Confronting History: On the Wisdom and Example of Diodotus in Thucydides’ History of The Peloponnesian War

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-76
Keyword(s):  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
History Of

Pericles and Dracontides

1964 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 69-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank J. Frost
Keyword(s):  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Greek Literature ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Free Status ◽  
Religious Nonconformity

In his discourse on the causes of the Peloponnesian War (Pericles 31–32), Plutarch devotes an inordinate time to what he calls ‘the worst charge [against Pericles], but that having the greatest number of supporters’. The elements of this charge may be outlined briefly:1. Pheidias was indicted for embezzling the precious materials used in the construction of the great statue of Athena Parthenos. The informer was a certain Menon, a fellow workman, who was subsequently given immunity and tax-free status by a decree of the assembly proposed by Glycon.2. At the same time, Pericles' consort Aspasia was indicted and his friend and teacher Anaxagoras was attacked indirectly through a law against religious nonconformity brought by Diopeithes.3. While the people were still in this mood, Dracontides had a decree passed, requiring that Pericles' accounts be deposited with the council and that the dicasts try any resulting cases on the acropolis with ballots specially sanctified at the altar. This last clause was stricken from the bill by Hagnon, who specified that any resulting suits were to be tried by a jury of 1,500.4. Because of all these attacks, Pericles resolved to start the war, using the Megarian decree as provocation.Plutarch reports here the popular fancy—that Pericles started a foreign war to avoid domestic embarrassments. The development of this tradition is a well-known chapter in the history of Greek literature, but as it is fundamental to this discussion, a brief review is called for.

Cracking the Code: Narrative and Political Mobilization in the Greek Resistance

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Hart
Keyword(s):  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Material Costs ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
History Of

That narrative can be more than a mechanical recitation of events is epitomized in Thucydides’ challenge to historiographical paradigms current during the fifth century B.C. In his definitive history of the war between Athens and Sparta, the Athenian general in effect tells a “story” with a beginning, middle, and end. Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War is anything but a neutral description of events. Instead, the collection interprets the conflict for the reader. The tale contains a discussion of the role of alternative military strategies and of the war’s wider political implications. According to Thucydides, the fractionization and polarization engendered by war as a mode of resolving political conflicts is too high a price to pay for victors and losers alike. Thucydides warns of psychic as well as material costs. Thus, the ancient political scientist tells the story of the Peloponnesian War to assert that the “sequences of real events be assessed as to their significance as elements of a moral drama” (White 1987: 21).

State Pay as War Relief in Peloponnesian-War Athens

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
VINCENT ROSIVACH
Keyword(s):  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
History Of ◽  
Delian League ◽  
To Come

In the course of its history of the Athenian constitution, the Aristotelian Athēnaiōn Politeia describes Aristeides' leading role in organizing the Delian League, including his initial assessment of the contributions (phoros) paid by the League's members (Ath. Pol. 23.4–5). It then recounts his subsequent advice to the Athenians (24.1):Afterwards, as the polis was already growing bold and much money had been accumulated, his advice was to take over the leadership [of the League], and to come in from the fields and dwell in the urban centre [astu]; for there would be a living [trophē] for all – for those soldiering, for those standing guard, for those conducting public business – then in this way they would firmly hold onto their leadership.

Conflict, People, and City-Space: Some Exempla from Thucydides' History

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 318-350
Author(s):  
Claudia Zatta
Keyword(s):  
Turning Points ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Civil Strife ◽  
Historical Material ◽  
City Space ◽  
History Of

This essay considers episodes in which phenomena like war and civil strife affected, changed, and revealed the identity of the polis. Even if framed by an understanding of the Peloponnesian War and the imperialistic logic and destiny of Athens, Thucydides' History still provides us with narratives that illuminate the particular history of “minor” poleis, each with its specific events, turning points, and dynamics. Through analysis of Thucydides' historical material, this essay focuses on Plataea, Corcyra, and Mytilene and discusses the notion of the polis in relation to space and in the context of time, thereby testing Aristotle's question—too soon dismissed—about the separation of a community from the space of its city (Pol. 3.1276b1–5).

Tissaphernes in Thucydides

1985 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. D. Westlake
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
History Of ◽  
Opening Phase

Of all the leading personalities who left their imprint on the history of the Peloponnesian war Tissaphernes was to Thucydides the most enigmatic. Although judgements on the ability and character of individuals occur more frequently in the eighth book of the History than in other parts, Thucydides apparently did not feel himself to be in a position to include an explicit judgement on Tissaphernes. Nor does Tissaphernes, unlike many major and minor characters, receive even a brief descriptive introduction, though such introductions are also exceptionally plentiful in the eighth book. Thucydides has been successful in collecting an abundance of detailed information about the part played by Tissaphernes in the opening phase of the Ionian war and yet has failed to produce a satisfactory picture of him. In this paper attention will first be drawn to special problems arising in the case of Tissaphernes which do not arise in the presentation of other leading characters. My main purpose, however, is to attempt to establish that the account of him by Thucydides is basically inconsistent and that this inconsistency occurs because the material in the eighth book has not been fully integrated.One source of difficulty for Thucydides in writing about Tissaphernes was that he seems to have had little opportunity to acquire knowledge of Persia and the Persians. There is no indication that he spent any part of his exile in or near Asia, and the notorious sparsity of his references to Greek relations with the Persians before the outbreak of the Ionian war suggests that his contacts with them were scanty. In this respect he was not exceptional. Before the end of the fifth century even the best educated Athenians seem to have possessed only a dim or distorted impression of Persia, as is illustrated in different ways by the Persae and the Acharnians.

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