Fear and Loathing in the Hellenistic Agora: Antenor’s Tyrannicides Return

Abstract

Using new interactive digital reconstructions, we propose that a recently discussed statue base in the Athenian Agora could have accommodated both pairs of Tyrannicides after Alexander returned Antenor's from Persia in 323 b.c.; that it would have revived a famous Athenian commemorative tactic after the Persian withdrawal in 479; that the monument's potency as an icon of Athenian fear and loathing of tyranny evolved but did not necessarily shrink under the Successors; and that any other candidate for its Hellenistic and later appearance should echo, more or less, this base's dimensions, form, and construction. We also urge that for such visualizations, guidelines formulated by specialists in cultural heritage reconstruction have much to recommend them.