Pericles' City

Taylor, Martha C.

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511642326.002

Cited by 2 publications

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“…I am less convinced by the argument of Taylor (2010) that Thucydides intends to throw Pericles' definition into doubt.…”

Section: Summary Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Hau¹

2016

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This book offers an interpretation of the first 500 years of history writing as a moral-didactic genre, and argues that this does not invalidate ancient Greek historiography as history. In Part I, it offers a thorough analysis of the moralising techniques and moral-didactic lessons of Polybius and Diodorus Siculus and then analyses the fragments of a range of less well-preserved Hellenistic works of historiography (Timaeus, Phylarchus, Duris, Hieronymus, Agatharchides, and Posidonius) to see how far it is possible to trace similar techniques and lessons in these works. In Part II, the roots of Hellenistic historiographical moralising are traced in the Classical works of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, and the fragments of the Oxyrhynchus Historian, Ephorus, and Theopompus. The book concludes that the Greek genre of historiography was moral-didactic from its inception, like most of the Classical Greek literary genres, and that this purpose became explicit and its techniques formalised in Hellenistic times, but that neither the writers nor the readers of the genre believed this moral-didactic purpose to be detrimental to the truth-value of historiography. Ancient historiography was history writing with an agenda: it was Moral History (in the same way that some modern historiography can be defined as, say, Feminist History or Postcolonial History), but it was still History.

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“…I am less convinced by the argument of Taylor (2010) that Thucydides intends to throw Pericles' definition into doubt.…”

Section: Summary Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Hau¹

2016

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“…Upon hearing the Corinthians urge a Spartan vote for war against Athens with an elaborate description of its inherently aggressive tendencies, they “thought themselves called upon” (Thucydides, 1996: 41) to respond. Instead of refuting the Corinthian description of Athens, the speakers embrace those same qualities in order to produce the opposite effect of what Corinth had intended (see Taylor, 2010: 25). The speakers themselves personify the Corinthian description of a people who are “always abroad,” ‘quick to carry out whatever action they resolve’ and whose ‘intellect they jealously husband to be employed in [Athens’] service’ (Thucydides, 1996: 40).…”

Section: The Congress Of the Peloponnesian Leaguementioning

confidence: 99%

Daring and deliberation: Virtue, rhetoric, and diplomacy in Thucydides’ account of the Athenian empire

Fleury

2018

Journal of International Political Theory

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In Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, the juxtaposition between the speeches in defense of the Athenian empire and their political effects uncovers critical insights into the need for rhetoric to balance the tasks of domestic enthusiasm and diplomatic interaction. In Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles boasts that Athens has perfected “daring and deliberation,” having built an empire through courageous deeds while maintaining a democracy in which competing interests and perspectives receive a fair hearing. These qualities justify Athenian supremacy, but actually maintaining it instead calls for Athens to be cautious and for its subjects to accept the status quo without question. As Athens perceives a decline in its wartime fortunes, it struggles to preserve a reputation for daring and deliberation without undertaking actions that would falsify its self-representation. Its virtues become a substitute for its interests, so that it can no longer act with either morally or prudently. The declining effectiveness of Athenian rhetoric speaks to Thucydides’ teaching that warfare, while presenting an opportunity for a city to display its greatest traits, is far more likely to corrupt them, which requires that orators reconcile the city’s sense of its own righteousness with the realities of its situation.

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Pericles' City

Cited by 2 publications

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Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Daring and deliberation: Virtue, rhetoric, and diplomacy in Thucydides’ account of the Athenian empire

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