Why the Name?

On the Meaning of Callimachus

From Herodotus:

Now the opinions of the generals of the Athenians were divided,

and the one party urged that they should not fight a battle,

seeing that they were too few to fight with the army of the Medes,

while the others, and among them Miltiades, advised that they should do so:

and when they were divided and the worse opinion was like to prevail, then,

since he who had been chosen by lot to be polemarch of the Athenians

had a vote in addition to the ten

(for in old times the Athenians gave the polemarch an equal vote with the generals)

and at that time the polemarch was Callimachos of the deme of Aphidnai,

to him came Miltiades and said as follows:

With thee now it rests, Callimachos, either to bring Athens under slavery,

or by making her free to leave behind thee

for all the time that men shall live a memorial

such as not even Harmodios and Aristogeiton have left.

So if you ever worry that one person can’t change things, remember Callimachus – his one vote as a junior functionary was pivotal for the remainder of western civilization. It would have been very different without him!