A Theban force slips into Plataea, an ally of Athens, at night. Thucydides treats this as the start of the war between Athens and Sparta.
a Theban force a little over three hundred strong, under the command of their Boeotarchs, Pythangelus, son of Phyleides, and Diemporus, son of Onetorides, about the first watch of the night, made an armed entry into Plataea, a town of Boeotia in alliance with Athens.
What was going on: In Euripides' play, first staged in 431 BCE, the year war broke out between Athens and Sparta, Medea tells her friends she is ruined and longs to die, because her husband, once all the world to her, has turned out a villain.
Why it matters: Euripides' sympathy for women and the difficulties they faced has drawn particular interest in modern times, especially in Medea, which the feminist movement of the late 20th century often read as Medea's struggle to take charge of her own life in a male-dominated world.
Of every living, feeling thing, women have it worst. First we pay a huge price for a husband, then we have to accept him as our master.
Of all things that have life and sense we women are the most hapless creatures; first must we buy a husband at an exorbitant price, and o’er ourselves a tyrant set which is an evil worse than the first;
Medea speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Medea line 230, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, Medea is speaking about the hard lot of a wife. A foreigner with no city or family, scorned by her husband, she will ask her listeners to keep silent while she plots revenge on him.
People say women live safe at home while men go to war. That is a poor argument: I would rather stand in battle three times than give birth once.
And yet they say we live secure at home, while they are at the wars, with their sorry reasoning, for I would gladly take my stand in battle array three times o’er, than once give birth.
Medea speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Medea lines 249–250, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, Creon is driving Medea out of the land because he fears she will harm his daughter, the bride. Medea answers that her reputation has hurt her many times before.
Why it matters: Euripides seems to have written this speech of Medea's, about the cost of being thought too clever, in defence of himself as an intellectual ahead of his time.
A sensible parent should not have their children taught to be too clever. People will call them idle, and their fellow citizens will resent them.
Wherefore whoso is wise in his generation ought never to have his children taught to be too clever; for besides the reputation they get for idleness, they purchase bitter odium from the citizens.
Medea speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Medea lines 292–295, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, Medea has just sworn by Hecate to make Jason's wedding bitter and to plot against her enemies. The Chorus answers by singing that the world is turning upside down and that honor is dawning for women.
The world is turned upside down, like rivers flowing backwards. Now it is men who scheme and break their sworn promises.
Back to their source the holy rivers turn their tide. Order and the universe are being reversed. ’Tis men whose counsels are treacherous, whose oath by heaven is no longer sure.
The Chorus speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Medea line 410, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, Medea has decided that her children must die and that she will kill them herself. A royal bride is already dying in a crown and robe. Medea says goodbye to the children, then sends them away because she cannot bear to look at them.
I finally see how terrible the thing I am about to do is. But passion, the source of the worst human misery, has beaten my better judgement.
At last I understand the awful deed I am to do; but passion, that cause of direst woes to mortal man, hath triumphed o’er my sober thoughts.
Medea speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Medea lines 1075–1080, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, Medea is heard weeping inside and cursing her own children. Her old Nurse grieves outside and fears for the boys, since Jason has taken a royal bride.
Moderation is the best thing to talk about and the best way to live. Greatness that overreaches brings people no good.
Moderation wins the day first as a better word for men to use, and likewise it is far the best course for them to pursue; but greatness that doth o’erreach itself, brings no blessing to mortal men;
The Nurse speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Medea line 125, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1906)
What was going on: Thucydides opens his history here. The war began in 431 BCE when a Theban force slipped into Plataea, an ally of Athens, at night, and soon a Spartan army invaded the farmland around Athens.
Why it matters: These are the opening words of a history widely considered a classic and one of the earliest scholarly works of history, which has been enormously influential in ancient and modern historiography.
I started writing about this war the moment it began, because I thought it would be a great war, more worth telling than any before it.
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.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.1.1, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
, Attica
Spartan army invades Attica
King Archidamus leads the Spartans and their allies into the farmland around Athens while the Athenians stay behind their walls.
This was about eighty days after the Theban attempt upon Plataea, just in the middle of summer, when the corn was ripe, and Archidamus, son of Zeuxis, King of Lacedaemon, was in command.
Soon after the Spartans invade again, a deadly epidemic strikes the crowded city. Thucydides, who caught it himself, says no one remembered one so deadly.
Not many days after their arrival in Attica the plague first began to show itself among the Athenians.
What was going on: Thucydides is describing the plague that hit Athens in 430 BCE, soon after the Spartans invaded the land around the city again. No one remembered a disease that killed so many, and it struck Piraeus first.
Why it matters: The plague killed an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people, around a quarter of Athens, and dealt the city massive damage from which it never recovered.
At first doctors didn't know how to treat it, and they died in the greatest numbers, because they saw the sick most. Prayers and oracles were no use either, until people gave them up.
Neither were the physicians at first of any service, ignorant as they were of the proper way to treat it, but they died themselves the most thickly, as they visited the sick most often; nor did any human art succeed any better. Supplications in the temples, divinations, and so forth were found equally futile, till the overwhelming nature of the disaster at last put a stop to them altogether.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.47.4, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: In 430 BCE a deadly plague struck Athens, soon after the Spartans invaded again. Thucydides says it hit Piraeus first, where people claimed the enemy had poisoned the water, then spread into the upper city.
Why it matters: His detailed account of the symptoms has been used, together with analysis of victims' remains, to try to identify what caused the epidemic.
I'll just describe the symptoms, so it might be recognized if it ever comes back. I can, because I caught it myself and watched it in others.
…for myself, I shall simply set down its nature, and explain the symptoms by which perhaps it may be recognized by the student, if it should ever break out again. This I can the better do, as I had the disease myself, and watched its operation in the case of others.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.48.3, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: Thucydides is describing how people behaved as the plague spread through Athens. Burial customs had collapsed, and some people threw their own dead onto strangers' funeral fires.
Why it matters: The plague killed an estimated quarter of the city's people. In the long run it redistributed wealth within Athenian society and weakened Athens politically.
Rich people dropped dead and the poor inherited overnight. So people openly did what they used to hide, and spent fast, as if life and money could vanish tomorrow.
Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had nothing succeeding to their property. So they resolved to spend quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their lives and riches as alike things of a day.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.53.1–2, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: As Thucydides tells it, Athens is holding a public funeral for those who first fell in the war, and Pericles has been chosen to speak. Before praising the dead, he describes the kind of government under which Athens grew great.
Why it matters: The funeral oration is the most famous speech in Thucydides' History, and it is nowadays synonymous with the struggle for participatory democracy and civic pride.
We don't copy other states; they copy us. Our government serves the many, not the few. That's why it's called a democracy.
Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.
As Thucydides tells it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.37.1, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: As Thucydides tells it, Pericles is praising Athens in a speech early in the war with Sparta. He has just described its democracy, where laws give equal justice and poverty does not stop a capable man from serving.
Why it matters: The lines these words come from, on equal justice under the laws and freedom in private life, form the roots of the famous phrase equal justice under law.
Our freedom reaches daily life too. We don't spy on each other or get angry at a neighbor for living as he likes, not even with dirty looks.
The freedom which 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, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty.
As Thucydides tells it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.37.2, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: As Thucydides tells it, Pericles is praising Athens and its way of life to his fellow citizens, early in the war with Sparta. He says ordinary Athenians, busy with work, still judge public matters, and see discussion as needed before any wise action.
Why it matters: The Theban attack on Plataea was the first attack of the war, in which Athens lost its Aegean empire and its maritime dominance and Sparta became the leading power of Greece.
We love beauty without waste and learning without going soft. Money is for using, not showing off. Being poor isn't shameful; not trying to escape it is.
We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it.
As Thucydides tells it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.40.1, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: In a speech Thucydides writes for Pericles, set in Athens in 431/430 BCE, early in the war with Sparta, Pericles praises the Athenian way of life, its courage and its generosity to friends. He goes on to say Athens alone proves greater than its reputation.
Why it matters: The Theban attack on Plataea was the first attack of the war, in which Athens lost its Aegean empire and its maritime dominance and Sparta became the leading power of Greece.
Our city is the school of Greece. I doubt anyone anywhere can handle as much on their own, and as gracefully, as an Athenian.
In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas; while I doubt if the world can produce a man, who where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility as the Athenian.
As Thucydides tells it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.41.1, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: As Thucydides tells it, Pericles is speaking at the public funeral for those who first fell in the war. He is praising men who gave their lives together and urging the living to take them as their model.
Why it matters: Scholars have drawn parallels between this funeral oration and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, though it is uncertain whether Lincoln was directly influenced by it.
Heroes are buried everywhere. Even far from home, with no stone to mark them, people remember them in their hearts.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
As Thucydides tells it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.43.3, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: As Thucydides tells it, Pericles speaks to the Athenians in 430 BCE, the year plague broke out in the city. He tells them they cannot refuse the burdens of their empire and still share its honors.
Why it matters: Pericles's emotional final speech, given amid uproar over the plague, is considered a monumental oration, revealing his virtues but also his bitterness at his compatriots' ingratitude.
We can't back out now. To be blunt, what you hold is a tyranny. Taking it may have been wrong, but letting it go is dangerous.
Besides, to recede is no longer possible, if indeed any of you in the alarm of the moment has become enamored of the honesty of such an unambitious part. For what you hold is, to speak somewhat plainly, a tyranny; to take it perhaps was wrong, but to let it go is unsafe.
As Thucydides tells it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.63.2, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: Thucydides is comparing Pericles with the Athenian leaders who came after his death. He says the later leaders chased their own ambitions and handed state affairs to the whims of the crowd.
Why it matters: The historian Donald Kagan argues that Pericles's war strategy depended on Pericles himself to carry it out, and so was bound to be abandoned after his death.
When the people got cocky, he could scare them with a word; when they panicked, he calmed them. It was called a democracy, but really one man led it.
Whenever he saw them unseasonably and insolently elated, he would with a word reduce them to alarm; on the other hand, if they fell victims to a panic, he could at once restore them to confidence. In short, what was nominally a democracy became in his hands government by the first citizen.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.65.9, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: In Sophocles' play, Oedipus rules a city in trouble, and its people have come begging him to save it. He says he has already sent Creon to Apollo's oracle to learn how to protect the city.
You are all suffering, but none of you as much as I am. You each feel your own pain; I feel the city’s, my own and yours at once.
I know well that you all are sick, and though you are sick I know well that there is not one of you who is as sick as I. Your pain comes on each of you for himself alone, and for no other, but my soul is in pain at once for the city, for myself, and for you.
Oedipus speaking, in Sophocles’ play. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus lines 58–60, translated by Richard Jebb (1887)
What was going on: In Sophocles' play, Oedipus is searching out the secret of his birth. Iocasta begs him to stop, then rushes into the palace in grief; Oedipus calls for the herdsman and guesses she is ashamed his origins may be lowly.
Let whatever happens happen. Even if I come from nothing, I need to know where I come from.
Break forth what will! Be my race ever so lowly, I crave to learn it.
Oedipus speaking, in Sophocles’ play. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus line 1076, translated by Richard Jebb (1887)
What was going on: In Sophocles' play, a messenger brings news that Polybus, the father an oracle said Oedipus would kill, has died of sickness and old age. Oedipus is relieved but still fears the part of the oracle about his mother, and his wife Iocasta answers him.
Why should a person be afraid, if luck rules everything and nobody can see what is coming? Better to just live as it comes.
What should a mortal man fear, for whom the decrees of Fortune are supreme, and who has clear foresight of nothing? It is best to live at random, as one may.
Iocasta speaking, in Sophocles’ play. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus line 977, translated by Richard Jebb (1887)
What was going on: In Sophocles' play Oedipus Tyrannus, the Chorus speaks as Creon leads Oedipus, once envied by all of Thebes, into the house. Oedipus has asked to be sent out of the land and begged not to lose his children.
Look how far he has fallen. So until someone’s last day has come and gone without disaster, do not call them happy.
See into what a stormy sea of troubles he has come! Therefore, while our eyes wait to see the final destined day, we must call no mortal happy until he has crossed life’s border free from pain.
The Chorus speaking, in Sophocles’ play. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus lines 1525–1530, translated by Richard Jebb (1887)
What was going on: As Plutarch tells it, centuries later, Pericles is dying in 429 BCE. The leading citizens and his surviving friends sit around his bed listing his achievements, including nine victory trophies, thinking he can no longer hear them.
Why it matters: The historian Donald Kagan argues that Pericles's war strategy depended on Pericles himself to carry it out, and so was bound to be abandoned after his death.
Why praise what I owe as much to luck as to myself, and what other generals did too? My best claim is this: no Athenian alive ever had to mourn because of me.
He had been attending to it all, however, and speaking out among them said he was amazed at their praising and commemorating that in him which was due as much to fortune as to himself, and which had fallen to the lot of many generals besides, instead of mentioning his fairest and greatest title to their admiration; for, said he, no living Athenian ever put on mourning because of me.
As Plutarch tells it, centuries later. Plutarch, Life of Pericles 38.4, translated by Bernadotte Perrin (1916)
, Athens
Athens votes to kill Mytilene's men, then relents
After Mytilene's revolt fails, the Athenian assembly orders all its men killed. The next day it debates again and sends a second ship to stop the order.
The morrow brought repentance with it and reflection on the horrid cruelty of a decree, which condemned a whole city to the fate merited only by the guilty.
What was going on: These are the opening words of Herodotus' Histories, where he presents his inquiry. Right after, he begins with what Persian learned men say about how the quarrel between Greeks and foreigners started.
Why it matters: These words open the Histories, which is considered the founding work of history in Western literature and established the genre and study of history in the West.
I wrote this so people won't forget what humans did: the great deeds of Greeks and non-Greeks alike, and why they went to war.
…so that things done by man not be forgotten in time, and that great and marvelous deeds, some displayed by the Hellenes, some by the barbarians, not lose their glory, including among others what was the cause of their waging war on each other.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 1.1.pr, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus has just described Cambyses at Memphis opening ancient coffins and mocking temple images, which he takes as proof Cambyses was insane. Next he tells how Darius asked some Greeks what price would make them eat their dead fathers.
Ask every people on earth to pick the best customs, and each would pick its own. Everyone is sure their ways are best.
For if it were proposed to all nations to choose which seemed best of all customs, each, after examination, would place its own first; so well is each convinced that its own are by far the best.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 3.38.1, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus has just said that Cambyses must have been insane to mock other peoples' religion and customs, since every people thinks its own customs are the best. As proof, he tells how King Darius asked some Greeks what price would make them eat their dead fathers, and they said no price would.
A people who ate their dead parents were horrified at the idea of burning them. Beliefs run that deep. Custom rules everyone, I think.
Then Darius summoned those Indians who are called Callatiae, who eat their parents, and asked them (the Greeks being present and understanding through interpreters what was said) what would make them willing to burn their fathers at death. The Indians cried aloud, that he should not speak of so horrid an act. So firmly rooted are these beliefs; and it is, I think, rightly said in Pindar's poem that custom is lord of all.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 3.38.4, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus has just told a story about the city of Argos, Xerxes and Artoxerxes, and admits he cannot say for sure that it is true. Another tale he knows says the Argives invited the Persian into Greece.
My job is to write down what people told me. Believing it is not my job.
As for myself, although it is my business to set down that which is told me, to believe it is none at all of my business.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 7.152.3, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus has finished describing the Nile and turns to Egypt, which he says has more wonders than anywhere else. He goes on to list more Egyptian customs that run opposite to everyone else's.
Egypt has its own weather and its own river, and mostly the opposite customs. Women trade at the market; men stay home and weave.
Just as the Egyptians have a climate peculiar to themselves, and their river is different in its nature from all other rivers, so, too, have they instituted customs and laws contrary for the most part to those of the rest of mankind. Among them, the women buy and sell, the men stay at home and weave; and whereas in weaving all others push the woof upwards, the Egyptians push it downwards.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 2.35.2, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus is in Egypt, at the field where Persian invaders beat the Egyptians after a fierce fight. Locals told him about the bones, and said the difference came from Egyptians shaving their heads and Persians wearing felt hats.
I saw something strange where the battle was fought: the Persian skulls are so brittle a pebble would go through them, while the Egyptian ones barely crack under a stone.
I saw a strange thing on the site of the battle, of which the people of the country had told me. The bones of those killed on either side in this fight lying scattered separately (for the Persian bones lay in one place and the Egyptian in another, where the armies had first separately stood), the skulls of the Persians are so brittle that if you throw no more than a pebble it will pierce them, but the Egyptian skulls are so strong that a blow of a stone will hardly crack them.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 3.12.1, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: In a story Herodotus tells, the Athenian Solon is a guest of Croesus, a very rich king. Croesus is annoyed that Solon ranks ordinary men above him in happiness, and Solon answers by counting up the days in a seventy-year life.
In a seventy-year life, no two days bring the same thing. A human life is all chance.
Out of all these days in the seventy years, all twenty-six thousand, two hundred and fifty of them, not one brings anything at all like another. So, Croesus, man is entirely chance.
Solon speaking, as Herodotus tells it. Herodotus, Histories 1.32.4, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: As Herodotus tells it, Solon is at Sardis with a king who is very rich and rules many people. The king has asked him a question, and Solon says he cannot answer until he knows how the king's life ends.
Only someone whose life also ends well deserves to be called fortunate. Until they die, just call them lucky.
If besides all this he ends his life well, then he is the one whom you seek, the one worthy to be called fortunate. But refrain from calling him fortunate before he dies; call him lucky.
Solon speaking, as Herodotus tells it. Herodotus, Histories 1.32.7, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: As Herodotus tells it, Croesus was on a burning pyre when a sudden storm put out the fire. Cyrus had him brought down and asked who persuaded him to make war on him; this is part of Croesus' answer.
Nobody is foolish enough to choose war over peace. In peace, children bury their parents. In war, parents bury their children.
No one is so foolish as to choose war over peace. In peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons.
Croesus speaking, as Herodotus tells it. Herodotus, Histories 1.87.4, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus is describing the battle of Marathon. The Athenians, few and with no cavalry or archers, charged the Persians at a run, and the Persians thought them crazy. The Athenians and Plataeans then won on both wings and chased the Persians to their ships.
They were the first Greeks we know of to charge the enemy at a run, and the first to face the Medes without panicking at their name.
These are the first Hellenes whom we know of to use running against the enemy. They are also the first to endure looking at Median dress and men wearing it, for up until then just hearing the name of the Medes caused the Hellenes to panic.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 6.112.3, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus is describing the last stand of the Greeks at Thermopylae. After a fierce fight over the body of Leonidas, enemy troops led by Epialtes arrived, and the Spartans and Thespians fell back behind the wall to a small hill at the mouth of the pass.
They fought with swords if they still had them, and with hands and teeth. The enemy buried them under missiles from the front and from all sides.
In that place they defended themselves with swords, if they still had them, and with hands and teeth. The barbarians buried them with missiles, some attacking from the front and throwing down the defensive wall, others surrounding them on all sides.
His own words. Herodotus, Histories 7.225.3, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Herodotus is describing the graves at Thermopylae, where the Greeks who fought the Medes were buried where they fell. Several inscriptions were set over them: one for all of them, and another for the seer Megistias.
The Spartans' own epitaph: Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here, obedient to their orders.
That inscription is for them all, but the Spartans have their own: Foreigner, go tell the Spartans that we lie here obedient to their commands.
The Spartans' epitaph at Thermopylae, as Herodotus records it. Herodotus, Histories 7.228.2, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: As Herodotus tells it, Xerxes sat above the shore at Abydos watching his army and fleet fill the Hellespont. He called himself blessed, then wept, and his uncle Artabanus questioned him about it.
Xerxes said he felt pity: life is so short that of all these men, not one will be alive in a hundred years.
Xerxes said, “I was moved to compassion when I considered the shortness of all human life, since of all this multitude of men not one will be alive a hundred years from now.”
Xerxes speaking, as Herodotus tells it. Herodotus, Histories 7.46.2, translated by A. D. Godley (1920)
What was going on: Thucydides is describing the bloody revolution at Corcyra in 427 BCE, one of the first of its kind. In the war, popular leaders in city after city called in the Athenians and oligarchs called in the Spartans, and revolution spread from city to city.
Why it matters: His analysis of the atrocities in the civil conflict on Corcyra has been cited as a sign that he was moved by the suffering of war and the excesses human nature is prone to in it.
Civil war brings horrors that will keep happening as long as people are people. In good times we behave better; war takes away the basics and drags most people down with it.
The sufferings which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur, as long as the nature of mankind remains the same; though in a severer or milder form, and varying in their symptoms, according to the variety of the particular cases. In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.82.2, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: Thucydides is describing the revolution inside the city of Corcyra in 427 BCE, and how such revolutions spread from city to city. He says that war, by taking away the easy supply of daily needs, drags most people's characters down to the level of their circumstances.
Words flipped their meaning. Recklessness was called loyal courage, caution was called cowardice, and seeing both sides meant you were useless.
Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness to act on any.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.82.4, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: Thucydides is describing the civil strife in Corcyra in 427 BCE. Leaders on two sides, one crying equality for the people and the other a moderate aristocracy, fought for power and took revenge without limit.
Neither side respected religion, but nice words for ugly goals were admired. The moderates in the middle were killed, for staying out or out of envy.
Thus religion was in honor with neither party; but the use of fair phrases to arrive at guilty ends was in high reputation. Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens perished between the two, either for not joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to escape.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.82.8, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
, Pylos
Spartans surrender on Sphacteria
Spartan soldiers trapped on the island of Sphacteria near Pylos give up. About 120 Spartans are among the prisoners taken to Athens.
four hundred and twenty heavy infantry had passed over; three hundred all but eight were taken alive to Athens; the rest were killed. About a hundred and twenty of the prisoners were Spartans.
The general Thucydides arrives too late to save Amphipolis from the Spartan Brasidas. He is exiled for twenty years, and uses the time to write his history.
It was also my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis
What was going on: Thucydides has just counted up the length of the whole war, which people often said would last three times nine years. After Amphipolis was lost under his command, he was exiled for twenty years.
Why it matters: Exile let Thucydides travel freely among Sparta's allies and see the war from the point of view of both sides.
I lived through all of it, old enough to understand it. I was exiled for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis, which let me watch both sides closely.
I 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.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.26.5, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' comedy the Clouds, Strepsiades comes looking for Socrates and finds him hanging overhead in a basket. Asked what he is doing, this stage Socrates answers, then says thought must be suspended in the air to discover things above.
Why it matters: The basket-borne Socrates is part of the play's notorious caricature of him, and Plato cites the play in the Apology as a contributing factor to Socrates' trial and execution.
I am up here in the air, thinking about the sun.
I am walking in the air, and speculating about the sun.
Aristophanes’ Socrates, in the Clouds. Aristophanes, Clouds line 225, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' play, the old countryman Strepsiades knocks at the door of Socrates' thinking-shop, hoping to be taught. A student inside scolds him for making an idea miscarry, then shares one of the school's secrets.
Socrates recently asked Chaerephon how many of its own feet a flea can jump, after one bit Chaerephon and leapt onto Socrates’ head.
Socrates lately asked Chaerephon about a flea, how many of its own feet it jumped; for after having bit the eyebrow of Chaerephon, it leaped away onto the head of Socrates.
A disciple of Socrates speaking, in Aristophanes’ play. Aristophanes, Clouds line 143, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' comedy Clouds, a student of Socrates is telling Strepsiades about his teacher's discoveries, like measuring a flea with tiny wax slippers. Next comes the question of how gnats buzz.
So a gnat's backside is a trumpet! What insight. Surely anyone who understands gnat guts could easily get off in court.
The rump of the gnats then is a trumpet! Oh, thrice happy he for his sharp-sightedness! Surely a defendant might easily get acquitted who understands the intestine of the gnat.
Strepsiades speaking, in Aristophanes’ play. Aristophanes, Clouds line 165, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' comedy Clouds, Strepsiades, plundered by his creditors, has come to the play's Socrates to learn how to speak. He offers to swear by the gods that he will pay any fee.
Which gods will you swear by? Gods are not the currency we use around here.
By what gods will you swear? For, in the first place, gods are not a current coin with us.
Aristophanes’ Socrates, in the Clouds. Aristophanes, Clouds line 247, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' play the Clouds, the Chorus of Clouds has just greeted Strepsiades and the stage Socrates. Socrates then tells Strepsiades there is no Jupiter, and that the Clouds make the rain.
These are the only real goddesses. Everything else is nonsense.
For, in fact, these alone are goddesses; and all the rest is nonsense.
Aristophanes’ Socrates, in the Clouds. Aristophanes, Clouds line 365, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' play, Socrates is teaching Strepsiades about the weather. He tells him there is no Jupiter, that clouds make the rain, and that clouds crashing together make the thunder.
Vortex? I somehow missed that Zeus does not exist and Vortex rules in his place.
Vortex? It had escaped my notice that Jupiter did not exist, and that Vortex now reigned in his stead.
Strepsiades speaking, in Aristophanes’ play. Aristophanes, Clouds line 380, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' comedy Clouds, Strepsiades, in debt on his son's account, urges him to join a thinking-shop whose men teach anyone who pays to win arguments, right or wrong. His son Phidippides refuses.
They say these people have two arguments, the better and the worse, and that the worse one wins even though it argues for what is unjust.
They say that among them are both the two causes—the better cause, whichever that is, and the worse: they say that the one of these two causes, the worse, prevails, though it speaks on the unjust side.
Strepsiades speaking, in Aristophanes’ play. Aristophanes, Clouds lines 112–115, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' comedy Clouds, two characters, the Just Cause and the Unjust Cause, argue in front of the Chorus. The Unjust Cause, known as the worse cause, now sets out to beat his rival.
I was the first to argue against law and justice. Being able to take the worse side and still win is worth a fortune.
I first contrived how to speak against both law and justice; and this art is worth more than ten thousand staters, that one should choose the worse cause, and nevertheless be victorious.
The Unjust Cause speaking, in Aristophanes’ play. Aristophanes, Clouds lines 1036–1040, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: In Aristophanes' Clouds, Phidippides is arguing with his father Strepsiades, who admits beating him as a boy out of goodwill. Strepsiades objects that no law says a father should suffer that. Phidippides then points to roosters, who punish their fathers.
Wasn’t that law first proposed by a man like you or me? So why can’t I propose a new law that sons get to beat their fathers?
Was it not then a man like you and me, who first proposed this law, and by speaking persuaded the ancients? Why then is it less lawful for me also in turn to propose henceforth a new law for the sons, that they should beat their fathers in turn?
Phidippides speaking, in Aristophanes’ play. Aristophanes, Clouds line 1421, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
What was going on: This comes at the very end of Aristophanes' play. Strepsiades has climbed onto the roof of Socrates' thinking-shop and set it on fire, while Socrates and his students cry out from inside.
What got into you, insulting the gods and snooping around the moon?
For what has come into your heads that you acted insolently toward the gods, and pried into the seat of the moon?
Strepsiades speaking, in Aristophanes’ play. Aristophanes, Clouds line 1506, translated by William James Hickie (1853)
, Amphipolis
Cleon and Brasidas both die at Amphipolis
Athens tries to retake Amphipolis and loses. Both leaders die: the Athenian Cleon while fleeing, the Spartan Brasidas after hearing of his victory.
The men who had taken up and rescued Brasidas, brought him into the town with the breath still in him: he lived to hear of the victory of his troops, and not long after expired.
Athens and Sparta sign a peace in spring, about ten years after the war began.
This treaty was made in the spring, just at the end of winter, directly after the city festival of Dionysus, just ten years, with the difference of a few days, from the first invasion of Attica and the commencement of this war.
What was going on: As Plato tells it, Socrates is in Piraeus laying out laws for the guardians of a city. He has just argued that women guardians should share all pursuits with men, and warns his listener that an even bigger wave of objections is coming.
Why it matters: The Republic is one of the world's most influential works of political theory, and Huxley's Brave New World bears a resemblance to it, with state-organized breeding in place of traditional families.
My proposed law: the guardians share their wives and children. No parent knows which child is theirs, and no child knows their parent.
The law, I said, which is the sequel of this and of all that has preceded, is to the following effect,—‘that the wives of our guardians are to be common, and their children are to be common, and no parent is to know his own child, nor any child his parent.’
As Plato tells it. Plato, Republic Book 5, translated by Benjamin Jowett (1871)
What was going on: In a dialogue by Plato, Socrates is arguing with Polus about a man who can put others to death as he likes. Socrates says doing wrong is the greatest of evils. Polus next asks if he would turn down a despot's power.
I'd want neither. But if I had to choose between doing wrong and being wronged, I'd rather be wronged.
I should wish neither, for my own part; but if it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should choose to suffer rather than do it.
As Plato tells it. Plato, Gorgias 469c, translated by W. R. M. Lamb (1925)
What was going on: In Euripides' play Electra, Orestes has come to the house of the poor peasant who is called Electra's husband. The peasant has just welcomed him in, saying that even if he is poor his manners are not.
You cannot measure a person’s worth exactly. I have seen worthless sons of great fathers, good children of bad parents, poor souls in the rich and great souls in the poor.
Ah! There is no exact way to test a man’s worth; for human nature has confusion in it. For instance, I have seen before now the son of a noble father worth nothing, and good children from evil parents; famine in a rich man’s spirit, and a mighty soul in a poor man’s body.
Orestes speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Electra lines 367–370, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1891)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, Orestes meets the poor peasant who is Electra's husband in name only, and who welcomes him in as a guest. Struck by the man, Orestes wonders aloud how anyone can judge a man's worth, and decides it is by company and habits.
So how do you judge these things properly? By money? That's a poor test.
How then does one rightly distinguish and judge these things? By wealth? A sorry test to use.
Orestes speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Electra line 370, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1891)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, a peasant explains why Aegisthus married Electra off to him. Aegisthus feared she might bear a noble son who would avenge Agamemnon, so he gave her to a powerless man. The peasant says he has never touched her, as he is not her equal in rank.
My family had good blood but no money, and lack of money ruins good birth.
My family was noble in race but poor in money—which is the ruin of good birth.
The Peasant speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Electra line 35, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1891)
What was going on: In Euripides' play, guests have come to Electra's humble home. She sends a peasant to fetch food from her father's old servant, because she can get nothing from her mother, who must not learn that Orestes is alive.
Money matters for hosting guests and paying for the sick. But for everyday food it counts for little: a full stomach is the same for rich and poor.
It is in such cases, whenever I fail in my intentions, that I see how wealth has great power, to give to strangers, and to expend in curing the body when it falls sick; but money for our daily food comes to little; for every man when full, rich or poor, gets an equal amount.
The Peasant speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Electra lines 425–430, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1891)
What was going on: In Euripides' play Electra, Clytemnestra is defending herself for killing her husband. She says he killed their daughter Iphigenia on a pyre at Aulis, then came home with a girl and put her in his bed.
Women can be foolish, granted. But when a husband cheats, his wife may do the same, and then she gets all the blame while the man who started it does not.
A woman is a foolish thing, I don’t deny it; but, this granted, whenever a husband goes astray and rejects his own bed, the woman is likely to imitate her husband and find another love. And then in us the blame shines clearly, while the men, who caused this, are not badly spoken of.
Clytemnestra speaking, in Euripides’ play. Euripides, Electra lines 1035–1040, translated by E. P. Coleridge (1891)
, Melos
Athens takes Melos and kills its men
The neutral island of Melos refuses to join Athens. After a siege it surrenders; the Athenians kill the men and sell the women and children as slaves.
the Melians surrendered at discretion to the Athenians, who put to death all the grown men whom they took, and sold the women and children for slaves
What was going on: As Plato tells it, Socrates is at a gathering at Agathon's house. He is ending his speech in honor of Love, retelling what Diotima told him about seeing beauty itself.
Why it matters: Diotima's teaching on love, which Socrates sums up here, was taken up by Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism, and Proclus later wrote a commentary on her remarks.
Diotima told me this, and I believe it: to win this prize, the best helper human nature can find is Love.
This, Phaedrus and you others, is what Diotima told me, and I am persuaded of it; in which persuasion I pursue my neighbors, to persuade them in turn that towards this acquisition the best helper that our human nature can hope to find is Love.
As Plato tells it. Plato, Symposium 212b, translated by W. R. M. Lamb (1925)
What was going on: As Thucydides writes it, Athenian envoys are talking with the people of Melos, a neutral island that refuses to join Athens, in 416 BCE. The Athenians say they will skip fine speeches about their right to an empire. After a siege, Athens killed Melos' men and enslaved the women and children.
Why it matters: The Melian dialogue is regarded as a seminal text of international relations theory, and this line in particular is taken as an appeal to political power as opposed to justice.
In the real world, fairness only comes up between equals in power. Otherwise the strong do what they can and the weak put up with what they must.
…since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
The Athenian envoys speaking, as Thucydides writes it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.89.1, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: In 416 BCE an Athenian force came to Melos, a neutral island that refused to join Athens. In the talks Thucydides writes up, the Melians say the gods will favor them as just men and the Spartans will help; here the Athenian envoys reply.
Why it matters: The Melian dialogue describes one of the early instances of power politics, and it is taught as arguing that the only rational approach is based on power and advantage.
Gods, we think, and people, we know, rule wherever they can. We didn't invent that rule, we just use it, and you would too in our place.
Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can. And it is not as if we were the first to make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist for ever after us; all we do is to make use of it, knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have, would do the same as we do.
The Athenian envoys speaking, as Thucydides writes it. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.105.2, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
, Athens
Statues of Hermes are smashed across Athens
In one night, most of the stone Hermes figures at Athens' doorways have their faces mutilated, just as the fleet for Sicily is being prepared.
In the midst of these preparations all the stone Hermae in the city of Athens, that is to say the customary square figures so common in the doorways of private houses and temples, had in one night most of them their faces mutilated.
What was going on: As Plato tells it, Phaedrus has led Socrates outside the walls of Athens to a grassy spot by the Ilissus, full of cicadas. Phaedrus teases him for acting like a stranger who never leaves the city, and wants to read him a speech from a book.
Why it matters: The Phaedrus is Plato's only dialogue that shows Socrates outside the city of Athens, out in the country.
Sorry, I love learning. Trees and fields don't teach me anything. People in the city do.
Forgive me, my dear friend. You see, I am fond of learning. Now the country places and the trees won’t teach me anything, and the people in the city do.
As Plato tells it. Plato, Phaedrus 230d, translated by Harold North Fowler (1914)
What was going on: Thucydides is explaining how he wrote his history of the war. He says some speeches he heard himself and others he got from various people, and that he tested reports of events against different eyewitnesses.
Why it matters: Classicists treat his speeches with suspicion, since it is not clear how far he altered them, and some are probably made up to fit what, as he puts it here, each situation called for.
It was always hard to remember speeches word for word, so I wrote what I thought each speaker needed to say, staying as close as I could to the gist of what they really said.
…it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.22.1, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
What was going on: Thucydides, exiled for twenty years after Amphipolis, is explaining how he wrote his history: he did not trust the first source or even his own impressions, and checked eyewitnesses who often disagreed. Next he says no war brought more misfortune on Greece.
Why it matters: The passage belongs to his famous introductory statement, which is thought to refer to a fellow historian without naming him.
My history may be less fun without legends. But if it helps people understand the future, which will look a lot like the past, that's enough. I wrote it to last.
The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.22.4, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
, Syracuse
The Athenian army is destroyed in Sicily
The Athenian fleet and army at Syracuse are wiped out, and few of the men come home.
they were destroyed, as the saying is, with a total destruction, their fleet, their army—everything was destroyed, and few out of many returned home.
What was going on: Thucydides is ending his account of the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 413 BCE. At least seven thousand prisoners were taken, and back in Athens people at first refused to believe a defeat so complete.
Why it matters:Athens lost two hundred ships and thousands of men in a single campaign. Some historians see the failure as the turning point of the war, though Athens fought on for another decade.
In my view the biggest event in Greek history: glorious for the winners, a catastrophe for the losers. Fleet, army, everything was destroyed, and few came home.
This was the greatest Hellenic achievement of any in this war, or, in my opinion, in Hellenic history; at once most glorious to the victors, and most calamitous to the conquered. They were beaten at all points and altogether; all that they suffered was great; they were destroyed, as the saying is, with a total destruction, their fleet, their army—everything was destroyed, and few out of many returned home.
His own words. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.87.5–6, translated by Richard Crawley (1874)
, Athens
An oligarchy of Four Hundred seizes Athens
A group of four hundred takes over the council chamber and rules Athens by force, ending the democracy for a few months.
but afterwards departed widely from the democratic system of government, and except that on account of Alcibiades they did not recall the exiles, ruled the city by force;
Athens wins at Arginusae, then condemns its generals
Athens wins a sea battle off the Arginusae islands. The assembly then condemns eight of the generals in a single vote, and the six in Athens are executed.
After this they condemned the generals who took part in the battle, eight in all; and the six who were in Athens were put to death.
What was going on: Xenophon is describing the Athenian assembly in 406 BCE, after the sea victory at Arginusae, as it decides the fate of the generals. A survivor has just said the generals failed to rescue the bravest men. In the end, six of the generals were executed.
Why it matters: The Athenians soon came to regret executing the generals, and charges were brought against those who had pushed for the executions.
Some challenged the proposal as illegal. A few cheered, but most shouted that it was outrageous to stop the people doing whatever they wanted.
Now Euryptolemus, the son of Peisianax, and some others served a summons upon Callixeinus, alleging that he had made an unconstitutional proposal. And some of the people applauded this act, but the greater number cried out that it was monstrous if the people were to be prevented from doing whatever they wished.
Xenophon's own narration. Xenophon, Hellenica 1.7.12, translated by Carleton L. Brownson (1918)
What was going on: After the sea battle of Arginusae in 406 BCE, Athens put its generals on trial. As Xenophon tells it, the crowd in the assembly shouted down objections to judging them in one vote and threatened officials who refused to call it.
Why it matters: The Athenians soon came to regret executing the generals, and charges were brought against those who had pushed for the executions.
Scared, the presiding officials agreed to put it to a vote. All but Socrates, who said he would only act within the law.
Then the Prytanes, stricken with fear, agreed to put the question,—all of them except Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus; and he said that in no case would he act except in accordance with the law.
Xenophon's own narration. Xenophon, Hellenica 1.7.15, translated by Carleton L. Brownson (1918)
, Macedonia and Athens
Euripides and Sophocles die
Athens loses two of its three great tragic poets within about a year: Euripides, traditionally said to have died in Macedonia, and Sophocles in Athens.
Lysander captures almost the whole Athenian fleet on the beach at Aegospotami. When the news reaches Athens at night, no one sleeps.
It was at night that the Paralus arrived at Athens with tidings of the disaster, and a sound of wailing ran from Piraeus through the long walls to the city, one man passing on the news to another; and during that night no one slept
What was going on: Lysander had just captured almost the whole Athenian fleet at Aegospotami, and had been sending Athenians home so the crowded city would run short of food. The next day the Assembly began preparing for a siege.
Why it matters: Without a fleet Athens could not import grain or reach its empire, so the defeat effectively ended the war. It left Sparta dominant across the Greek world, in an order that lasted more than thirty years.
The bad news came at night. Wailing spread from the harbour up into the city, and no one slept, grieving for the dead and even more for themselves.
It was at night that the Paralus arrived at Athens with tidings of the disaster, and a sound of wailing ran from Piraeus through the long walls to the city, one man passing on the news to another; and during that night no one slept, all mourning, not for the lost alone, but far more for their own selves
Xenophon's own narration. Xenophon, Hellenica 2.2.3, translated by Carleton L. Brownson (1918)
