, showing how various individuals and groups deployed the iconography and ideology of the statues for their own purposes. In the nine chapters, epilogue, conclusion and appendix that follow, A. analyses the style, history and reception of the statues, in the process staking out positions within scholarly debates. Some examples: he speculates that the erection of the Antenor group dates not to 510/9 BCE, as Pliny would have it, but to the period after Marathon (pp. 29-30). He suggests, based on an episode from Hellenistic Erythrae, that the statue group was abused, if not physically, then at least verbally by Athenian oligarchs around 411 (pp. 58, 67-9). He argues that the 'Elgin Throne', which features an image of the Tyrannicides, was most plausibly housed in the Prytaneum (pp. 102-5). He takes seriously the idea, based on Pausanias' testimony, that the Tyrannicides were surrounded by numerous portraits of Hellenistic rulers, and not just Demetrius and Antigonus, already in the third century (pp. 125-31). Finally, he argues that the historical context for the statue group on the Capitoline Hill is most likely post-83 BCE, after Sulla's visit to Athens the previous year (pp. 141-8). There are points with which one can quibble throughout (for example I do not think that Aristophanes' treatment of the statue group in Lysistrata amounts to mockery), but for the most part A.'s handling of the historical, iconographic and logical evidence for his positions impresses and convinces. An epilogue on the reception of the statues by totalitarian regimes should prompt further scholarship. One comes away with a newfound appreciation for the manifold ways in which the Tyrannicide monument(s) provoked, inspired and outraged over the course of their 'life', from serving as models in life-or-death struggles against oligarchs to being just one of many markers of 'culture' in a Roman-era eli...