PHILOLACONISM AND OLIGARCHIC POLITICS IN ATHENS AT THE END OF THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C.

The article examines the role of laconising attitudes assumed by a segment of the Athenian elite during the Peloponnesian War. It is postulated that supposedly secondary aspects, such as a certain fashion in terms of clothing and hair length, were part of the configuration of a countercultural identity by that elite to differentiate itself from the official popular culture. In this context it was elaborated the oligarchic political ideas and, when the occasion was propitious, that elite went into direct action with the Spartan model as its horizon.