UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Rotting Ships and Bloodied Water: Destructive Liquids and Thucydides’ Skepticism of Naval Imperialism A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Anthony Vivian 2020 © Copyright by Anthony Vivian 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Rotting Ships and Bloodied Water: Destructive Liquids and Thucydides’ Skepticism of Naval Imperialism by Anthony Vivian Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor David Daniel Phillips, Chair Thucydides’ construction of liquids and solids undermines both the rhetoric of Athenian characters within his History and the consensus reading of this text. This dissertation analyzes Thucydides’ depiction of liquids as active and destructive and contextualizes it within Greek history and literature. From the oldest extant Greek texts, authors have described all sorts of liquids as active, mutable, and in motion. Their activeness is the fundamental quality that separates them from solids. One major subcategory of liquid activeness in Greek literature is liquid destructiveness. Greek authors consistently show the sea and other liquids to be dangerous, destructive, and deadly. These authors developed this theme as Greek seafaring and naval warfare consistently !ii increased in the Aegean from the end of the eighth century up through the fifth century BCE and beyond. Thucydides writes within these well-established traditions. He portrays the motion and activeness of liquids in scenes of changing topography. He maps the binary between active liquids and inert solids onto his important dichotomy between Athens and Sparta. The Athenians, who control a naval empire, are active, mutable, and loquacious; the land-based Spartans are stable, conservative, and laconic. Thucydides also develops the destructiveness of liquids throughout his text. Seawater and river water sink ships and kill soldiers. The historian constructs the plague in particularly liquid terms. The Athenians prove to be the most frequent victims of liquid destruction; their over-extended naval empire exposes them to the sea and other dangerous liquids. This reality undermines the rhetoric of Athenian characters within the text who argue for the stability and security of naval empire. This project thus argues against the consensus reading of Thucydides which frames him as a general supporter of Athenian naval imperialism; it contextualizes him within Greek history and literature; and it argues for the study of authors’ construction of physical, inanimate material as a useful analytical tool. !iii This dissertation of Anthony Vivian is approved. Kathryn Anne Morgan Giulia Sissa Peter James Stacey David Daniel Phillips, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 !iv For Tonya !v TABLE OF CONTENTS Note to the Reader ix Acknowledgements x Biographical Sketch xi Introduction 1 A River and a Flood, 1964 1 Argument and Goals 5 Chapter Outline 6 1. Seafaring in the Aegean and Liquids in Greek Literature up to the Fifth Century 10 Historical Background, c. 750-c. 650 10 Liquid as Motion and Change, c. 750-c. 650 21 Liquid as Destruction, c. 750-c. 650 25 Historical Background, c. 650-c. 500 31 Liquid as Motion and Change, c. 650-c. 500 37 Liquid as Destruction, c. 650-c. 500 45 2. Seafaring in the Aegean and Liquids in Greek Literature in the Fifth Century 63 Historical Background, c. 500-c. 400 63 Liquid as Motion and Change, c. 500-c. 400 75 Liquid as Destruction, c. 500-c. 400 88 3. Thucydides and Athenian Naval Imperialism 102 Opinio Communis: Thucydides, an Advocate of Athenian Imperialism 102 !vi The Minority Position: Thucydides, a Skeptic of Athenian Imperialism 114 Thucydides 1.1-2.65 120 The Archaeology 121 The Fifty Years 133 Athens under Pericles 139 4. Liquid as Motion and Change in Thucydides 155 "#$%&'( and "'$)* in Thucydides 155 Liquids as Motion and Change 160 Naval Athenians and Land-based Spartans 165 Active Athenians and Conservative Spartans 168 Active Athenians and Conservative Spartans: The Corinthians and Athenians at Sparta 174 Active Athenians and Conservative Spartans: Pericles and the Melian Dialogue 179 Active Athenians and Conservative Spartans: Alcibiades on Sicily 183 Active Athenians and Conservative Spartans: Euphemus at Camarina 187 Active Athenians and Conservative Spartans: The Narrator Weighs In 189 Loquacious Athenians and Laconic Spartans 192 5. Liquid as Destruction in Thucydides 200 The Plague 203 The Sicilian Expedition: The Sea, Drinking Water, and Rain 208 The Sicilian Expedition: Bloodied Water 218 Rotting Ships and Unburied Corpses 227 Conclusion 236 !vii The Passage of Time 237 Atlantis and Athens 240 Bibliography 244 !viii NOTE TO THE READER All ancient dates are BCE, unless otherwise noted. All numbered citations without an author’s name, e.g. (6.18.5), are from Thucydides. The Greek text used throughout this work for Thucydides’ History is from the Oxford Classical Text edition by Henry Stuart Jones. All translations are my own, unless otherwise noted. !ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am thankful to my dissertation committee and others who have helped me with this project. As my advisor and dissertation committee chair, David D. Phillips has played a foundational role in my understanding of Greek history, Greek literature, and the Greek language. Kathryn Morgan has provided invaluable insight while challenging my argument to live up to high standards. Giulia Sissa has offered thought-provoking notes and unwavering support. Peter Stacey has imparted instructive feedback and heartfelt encouragement. Beyond my committee, I am grateful to the many scholars who have helped with this project. Chief among them, Amy Richlin has been supporting and challenging me since she served as my post- baccalaureate advisor in 2012. I am indebted to my family, who have supported me and patiently put up with me as I completed this project, as they have with my other endeavors. To my wife Tonya and daughter Ophelia, thank you. I am likewise thankful to my parents who have always supported me unconditionally. !x BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Anthony Vivian graduated from Villanova University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He has studied at Bo+aziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey and taught ESL in Paju, South Korea. He has earned two Masters of Arts in History and Classics from UCLA. His article, “Entanglement at the Assinarus: Destructive Liquids and Fluid Athenians in Thucydides,” is forthcoming in The Classical Journal. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. !xi INTRODUCTION In line with previous and contemporary Greek texts, Thucydides constructs liquids as active and destructive. At a fundamental level, Greek authors use motion to distinguish liquids from solids (e.g., Heraclitus D-K 12; Simonides 581 [Campbell]; Aristotle Generation and Corruption 2.2).1 Liquids’ activeness, mutability, and flux can take on multifarious forms: liquids can be generative; they can be destructive; their change can take on a range of other resonances. As seafaring increased in the Aegean, Greek authors often described and thematized the destructiveness of the sea and other liquids. Thucydides taps into these well-established traditions as he depicts active and destructive liquids. He maps the binary between liquids and solids onto his construction of the Athenians and Spartans. The activeness of the Athenians matches that of the water which buoys their triremes; the Spartans are as solid as the ground upon which their hoplites tread. This characterization renders the Athenians dangerous to their allies and other poleis; the Athenians’ fluidity catalyzes their empire similar to other naval powers in the cycle which Thucydides illustrates in his Archaeology (1.1-19). Yet the Athenians’ naval empire also exposes them to the perils of the sea and other destructive liquids. Thucydides develops the theme of active and destructive liquids to undermine the imperialistic rhetoric of Athenian characters within his text. A River and a Flood, 1964 CE 1 D-K = Diels and Kranz numbering, employed for all citations of Heraclitus herein. !1 Thucydides’ work parallels contemporary and earlier Greek authors, and much of this project aims to contextualize him within Greek history and literature; however, to understand his use of liquids, it will be helpful to start a world away. Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and Bob Dylan’s “The Times they are a-Changing” were both released in 1964. Although of different genres and disparate sounds, they have much in common. Both songs explicitly discuss the ongoing civil rights movement and other cultural and social changes of the tumultuous 1960s. Both utilize liquids to symbolize the change that their world was experiencing. Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” conflates the singer with a river while insisting on long awaited change. A black R&B star known for his soulful voice, Cooke was more accustomed to performing danceable, less political tracks. In “A Change is Gonna Come,” he sings of being excluded from segregated spaces and being knocked to his knees.2 Tragically, Cooke was fatally shot on December 11, 1964, shortly after the song’s debut. It was rereleased on a single, days after his death. For the first two verses, he sings: I was born by the river in a little tent Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since It's been a long, a long time coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky It's been a long, a long time coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.3 Cooke’s exposition on change begins with a river. The river imagery was inspired, in part, by the 1927 tune “Ol’ Man River.”4 Cooke’s second line situates the river within this song; it is a 2 Cooke 1964, 9-16.