Victoria WOHL Cleon Before Pericles: Thucydides on the "Turn" in Athenian Politics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Victoria WOHL Cleon before Pericles: Thucydides on the "turn" in Athenian politics In his summation of Pericles' achievements, Thucydides draws a strong distinction between Pericles and his successors (2.65). In his intelligence, integrity, and near monarchical authority, Pericles represented a perfection in Athenian history never to be matched. By comparison, his successors were mere parodies of his greatness, poor imitations of the original. Cleon in particular is presented in Thucydides' narrative as a failed or parodic Pericles. This paper questions not only the relation between Cleon and Pericles, but also the historiographic impulse (ancient and modern) to conceive of history in terms of perfect originals and failed copies. What does it mean to view Cleon as a purely derivative figure, a parodic Pericles? What is at stake for Thucydides in this contrast? What is at stake for Pericles and "Periclean" Athens? Thucydides' contrast turns on the issue of democratic pleasure. Pericles leads the demos because of his refusal to "speak to please" (2.65.8); his successors "turned to pleasing the people and relinquished affairs to them" (2.65.10). Aristophanes reaffirms this historiographical schism: his Knights literalizes this "turn to pleasure," and its vile economy of oral gratification exposes the vital concerns behind Thucydides' insistence that Pericles, unlike his successors, did not speak to please. But while Thucydides represents Cleon as a failed Pericles, Plutarch shows us Pericles as a barely sublimated Cleon. In his Life of Pericles, the statesman's early career is characterized by precisely the sort of pleasing politics associated with Cleon. Plutarch's Pericles turns away from Cleontic pleasures, but the turn is never complete and the line between Pericles and Cleon is not as clear as Thucydides, for one, would like. Plutarch's account thus reaffirms Cleon's proposition in his Mytilinean speech (Thuc. 3.37-40) that pleasure always inheres in the relationship between demos and demagogue. Thucydides may segregate Pericles and Cleon (and hence deny the pleasure of his own logos as well as Pericles'), but Cleon suggests that "Periclean" Athens is always also "Cleontic." .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

CRITICAL THEORY and AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism
CDSMS EDITED BY JEREMIAH MORELOCK CRITICAL THEORY AND AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism edited by Jeremiah Morelock Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies Series Editor: Christian Fuchs The peer-reviewed book series edited by Christian Fuchs publishes books that critically study the role of the internet and digital and social media in society. Titles analyse how power structures, digital capitalism, ideology and social struggles shape and are shaped by digital and social media. They use and develop critical theory discussing the political relevance and implications of studied topics. The series is a theoretical forum for in- ternet and social media research for books using methods and theories that challenge digital positivism; it also seeks to explore digital media ethics grounded in critical social theories and philosophy. Editorial Board Thomas Allmer, Mark Andrejevic, Miriyam Aouragh, Charles Brown, Eran Fisher, Peter Goodwin, Jonathan Hardy, Kylie Jarrett, Anastasia Kavada, Maria Michalis, Stefania Milan, Vincent Mosco, Jack Qiu, Jernej Amon Prodnik, Marisol Sandoval, Se- bastian Sevignani, Pieter Verdegem Published Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet Christian Fuchs https://doi.org/10.16997/book1 Knowledge in the Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism Mariano Zukerfeld https://doi.org/10.16997/book3 Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy Trevor Garrison Smith https://doi.org/10.16997/book5 Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare Scott Timcke https://doi.org/10.16997/book6 The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism Edited by Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano https://doi.org/10.16997/book11 The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies Annika Richterich https://doi.org/10.16997/book14 Social Capital Online: Alienation and Accumulation Kane X.
[Show full text]
The Chronicle Review Our 'Prophet of Deceit'
The Chronicle Review Our 'Prophet of Deceit' WWII-era social scientists explained Trump’s appeal By Richard Wolin October 30, 2016 To date, much ink has spilled attempting to historically situate Donald Trump’s unprecedented and disturbing run for the American presidency. Of course, one of the problems in trying to do so is that, as a political outsider, Trump is a consummate shape- shifter. His positions can and do change from day to day, moment to moment. By the same token, this rather basic and unarguable fact already reveals something significant about his candidacy. Whereas such glaring inconsistencies would have undoubtedly torpedoed a conventional candidate, remarkably, for more than a year, they left Trump more or less politically unscathed. Trump himself quipped in January: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody. And I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?" Time and again, Trump’s bluster and outsize personality trump (pardonnez- moi) the customary considerations of rational accountability. His loyal supporters seem to be, for the most part, indifferent to what Trump says: whether or not it is practicable (a wall to stanch immigration from Mexico), or constitutional (his proposal of a religious test to rebuff Muslims seeking to enter the United States). Instead, their devotion is largely predicated on Trump’s personality and charisma. And on these grounds, they seem consistently willing to engage in a worrisome suspension of disbelief, waiving the evidentiary claims that voters traditionally rely on to evaluate a candidate’s trustworthiness and viability. Many commentators have also pondered whether Trump might be accurately described as a fascist.
[Show full text]
The Authentic Appeal of the Lying Demagogue
ASRXXX10.1177/0003122417749632American Sociological ReviewHahl et al. 7496322018 American Sociological Review 2018, Vol. 83(1) 1 –33 The Authentic Appeal of the © American Sociological Association 2018 https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417749632DOI: 10.1177/0003122417749632 Lying Demagogue: Proclaiming journals.sagepub.com/home/asr the Deeper Truth about Political Illegitimacy Oliver Hahl ,a Minjae Kim,b and Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivanb Abstract We develop and test a theory to address a puzzling pattern that has been discussed widely since the 2016 U.S. presidential election and reproduced here in a post-election survey: how can a constituency of voters find a candidate “authentically appealing” (i.e., view him positively as authentic) even though he is a “lying demagogue” (someone who deliberately tells lies and appeals to non-normative private prejudices)? Key to the theory are two points: (1) “common-knowledge” lies may be understood as flagrant violations of the norm of truth- telling; and (2) when a political system is suffering from a “crisis of legitimacy” (Lipset 1959) with respect to at least one political constituency, members of that constituency will be motivated to see a flagrant violator of established norms as an authentic champion of its interests. Two online vignette experiments on a simulated college election support our theory. These results demonstrate that mere partisanship is insufficient to explain sharp differences in how lying demagoguery is perceived, and that several oft-discussed factors—information access, culture, language, and gender—are not necessary for explaining such differences. Rather, for the lying demagogue to have authentic appeal, it is sufficient that one side of a social divide regards the political system as flawed or illegitimate.
[Show full text]
The Roles of Solon in Plato's Dialogues
The Roles of Solon in Plato’s Dialogues Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Samuel Ortencio Flores, M.A. Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Bruce Heiden, Advisor Anthony Kaldellis Richard Fletcher Greg Anderson Copyrighy by Samuel Ortencio Flores 2013 Abstract This dissertation is a study of Plato’s use and adaptation of an earlier model and tradition of wisdom based on the thought and legacy of the sixth-century archon, legislator, and poet Solon. Solon is cited and/or quoted thirty-four times in Plato’s dialogues, and alluded to many more times. My study shows that these references and allusions have deeper meaning when contextualized within the reception of Solon in the classical period. For Plato, Solon is a rhetorically powerful figure in advancing the relatively new practice of philosophy in Athens. While Solon himself did not adequately establish justice in the city, his legacy provided a model upon which Platonic philosophy could improve. Chapter One surveys the passing references to Solon in the dialogues as an introduction to my chapters on the dialogues in which Solon is a very prominent figure, Timaeus- Critias, Republic, and Laws. Chapter Two examines Critias’ use of his ancestor Solon to establish his own philosophic credentials. Chapter Three suggests that Socrates re- appropriates the aims and themes of Solon’s political poetry for Socratic philosophy. Chapter Four suggests that Solon provides a legislative model which Plato reconstructs in the Laws for the philosopher to supplant the role of legislator in Greek thought.
[Show full text]
Isaeus 9 and Astyphilus' Last Expedition David Welsh
WELSH, DAVID, Isaeus 9 and Astyphilus' Last Expedition , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:2 (1991:Summer) p.133 Isaeus 9 and Astyphilus' Last Expedition David Welsh SAEUS 9, ON THE ESTATE OF ASTYPHILUS, can be conveniently I studied through part of the family stemma of the litigants.1 The speech relates that the professional soldier Astyphilus died on military service at Mytilcnc, and subsequently in Athens Cleon, his first cousin and the speaker's opponent in the suit, took possession of the estate in the name of his own son. x I Thudippus Euthycrates = sister of Hierocles = Theophrastus I I I Cleon Astyphilus speaker I son Cleon maintained that Astyphilus had adopted this son before his departure and invoked a will deposited with a certain Hierocles. The (unnamed) speaker, Astyphilus' uterine half brother by the remarriage of Euthycrates' widow to Theo phrastus, denounces the will as a forgery and contends that he has a stronger claim to the estate.z One of his chief arguments is 1 The following works will be cited by author's name: A. R. W. HARRISON, The Law of Athens: The Family and Property (Oxford 1968);]. K. DAVIES, Athenian Propertied Families 600-300 B.C. (Oxford 1971); W. WYSE, The Speeches of Isaeus (Cambridge 1904); A. P. BURNETT and C. N. EDMONSON, "The Chabrias Monument in the Athenian Agora," Hesperia 30 (1961) 74-91; T. T. B. RYDER, Koine Eirene (London 1965); S. HORNBLOWER, Mausolus (Oxford 1982). 2 Since Cleon and his son were respectively the first cousin and first cousin once removed of Astyphilus on the paternal side, either would normally have enjoyed legal precedence over the speaker in the order of succession to the 133 WELSH, DAVID, Isaeus 9 and Astyphilus' Last Expedition , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 32:2 (1991:Summer) p.133 134 ISAEUS 9 AND ASTYPHILUS' LAST EXPEDITION based on Astyphilus' alleged hostility to Cleon because Thudippus was said to have killed Euthycrates in a fraternal quarrel over partition of the family estate.
[Show full text]
Marathon 2,500 Years Edited by Christopher Carey & Michael Edwards
MARATHON 2,500 YEARS EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SUPPLEMENT 124 DIRECTOR & GENERAL EDITOR: JOHN NORTH DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS: RICHARD SIMPSON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS PROCEEDINGS OF THE MARATHON CONFERENCE 2010 EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2013 The cover image shows Persian warriors at Ishtar Gate, from before the fourth century BC. Pergamon Museum/Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. Photo Mohammed Shamma (2003). Used under CC‐BY terms. All rights reserved. This PDF edition published in 2019 First published in print in 2013 This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Available to download free at http://www.humanities-digital-library.org ISBN: 978-1-905670-81-9 (2019 PDF edition) DOI: 10.14296/1019.9781905670819 ISBN: 978-1-905670-52-9 (2013 paperback edition) ©2013 Institute of Classical Studies, University of London The right of contributors to be identified as the authors of the work published here has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Designed and typeset at the Institute of Classical Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory note 1 P. J. Rhodes The battle of Marathon and modern scholarship 3 Christopher Pelling Herodotus’ Marathon 23 Peter Krentz Marathon and the development of the exclusive hoplite phalanx 35 Andrej Petrovic The battle of Marathon in pre-Herodotean sources: on Marathon verse-inscriptions (IG I3 503/504; Seg Lvi 430) 45 V.
[Show full text]
Working Paper How Leaders Get the Worst out of People: the Threat Of
Working Paper 2020/60/EFE How Leaders Get the Worst Out of People: The Threat of Hate-based Populism Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries INSEAD, [email protected] Taking Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil, as case example, this article explores various manifestations of hatred, viewed from both an individual and societal perspective. Distinguishing between interpersonal and intergroup hatred, it is pointed out that hatred is like a contagious disease that has contributed to many atrocities. The article also discusses how hate-based populism uses ideologies as a bonding mechanism, describing the ways in which populist leaders use hatred to create ingroups and outgroups, uniting their constituencies through the use of the defense mechanisms of projection and splitting, and using outgroups as scapegoats. The dynamics of dehumanization are also explored. In addition, the article shows how the rise of social networking has made hatred more pernicious. It ends with suggestions about how hatred can be transcended and ways to overcome destructive feelings. Key Words: Hatred; Anger; Contempt; Envy; Splitting; Scapegoating; Projection; Interpersonal; Intergroup; Ingroup; Outgroup; Contagion; Ideology; Dehumanization; Social Networking; Populist Leader; Demagogue. Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3741909 Working Paper is the author’s intellectual property. It is intended as a means to promote research to interested readers. Its content should not be copied or hosted on any server without written permission from [email protected] Find more INSEAD papers at https://www.insead.edu/faculty-research/research Copyright © 2020 INSEAD Hate, in the long run, is about as nourishing as cyanide. —Kurt Vonnegut Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.
[Show full text]
The Dangerous Rise of Populism Global Attacks on Human Rights Values
The Dangerous Rise of Populism Global Attacks on Human Rights Values By Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch Human rights exist to protect people from government abuse and neglect. Rights limit what a state can do and impose obligations for how a state must act. Yet today a new generation of populists is turning this protection on its head. Claiming to speak for “the people,” they treat rights as an impediment to their conception of the majority will, a needless obstacle to defending the nation from perceived threats and evils. Instead of accepting rights as protecting everyone, they privilege the declared interests of the majority, encouraging people to adopt the dangerous belief that they will never themselves need to assert rights against an overreaching government claiming to act in their name. The appeal of the populists has grown with mounting public discontent over the status quo. In the West, many people feel left behind by technological change, the global economy, and growing inequality. Horrific incidents of terrorism generate apprehension and fear. Some are uneasy with societies that have become more ethnically, religiously and racially diverse. There is an increasing sense that governments and the elite ignore public concerns. In this cauldron of discontent, certain politicians are flourishing and even gaining power by portraying rights as protecting only the terrorist suspect or the asylum seeker at the expense of the safety, economic welfare, and cultural preferences of the presumed majority. They scapegoat refugees, immigrant communities, and minorities. Truth is a frequent casualty. Nativism, xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia are on the rise.
[Show full text]
The 1932 Presidential Election: the Tough-Minded Common- Man and the Virtuous Savior
The 1932 Presidential Election: The Tough-Minded Common- Man and the Virtuous Savior Julia Devin In his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) famously proclaimed that it was his “firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”1 Using an inspirational tone he continued, as he had throughout his campaign, to emphasize that hope in dark economic times required “a leadership of frankness and vigor…met with that understanding and support of the people.”2 As the nation listened to his words, FDR solidified his carefully constructed self-image as a tough-minded common-man trumping Herbert Hoover’s seemingly antiquated virtuous savior image. FDR’s sweeping victory during the 1932 election showed quite clearly that the tough-minded common-man image made more sense than Hoover’s virtuous savior narrative. In the context of the Great Depression and Prohibition, weary Americans looked toward FDR’s proactive depiction of leadership revealing that Hoover’s principles and words were just not enough to confront the nation’s problems. FDR’s victory emphasized an alignment with “common difficulties” of the people and promised a mental 1 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Inaugural Address” (speech, U.S. Presidential Inauguration, March 4, 1933), http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14473&st =&st1= (accessed November, 2012). 2 Ibid. 2 Perspectives toughness aimed at approaching leadership with “a candor and decision” necessary to combat the economic and social perils fostered by the context of the Great Depression and Prohibition.3 Previous historians have approached the 1932 presidential election between Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover and Democratic candidate Franklin Roosevelt using a more traditional political lens.
[Show full text]
Demagogues in America: from the Revolution to the Second World War*
Demagogues in America: From the Revolution to the Second World War* Dan Bernhardt† Stefan Krasa‡ Mehdi Shadmehr§ Abstract We deﬁne demagogues as anti-establishment politicians who provide simplistic expla- nations and solutions for the people’s problems. We identify two key forms of these simplis- tic solutions: those that ignore resource constraints and those that blame particular ethnic or cultural groups for resource shortfalls. There are two main results: (1) demagogues arise on the national stage in the form of presidential contenders in the aftermath of an economic crisis, or during the slow recovery that follows. (2) Established parties often adjust their positions toward demagogues to fend them oﬀ (e.g., FDR in the mid 1930s); and when they refuse (e.g., John Quincy Adams), demagogues win and implement far worse policies that destroy physical and social capital. We highlight how concerns for demagogues dominated the thinking of Americans in the Revolutionary Era and the Early Republic, and were a main factor behind the Constitutional Movement. *We wish to thank Charles Cameron, Justin Fox, Mark Harrison, Bing Powell, Michael Walzer, and Adam Zelizer for helpful conversations, suggestions and comments. †University of Illinois, Department of Economics, and University of Warwick, Depatment of Economics. ‡University of Illinois, Department of Economics. §University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy, and University of Calgary, Department of Economics. 1 Introduction “General Jackson is the slave of the majority: he yields to its wishes, its propensities, and its demands; say rather, that he anticipates and forestalls them,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America. But the ever observant de Tocqueville knew all too well that Jackson was far from a humble servant of the people.
[Show full text]
Neale C. Gay First Draft of Research Paper Tentatively Titled: The
Neale C. Gay First Draft of Research Paper Tentatively titled: The Dual Theses Regarding Democracy In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian war stands as one of the benchmarks of Western historiography. The History is a history interlaced with a tragedy befitting fifth century Athens, and an understanding of the cultural and intellectual achievements of the twenty-four years covered by its author. That he stretches farther back in his archeology to cover the Persian Wars is a further benefit to his readers, because, by doing so, he manages to encompass one hundred years of Athenian democracy into the vastness of his scope. His is a history written for posterity,1 a history written to illuminate forever the importance of the war between the Athenian alliance and the Spartan alliance.2 This was his initial purpose. The study of Thucydides’ History, however, has given much more to future generations than merely an understanding of the greatness of the Peloponnesian War; Thucydides has bequeathed an account of the decline and fall of Athenian democracy. When he began chronicling the battles fought and the speeches made, this was far from his mind. He began to develop underlying theses concerning government that, while saying volumes about Athenian characteristics, have dire consequences for his opinion of his countrymen, and for humankind in general. The History becomes a tragic satire as Thucydides witnesses the rapid decline of his culture. 1 “My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.” (I, 22) 2 Thucydides believed that never in history were two adversaries matched so evenly as Athens and Sparta while at the height of their militaristic power.
[Show full text]
Defining the Athenian Arche
Defining the Athenian Arche Thucydides uses arche in his History nearly one thousand times. The meanings are multiple and varied; they range from beginning, command, dominion, rule, and empire, for example. My presentation will focus on when Thucydides uses arche to mean empire and the various ways in which Thucydides’ use of the term helps to elucidate his characterization of the Athenian Empire. Three manifestations of arche will be addressed: Athens’ economic arche, Pericles’ vision of the Athenian arche, and Cleon’s vision of the Athenian arche. In the Archaeology, Thucydides recalls great empires and the resources they possessed—resources that the reader may see as indicative of power. Thucydides is quick to assert that true power does not reside in the intangibles of material wealth and possessions. He argues that later generations would misjudge Athenian and Spartan power based on the physical evidence that remains of their culture. However at 1.75, the Athenians affirm their arche as the aggregation of land and material that they have acquired after the continued prosecution of the Persian Wars. This arche is economic because it is quantifiably measurable. Thucydides intends that the origin of the Athenian Empire does indeed lie in its physical resources, but those resources do not adequately or wholly define Athenian arche. Pericles’ vision of Athenian arche is intrinsically related to her economic superiority but which takes on political significance during the Peloponnesian War. Pericles never doubts Athenian superiority or the survival of the city; his means to achieve that end lay in a programmatic strategy of economic conservatism and rhetorically unifying language.
[Show full text]