Phaeax

Who is Phaeax?

Phaeax was an Athenian orator and statesman. He was of good famity, being the son of Erasistratus. The date of his birth is not known, but he was a contemporary of Nicias and Alcibiades. Plutarch says, that he and Nicias were the only rivals from whom Alcibiades had any thing to fear when he entered upon public life. Phaeax, like Alcibiades, was at the time just rising to distinction. In 422 BCE Phaeax with two others was sent as an ambassador to Italy and Sicily, to endeavor to induce the allies of the Athenians in that quarter and the other Siceliotes to aid the Leontines against the Syracusans. He succeeded with Camarina and Agrigentum, but his failure at Gela led him to abandon the attempt as hopeless. In his way back he did some service to the Athenian cause among the states of Italy. According to Theophrastus it was Phaeax, and not Nicias, with whom Alcibiades united for the purpose of ostracizing Hyperbolus. Most authorities, however, affirmed that it was Nicias. In the Lives of the Ten Orators there is mention of a contest between Phaeax and Andocides, and a defence of the latter against the former. It is difficult to say to what period this could have referred. Andocides did not come into notice until after the affair of the mutilation of the Hermae.