Pleonexia, Parasitic Greed, and Decline in Greek Thought from Thucydides to Polybius
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ABSTRACT Title of Document: HOW THINGS FALL APART: PLEONEXIA, PARASITIC GREED, AND DECLINE IN GREEK THOUGHT FROM THUCYDIDES TO POLYBIUS William D. Burghart, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed By: Professor Arthur M. Eckstein, Department of History This dissertation examines how Greek authors from the fifth to the second century BCE employed the concept of pleonexia to explain why cities lost power on the international stage and why they lost internal cohesion. First, it argues that Greek authors understood pleonexia to mean “the desire for more at the expense of another” as opposed simply “greed” as most modern authors translate it. Second, it contends that Greeks authors deployed the concept of pleonexia to describe situations that modern authors would describe as societal collapse—defined as the reduction of societal complexity, which can be measured through either the loss of material or immaterial means, e.g., land, wealth, political power, influence over others, political stability, or political autonomy. Greek authors used the language of pleonexia to characterize the motivation of an entity, either an individual within a community or a city or state, to act in a way that empowered the entity by taking or somehow depriving another similar entity of wealth, land, or power. In a city, pleonexia manifested as an individual seeking to gain power through discrediting, prosecuting, or eliminating rivals. In international affairs, it materialized as attempts of a power to gain more territory or influence over others. Acting on such an impulse led to conflict within cities and in the international arena. The inevitable result of such conflict was the pleonexic power losing more than it had had before. The Greeks, thus, had a theory that acting on pleonexia led to a reduction in societal complexity. Tracing this paradigm in over two hundred years of Greek writing further demonstrates continuity in Greek thought across the Classical and Hellenistic cultural boundaries imposed by modern writers. The dissertation thus argues that Greek authors used pleonexia to construct a psychological model of decline that persisted for over two hundred years. HOW THINGS FALL APART: PLEONEXIA, PARASITIC GREED AND DECLINE IN GREEK THOUGHT FROM THUCYDIDES TO POLYBIUS By William Devon Burghart Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of of Doctorate of Philosophy 2015 Advisory Committee: Prof. Arthur Eckstein, Chair Prof. Eric Adler Prof. Janna Bianchini Prof. Judith Hallett Prof. Kenneth Holum © Copyright by William D. Burghart 2015 Dedication: This dissertation is dedicated to my grandmother, June Hess. I wish you could have seen it finished. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I thank my family: my mother, Susan Burghart, my father, Daniel Burghart, and my brother, Robert Burghart, for their love and support through the many years. Second, I thank my adviser, Arthur Eckstein, for his wisdom, guidance, and tough editorial practices. Third, I thank my committee. My thanks to Ken Holum for reading and providing feedback on a chapter before the dissertation officially went to the committee. My thanks also to Judith Hallett who supplied excellent written feedback after the dissertation went to committee but before the defense. In addition, I thank Eric Adler and Janna Bianchini for agreeing to be on the committee and their comments both during and after the defense. Fourth, I am grateful to my friends, both in and out of grad school, who helped me retain my sanity (or at least parts of it) through the entire process. In particular, I thank my roommate, Reid Gustafson, who heard the phrase, “hey Reid, does this make sense?” too many times to count, yet always gave good feedback. I thank Theodore Cohen, who voluntarily read most of this dissertation and whose insightful comments, suggestions, and conversations helped me further refine my arguments. I thank Dan Reynolds and Matt Bozievich for their years of support and friendship. Also, their occasional need for a live-in dog sitter provided me welcomed opportunities to escape College Park, even if briefly. I thank Anne Bozievich, whose husband unwittingly volunteered her to copy edit a draft of this dissertation. Finally, to all my friends on the third floor of Francis Scott Key Hall, thank you. I also give thanks to the people of the University of Maryland, College Park. In particular, I am grateful to the Maryland History Department Office staff, especially Jodi iii Hall and Catalina Toala, for all their hard work. I thank the Interlibrary Loan Services and the staff at McKeldin library and other libraries affiliated with the University of Maryland library system. I also thank Maryland’s History Department for the dissertation completion fellowship award, which gave me the time and money to finish the project. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my high school Latin teacher, Wesley Jones Jr., who introduced me to the joy of the study of the classical Mediterranean world. The completion of this dissertation was facilitated, aided, and improved upon thanks to all those acknowledged above. The mistakes that remain are mine alone. iv Table of Contents Transliteration Guide ..................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: .......................................................................................................................... 1 Outline of the Chapters................................................................................................. 6 Pleonexia ........................................................................................................................ 7 Decline .......................................................................................................................... 16 Continuity .................................................................................................................... 44 Chapter 2: ........................................................................................................................ 50 Scholarship on Pleonexia, Decline, and Continuity in the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon ........................................................................................ 51 Pleonexia in Herodotus ............................................................................................... 55 Pleonexia in Thucydides ............................................................................................. 58 Pleonexia in Xenophon ............................................................................................... 65 Pleonexia and Decline in Herodotus .......................................................................... 70 Pleonexia and Decline in Thucydides ........................................................................ 71 Pleonexia and Decline in Xenophon .......................................................................... 79 Continuity .................................................................................................................... 82 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 84 Chapter 3: ........................................................................................................................ 86 Scholarship on Pleonexia, Decline, and Continuity in the works of Plato and Aristotle ........................................................................................................................ 88 Pleonexia in Plato ........................................................................................................ 92 Pleonexia in Aristotle ................................................................................................ 105 Decline in Plato .......................................................................................................... 109 Decline in Aristotle .................................................................................................... 117 Continuity .................................................................................................................. 121 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 123 Chapter 4: ...................................................................................................................... 124 Scholarship on Pleonexia, Decline, and Continuity in the Speeches of Isocrates and Demosthenes ....................................................................................................... 126 Pleonexia in Isocrates ................................................................................................ 129 v Pleonexia in Demosthenes ......................................................................................... 152 Continuity .................................................................................................................. 170 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 173 Chapter 5: ...................................................................................................................... 175 Between the Fourth Century and Polybius ............................................................. 176 Scholarship on Pleonexia,