The Tragedy of the Athenian Ideal in Thucydides and Plato, written by John T. Hogan

Abstract

What is the relation of Thucydides to Plato, if any? In The Tragedy of the Athenian Ideal in Thucydides and Plato, John Hogan approaches Thucydides and Plato as likeminded theorists of the Athenian democracy and of political life altogether. Although Plato never mentions Thucydides by name, dialogues such as the Menexenus, Laches, Symposium, and Alcibiades I suggest Plato's familiarity with -if not his careful study of -Thucydides' work. Just as Thucydides foregrounds Pericles' Funeral Oration as a seminal if questionable account of democratic Athens, so too Plato composes a critical parody of that oration in the Menexenus. Just as Thucydides dramatizes and examines the statesmanship of Alcibiades and Nicias, so too Plato dramatizes and examines their characters in dialogues such as the Laches, Symposium, Protagoras, and Alcibiades I. While scholars such as David Grene, Gerald Mara, and Arlene Saxonhouse have previously placed Thucydides and Plato in dialogue, Hogan identifies myriad textual connections between the two thinkers. These connections by themselves make Hogan's book useful and exciting.Hogan argues, in addition, that Thucydides and Plato share a set of ethical, political, and psychological questions; to raise these questions, moreover, they use similar language and ideas. What is the relation of moderation to courage and of each to knowledge? What is the role of eros in political life? How can we know when civic discourse becomes corrupt? What is the relation of speech to action, appearance to reality? Who is the excellent statesman? Hogan thinks that these questions motivate the inquiries of Thucydides and Plato alike. It would be difficult to disagree with this assessment -except insofar as other ancient Greek thinkers, such as Herodotus, the tragedians, and Aristotle might also enter into this conversation.Yet Hogan tries to establish an even tighter connection between Thucydides and Plato. In his view, Thucydides and Plato not only theorize a shared political world, and they not only share problems, ideas, and arguments, but they also seem to arrive at the same conclusions. Frequently, in Hogan's book, the two authors speak with one voice. For example, Hogan writes: 'Democracy, aristocracy, monarchy, and rule by a philosopher king are not for Plato and Thucydides ideologies but forms of government' (p. 56). While Hogan assimilates Pericles' crypto-monarchic rule within Athens to philosophic kingship as described by Socrates in the Republic, Thucydides himself never mentions philosophic kingship, or the philosophic life for that matter. Consider another example: 'Thucydides, like Pericles, looks to what will always be remembered. The aim resembles Plato's in many ways ' (p. 140). In what ways exactly? Hogan