History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization Week 20 Thucydides
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History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization Week 20 Thucydides TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 THUCYDIDES, THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR "Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it. This belief was not without its grounds. The preparations of both the combatants were in every department in the last state of perfection; and he could see the rest of the Hellenic race taking sides in the quarrel; those who delayed doing so at once having it in contemplation. Indeed this was the greatest movement yet known in history, not only of the Hellenes, but of a large part of the barbarian world- I had almost said of mankind. For though the events of remote antiquity, and even those that more immediately preceded the war, could not from lapse of time be clearly ascertained, yet the evidences which an inquiry carried as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all point to the conclusion that there was nothing on such a great scale, either in war or in other matters. " TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 HOMER AND THE ILIAD Troy TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Blaise Pascal: "Homer wrote a romance, for nobody supposes that Troy and Agamemnon existed any more than the apples of the Hesperides. He had no intention to write history, but only to amuse us." During the 19th century the stories of Troy were devalued as fables by George Grote and others. TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 HOMER AND THE ILIAD Troy Was the Iliad history? TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "modern history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence- gathering (documents) and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the GODS, as outlined in his introduction to his work. Thucydides, 472-c. 410-400? TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 This is the plaster cast bust currently in exposition of Zurab Tsereteli's gallery in Moscow (part of Russian Academy of Arts), formerly from the collection of castings of Pushkin museum made in early 1900-1910s. Original bust is a Roman copy (c. 100 AD) of an early 4th Century BC Greek original, and is located in Holkham Hall in Norfolk, UK. Thucydides, 472-c. 410-400? TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and his book, The History of the Peloponnesian War (410 BC) 10th Century manuscript in Greek preserved in Greece TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 GREECE THE FIFTH CENTURY BC 525 BIRTH OF AESCHYLUS Thucydides 490 First Persian invasion of Greece; Battle of Marathon Marathon. 480 Second Persian invasion of Greece; battles of Thermopylae and Salamis 460 democratic reform of the Athenian Areopagus , 458 Aeschylus’s tragic trilogy the Oresteia first performed, at Athens 451 Pericles proposes a law restricting access to Athenian citizenship 450 Constitutional Reform: Democracy, random juries, all citizens serve 432 Completion of the new Parthenon 431 Outbreak of Peloponnesian War; 431 first performance of Euripides’ tragedy Medea 430 Pericles’ funeral oration 429 Plague begins at Athens 425 Athenians score success against the Spartans at the battle of Sphacteria 413 Athenian campaign in Sicily ends in disaster 411 Oligarchic coup at Athens TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 PELOPONNESIAN WAR 446 Sparta invades Attica,lays waste to farms etc 446 Athenian war in Boeotia a failure (Alcibiades' father killed) 435 Civil War in Epidammus 432 Sparta declares war on Athens 431 Peloponessian allies invade Athens 430 PLAGUE IN ATHENS 429 PLAGUE KILLS PERICLES 421 Peace of Nicias (Alcibiades) 415 Athenian invasion of Sicily total disaster (Alcibiades) 405 Battle of Aesgospotami 404 Assassination of Alcibiades in Asia Minor (by Persians) TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 1. Aristocrat. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, his father's name was Olorus and that he was from the Athenian deme of Halimous. favors aristocrats (Pericles) 2. close friend of Pericles.(supports Pericles in the History) 3. in Athens for plague. survived. 4. rich. owned gold mines in Thrace. 5. present at Battle of Amphipolus 423 BC-General 6. loses command. lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and being present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat particularly. 7. exile in Thrace. writes his book. 410? TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 1. Aristocrat. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, his father's name was Olorus and that he was from the Athenian deme of Halimous. favors aristocrats (Pericles) 2. close friend of Pericles.(supports Pericles in the History) 3. in Athens for plague. survived. 4. rich. owned gold mines in Thrace. 5. present at Battle of Amphipolus 423 BC-General 6. loses command. lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and being present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat particularly. 7. exile in Thrace. writes his book. 410? TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 THE OVERALL THEM OF THE BOOK; tell the story of how the great Athenian democracy declined in to war and chaos and fell victim to its enemies. TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 THE GOLDEN AGE, 480-399 BC “The period which intervened between the birth of Pericles and the death of Aristotle,” wrote Shelley, “is undoubtedly, whether considered in itself or with reference to the effect which it has produced upon the subsequent destinies of civilized man, the most memorable in the history of the world.” TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 THE AGE OF PERICLES, 480-429 BC TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization Week 14: January 28, 2019, PERICLES TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Pericles (495-429) Aristocrat who leads the democratic party (Peoples Party) like Thomas Jefferson, FDR father Xanthippus fought at Marathon mother Agariste, niece of Cleisthenes He absorbed the rapidly growing culture of his epoch, and united in his mind and policy all the threads of Athenian civilization— economic, military, literary, artistic, and philosophical. Even the comic poets, who disliked him, spoke of him as “the Olympian,” who wielded the thunder and lightning of such eloquence as Athens had never heard before; TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 THE GOLDEN AGE, 480-429 BC Thucydides said that the Athenians were the first Greeks to walk in the streets unarmed. A "civilian" society." TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Pericles (495-429 BC) Thucydides (472-400 BC) Thucydides younger can see the outcome Pericles (495-429 BC) and Thucydides (472-400 BC) TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Pericles (495-429 BC) Thucydides (472-400 BC) Thucydides writes about the greatness of Pericles TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 "If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences...if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes..." These lines form the roots of the famous phrase "equal justice under law." The liberality of which Pericles spoke also extended to Athens' foreign policy: "We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality..." Yet Athens' values of equality and openness do not, according to Pericles, hinder Athens' greatness, indeed, they enhance it, "...advancement in public life falls to reputations for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit...our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters...at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger." Speech by Pericles as reported by Thucydides TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Pericles (495-429 BC) Thucydides (472-400 BC) and Alcibiades (450-406 BC) TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and his book, The History of the Peloponnesian War (410 BC) 10th Century manuscript in Greek preserved in Greece TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides, Hist, IV 36-41 1st century, papyrus Oxyrhynchus 16 TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and his book, The History of the Peloponnesian War (410 BC) 10th Century manuscript in Greek preserved in Greece TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Thucydides and his book, The History of the Peloponnesian War (410 BC) 10th Century manuscript in Greek preserved in Greece TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 Theme of the book, The Peloponnesian War, politics Greek Democracy: Pericles to Alcibiades TuesdayMarch 17, 2020 THUCYDIDES THEMES 1. Pericles, Aristocratic leader right. Strategy right.