Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABBREVIATIONS
- INTRODUCTION
- I LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY
- 1 Solon and the Spirit of the Law in Archaic and Classical Greece
- 2 Pericles' Praise of Athenian Democracy
- 3 Antigone the Lawyer, or the Ambiguities of Nomos
- 4 How Often Did the Athenian Assembly Meet?
- 5 When Did the Athenian Assembly Meet? Some New Evidence
- 6 Demosthenes and the Theoric Fund
- II LAW AND ECONOMY
- III LAW AND THE FAMILY
- IV ASPECTS OF PROCEDURE
- V ENVOI
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX LOCORUM
- SUBJECT INDEX
2 - Pericles' Praise of Athenian Democracy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABBREVIATIONS
- INTRODUCTION
- I LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY
- 1 Solon and the Spirit of the Law in Archaic and Classical Greece
- 2 Pericles' Praise of Athenian Democracy
- 3 Antigone the Lawyer, or the Ambiguities of Nomos
- 4 How Often Did the Athenian Assembly Meet?
- 5 When Did the Athenian Assembly Meet? Some New Evidence
- 6 Demosthenes and the Theoric Fund
- II LAW AND ECONOMY
- III LAW AND THE FAMILY
- IV ASPECTS OF PROCEDURE
- V ENVOI
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX LOCORUM
- SUBJECT INDEX
Summary
χρώμεθα γὰρ πολιτεíᾳ οὐ ζηλούσῃ τοὺς τῶν πέλας νόμους, παράδειγμα δὲ μᾶλλον αὐτοì ὄντες τισìν ἢ μιμούμενοι ἑτέρους. καì ὄνομα μὲν διὰ τò μὴ ἐς ὀλìγους ἀλλ̕ ἐς πλείονας οἰκεῖν δημοκρατíα κέκληται̇ μέτεστι δέ κατὰ μὲν τοὺς νόμους πρòς τὰ ἴδια διάφορα πᾶσι τò ἴσον, κατὰ δὲ τὴν ἀξίωσιν, ὡς ἕκαστος ἔν τῳ εὐδοκιμεĩ, οὐκ ἀπò μέρους τò πλέον ἐς τὰ κοινὰ ἀπ̕ ἀρετῆς προτιμᾶται, οὐδ̕ αὖ κατὰ πενίαν, ἔχων γέ τι ἀγαθòν δρᾶσαι τὴν πòλιν, ἀξιώματος ἀφανείᾳ κεκώλυται.
– Thucydides 2.37.1thucydides gives pericles very little to say in his funeral oration about the political institutions of Athenian democracy. This is no doubt in keeping with his principle of having the speakers in his history τά δέοντα εìπεĩν that is, speak those things that were suitable for the occasion. For we know that the unwritten rules of the genre required the speaker to cover a good many topics, including the glorious deeds of the ancestors, the nobility of the Athenian character, the bravery of those who fell in battle, and consolation for their grieving families. Yet though the rules of the genre did not permit a full-scale discussion of political institutions, the few sentences devoted to the topic in Pericles' Funeral Oration express an entire philosophy of government. What the florid Isocrates would have taken several pages to explain, the brilliantly concise Thucydides is able to compress into a few carefully worded phrases.
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- Information
- Democracy and the Rule of Law in Classical AthensEssays on Law, Society, and Politics, pp. 29 - 40Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006