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Cleon and Pericles: a Suggestion1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Francis Cairns
Francis Cairns
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Extract

The three ‘notorious echoes between Kleon and Perikles’ in Thucydides all go back to Pericles' last speech made in 430 BC (Thucydides ii 60.1–64.5). The concepts and language of two successive Periclean statements from ii 63.2, viz.

ἦς οὐδ᾿ ἐκστῆναι ἔτι ὑμῖν ἔστιν εἴ τις καὶ τόδε ἐν τῷ παρόντι δεδιώς ἀπραγμοσύνῃ ἀπραγμοσύνῃ ἀνδραγαθίζεται ὡς τυραννίδα γὰρ ἤδη ἔχετε αὐτήν ἤν λαβεῖν μὲν ἄδικον δοκεῖ εἶναι ἀφεῖναι δ᾿ ἐπικίνδυνον

(on the relationship between action and virtue and on the Athenian empire as a tyranny) reappear in two statements by Cleon at iii 40.4 and iii 37.2 respectively. Even more striking–at least on the surface–is the claim of both men to consistency. In ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ὁ αὐτός εἰμι τῇ γνώμῃ Cleon virtually repeats at iii 38.1 Pericles' καὶ ἐγὼ μὲν ὁ αὐτός εἰμι καὶ οὐκ ἐξίσταμαι (ii 61.2). As if to confirm that the echoes are not accidental, Cleon's words all belong (like those of Pericles) to a single speech–that made by him during the 'Mytilcnean debate' of 427 BC.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 102 , November 1982 , pp. 203 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1982

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References

2 Andrewes, A., Phoenix xvi (1962) 75Google Scholar.

3 Notably de Romilly, J., Thucydide et l'impérialisme Athénien: La pensée de l'historien et la genèse de l'oeuvre (Paris 1947) 143–6Google Scholar.

4 So e.g. since 1960: Woodhead, A. G., Mnemos.4 xiii (1960) esp. 298–9Google Scholar; Andrewes, loc. cit. (n. 2); Connor, W. Robert, The New Politicians of Fifth-Century Athens, (Princeton 1971) esp. 119–21, 134Google Scholar; Immerwahr, Henry R., ‘Pathology of power and the speeches of Thucydides’ in The Speeches of Thucydides, ed. Stadter, P. A. (Chapel Hill 1973) esp. 28Google Scholar; Macleod, C. W., ‘Reason and necessity: Thucydides iii 9–14, 37–48’, JHS xcviii (1978) 64–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 68–9. For earlier supporters of this view see de Romilly loc. cit.

5 Op. cit. (n. 4) 91–2, 119–21. Connor's historical conclusions—but not the similarity of the motif—are questioned by Davies, J. K., Gnomon xlvii (1975) 374–8Google Scholar.

6 It would thus appear that the hesitation of La Penna, Antonio, Fra teatro, poesia e politico Romana (Turin 1979) 164 n. 1Google Scholar, about whether Plato is necessarily referring to Thersites' imitativeness is unnecessary.

7 The ape notion (although perhaps referring more to Thersites' appearance) recurs when Thersites is described as πιθηκόμορϕος at Lyc., Alex. 1000Google Scholar; cf. Schol. ad loc.

8 Cf. Gebhard, , ‘Thersites“, RE x (1934) 2455–71Google Scholar.

9 Ibid. 2466–7.

10 In Homer und die Geschichtsschreibung, SB Heidelberg 1972, 1Google Scholar Abh., Hermann Strasburger has many valuable observations on this topic. He rightly sees the influence of Homer on Thucydides as part of more general influence on all ancient historiography.

11 Given that Hellenistic literary practices are frequently also found in earlier literature (see Dover, K. J., Theocritus: Select Poems [Macmillan 1971] lxvi–lxxiiGoogle Scholar; Cairns, F., Tibullus: A Hellenistic Poet at Rome [Cambridge 1979] 8–10Google Scholar) it may not be entirely fanciful to see what Thucydides does, i.e. imitates verbatim in one speech of Cleon three passages from one speech of Pericles, as aemulatio in the form of imitatio cum variatione of his Homeric model, who in one speech of Thersites imitates two lines from two different speeches of Achilles.

12 Jocelyn on Ennius fr. 84.9 q.v., citing Eur., Andr. 186–7Google Scholar; fr. 327; Tr. Gr. inc. Fr. 119; and Cic., S. Rosc. 2Google Scholar.

13 So Jocelyn loc. cit.

14 But not the reverse since a ‘good’ man can perform evil actions. The difficulties of Homeric ethics are well known (cf. e.g. Adkins, A., Merit and Responsibility [Oxford 1960]Google Scholar; Long, A. A., ‘Morals and Values in Homer’, JHS xc [1970] 121–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar); but I hope that the formulation here would be acceptable to all sides.

15 Cf. e.g. Ross, W. D., Aristotle5 (Oxford 1949) 192–7Google Scholar.

16 Cf. von Arnim, H., SVF (Leipzig 1924) ivGoogle Scholar, index s.vv. σοϕός, ϕαῦλος.