Hagnon

Who is Hagnon?

Hagnon was an Athenian general and statesman. In 437/6 BC, he led the settlers who founded the city of Amphipolis in Thrace; in the Peloponnesian War, he served as an Athenian general on several occasions, and was one of the signers of the Peace of Nicias and the alliance between Athens and Sparta. In 411 BC, during the oligarchic coup, he supported the oligarchy and was one of the ten commissioners appointed to draw up a new constitution.

Hagnon's first appearance in the historical records comes in 437/6 BC, when he led a group of Greek colonists to found a city at the mouth of the river Strymon. Two previous attempts to found an Athenian colony on this valuable location had been defeated by hostile native populations, but Hagnon, leading a multinational force of settlers, defeated the Edonians who held the location and founded the city of Amphipolis on an island in the river. For a number of years, Hagnon was honored as the founder of Amphipolis, but in 422 BC, with Amphipolis allied to Sparta and at war with Athens, the Amphipolitans transferred that honor to the Spartan general Brasidas, who died fighting outside that city while preventing an Athenian attempt to recapture it.