Week 7 (Oct 28-Nov 1) PDF

Monday, October 28 The Peloponnesian War The Persian Wars had brought many of the Greek poleis into an alliance. Emerging from the war we have two dominant players: Athens and Sparta. This would eventually boil over into the Peloponnesian War, so named after the Peloponnesus, the regi...

Monday, October 28 The Peloponnesian War The Persian Wars had brought many of the Greek poleis into an alliance. Emerging from the war we have two dominant players: Athens and Sparta. This would eventually boil over into the Peloponnesian War, so named after the Peloponnesus, the region of mainland Greece which Sparta occupies, named after the mythical figure Pelops. Athens was the head of the Delian League (A.K.A. the ‘Athenian Empire’). Our main source for the Peloponnesian War is Thucydides, who is not only a central figure in the world of Classics, but an early central figure in the history of Political Science. Active hostilities began in 460 BCE, and continued (on and off) until the Athenians were defeated in 404 BCE. 446 BCE: 30 Years’ Peace, so named after the proposed number of years which would see an end to hostilities. The truce only lasted 15 years, however, but divides the conflict into two phases. The Greater Peloponnesian War was fought from 431-404 BCE. The Athenians had reason to believe they were not going to win by as early as 410 BCE. Thucydides Author of an incomplete history of the Peloponnesian War. Was himself elected as an Athenian general (strategos) in 424 BCE, which tells us that he was at least 30 years old at the time, as that was the minimum age to be elected a general in Athens. We believe he died sometime ca. 400 BCE. Forming a picture of Thucydides’ life is a fair bit easier than other periods in ancient history, as Classical Age Athens delivers us a relatively good amount of written and inscribed evidence. Thucydides came from an aristocratic family. He had family ties to Cimon, the principal opponent to the Athenian general Pericles, but Thucydides himself was a close follower of Pericles. Demagogues- “One who leads the people,” an ancient Greek word describing a charismatic political figure who is effective at rhetoric and swaying a crowd’s opinion in his favour. Thucydides caught the plague of Athens (430-427 BCE), but recovered. His description of the plague of Athens was unprecedentedly thorough. He was exiled (ostracised) in 424 BCE, after failing to save Amphipolis from the Spartans while acting as general. Thucydides’ Work: He is conscientious about his work standing the test of time, especially in a creative climate where speechmaking was a dominant artform, meant to be performed in the moment and lost to time. Thucydides is committing his work to paper, making a deliberate movement away from an oral tradition towards a literary tradition. He says elsewhere that his work is not made to meet contemporary tastes, but to rather last forever.  His incomplete history falls into 5 parts: 1. Introduction 2. The Ten Years War 3. Uneasy Peace 4. The Sicilian Expedition 5. The Decelean War (fragment) 2 and 4 Seem to be the most polished, and we don’t have insight into Thucydides’ writing and drafting process, but this is an interesting hint towards how his Histories came together, and this disparity in his work has provided plenty of fuel for discussion on how and when different parts of the work were written. Around about 416 Athens had a brief respite from hostilities with Sparta, and the Athenians knew they needed cash. After much heated debate the Athenians got it into their heads that the best way to gather funds was to sail over to Sicily to sack the wealthy city of Syracuse. The hopes of the Athenians were pinned on the success of this expedition, and the Athenian fleet was led by the general Nikias. It became quickly apparent, however, that the Athenians were utterly outmatched on Sicily, and the defeat was devastating to the city’s fighting force. It was apparent after this disastrous expedition that Athens had made a fatal error in the Peloponnesian War. Character of the History Thucydides made use of extensive, formal speeches. These speeches are some of the most difficultly wrought examples of ancient Greek. The most famous of these speeches which he reports is the epitaphios, the funeral oration of Pericles. Thucydides did not attend this speech, nor did he have a tape recorder there. He tells us his methodology for reporting these speeches, however. He is quite candid about how he and his sources would forget the finer details of speeches which they had heard, and that his reported speeches were meant to capture the essence of the speeches. These speeches are somewhat different in character from the main narrative. The main narrative strikes one as incredibly analytical and objective, while the speeches are quite a bit more subjective in character. “The speeches offer further evidence that two hearts beat in Thucydides’ breast.” (Hornblower) Usually a historian has a particular view. History, in the sense of historiography, is meant to give us insight into the past, but that is seemingly impossible to do without a perspective. Thucydides’ prose is very bold and often difficult (especially in the speeches). At times his prose strikes one as downright experimental (e.g. the description of stasis in Corcyra in book 3). Thucydides is perhaps the most difficult ancient Greek prose stylist to read. Dionysius of Halicarnassus sums up the four features of Thucydides’ style: 1. Poetic vocabulary 2. Great variety of figures 3. harshness of sound combinations 4. swiftness of saying what he has to say Thucydides’ importance: Thucydides has been held up as the model of history in its modern sense. Edward Gibbon summarised history as “Wars and the administration of public affairs.” Modern historians would hardly agree with this, but that was very much the model for old school historiography. Thucydides never actually uses the words historia (‘history’) or historika (‘historian’) at all. He is also an impactful figure in the field of political science. ‘Historia’ vs. Poetry One of the things which makes Thucydides so important are his frequent appeals to evidence. He is quite analytical and contrasts himself with poets and prose narrative traditions (people writing prose chronicles of myth (we suspect that he is lumping Herodotus in with writers such as these)). Thucydides is not correct all the time, but his methodology is unique. Aristotle also discusses the difference between the historian and poet. The historian relates things that have happened, while the poet relays things which may happen. In Aristotle's view poetry is more philosophical, touching on universal processes, while historians only discuss particularities. This seems like an unfair assessment of historians, however. Thucydides’ work carries an essential purpose of providing the historical record so that we may identify the patterns of history, and thus avoid repeating the past. Friday, November 1 Athenian Democracy The roots of democracy extend all the way back to Classical Athens. Forms of Government in the Ancient Greek World Kingship: a Bronze Age reality (the wanax). A king is typically a ruler who hokds power because of heredity. By the Classical Period this kind of kingship is mythical, having likely disappeared sometime during the Bronze Age collapse. Tyranny: a tyrannos is a term for an individual who seizes control of an existing government. A loaded term these days, but in the ancient world they were not necessarily bad (negative connotations with tyranny come from Plato and Aristotle). It seemed to be a fairly neutral term, and there were tyrants both good and bad. Even Athens had a pretty good tyrant, named Pisistratus, before the institution of democracy. Oedipous Tyrannos: Sophocles’ play, known by many titles. One ironic twist is that Oedipus is believed to be a tyrant, but learns that he is in reality a king. Oligarchy: literally translated as ‘rule by the few.’ The most common form of government in the Archaic Period. These small councils of rulers were made up of elite, aristocratic men. Aristotle thus characterised oligarchy as ‘rule by the rich.’ Democracy: There are only a handful of democracies which we know about, it was a rather unusual form of governance. There are basically two democratic models: direct democracy (where all citizens are involved in decision making) or representational/parliamentary democracy (elected officials make decisions). Athens is closer to a direct democracy, lots of citizens have a vote in major decisions. Athens also had a strikingly small citizen body, however.  Ideology of Athenian Democracy Literally means ‘rule (kratos) by the people (demos).’ Demokratia was a hotly debated form of constitution, and was often criticised by oligarchs and philosophers (including Plato and Aristotle, who characterised it as ‘rule by the poor and unqualified’). Athenian democrats believed that democracy was intimately connected with liberty and equality.* To democrats the entire citizen body represented the demos. Critics of democracy classified the demos as the class of ‘ordinary people,’ or the ‘city poor,’ who could outnumber and outvote the countrymen and wealthy. * This only extended to adult, citizen men. The democratic ideal was eleutheria (liberty). The most important aspect of liberty was freedom of speech. Freedom of speech meant the ability to participate in the operation of government, and the ability to both speak his mind in private and to address the assembly of citizens in public. Athenian democracy was not based on the view that all are equal. The equality was that all should have an equal opportunity to participate in politics, to speak in the assembly, and that all are equal before the law. The concept of democracy in Classical Athens is strictly political, while our own modern rhetoric about democracy is much more wide-reaching. History of the Athenian Democracy 510 BCE: The Pisistratid tyrants were expelled from Athens. Pisistratus attempted to establish a kind of hereditary rule, but his sons were much less effective rulers, one of whom was assassinated while the other was driven out. The expulsion of the Peisistratids resulted in a power vacuum which aristocratic factions struggled to fill. With the support of the demos Cleisthenes became the dominant political figure. He sought to create a system which would limit the power of aristocratic figures. Cleisthenes’ Reforms It is unclear when this system starts to become referred to as democracy. This was a form of government arising in a small number of city-states at the time, attempting to reconcile the class tensions which were threatening the stability of these poleis. Cleisthenes divided the region of Attica (the larger territory surrounding and belonging to Athens) into 139 municipalities, called demoi or demes. The demes were distributed among 10 tribes (phylai). Citizen rights were linked to membership in a deme. There was a council (Boule) of 500, with 50 members from each of the phylai. A fixed number of seats were assigned to each deme. The demes were established to supersede clan ties and more evenly distribute power across the polis. Ostracism: a system implemented at this time to avoid future tyrannies. Anyone could be put up for ostracism, which was a community vote to exile someone from the city for an extended period of time. The votes would be cast on discarded pottery shards, called ostrakon. This was a means of preventing any one citizen in the polis from acquiring too much power or prestige, which could be leveraged into establishing a tyranny. Political organisation of Attica: Decision making was distributed among different regions of Attica, so that no individual populous area could exert influence over the whole of Attica. Institutions of Athenian Democracy Political rights were restricted to adult male Athenians. Women, foreigners (metoikoi or metics), and slaves were excluded. Athenian men came of age at 18, but received full political rights at age 30. Ancient demography is notably difficult to nail down, but people have attempted it with varying degrees of success. We know for certain that the majority of Athens’ population were not citizens. In most poleis citizenship was a closely guarded and often hereditary right. Questioning a political opponent’s parentage, and thus their citizenship, was a common rhetorical attack. The Assembly (ekklesia): normally attended by about 6000 citizens Legislators (nomothetai): passed laws, dealt with amendments to laws of the famous Archaic legislator Solon. Courts (dikasteria): Athenians loved going to court and suing one another. Magistracies (archai): Various administrative functions. 10 Generals (strategoi): These generals were elected, and not necessarily appointed for their military prowess.