DS Historical and Political Thought: Notable and Quotable Moments

Herodutus: first lines

"I, [—-], am here setting forth my history, that time may not draw the color from what man has brought into being, nor those great and wonderful deeds, manifested by both Greeks and barbarians, fail of their report, and, together with all this, the reason hy they fought one another."

Herodotus: Candaules, Candaules' wife, Gyges (1.8-13)

"'Many are the fine things discovered by men of old, and among them this one, that each should look upon his own, only.'"

"The oracle gave its answer, and so [—-] gained his kingship. But this much the Pythia said: that the Heraclids should yet have vengeance on a descendant of [—-] in the fifth generation. But of this word neither the Lydians nor the kings made any account until it was fulfilled."

Herodotus: Croesus and Shipbuilding (1.27)

Advisor tells him to not build his ten thousand ships because he's trying to attack the islander Greeks where they are hoping he will (on the sea), not defeat them on land where they are weak. Strategy! Listening to counsel.

Herodotus: Croesus and Solon (1.30-34) Solon is a wise man, does not place Croesus among the happiest men.

[—-] to [—-]: "'So, [—-], man is entirely what befalls him. To me it is clear that you are very rich, and clear that you are the king of many men; but the thing that you asked me I cannot say of you yet, until I hear that you have brought your life to an end well."

Herodotus: Croesus and the Oracle, question on whether to go to war with the Persians (1.52-56)

"the judgement of both oracles came out the same, declaring to [—-] that if he made war on the Persians he would destroy a mighty empire; and they advised him to find out which were the most powerful of the Greek peoples and make them his friends."

[—-] paid the oracle for more privileges for him and the [—-].

"whenever a mule shall become sovereign king of the Medians" prophecy

Herodotus: What Croesus Could Lose (1.71), poorly interprets oracle, prepares for war

"'Now, sir, if you conquer, what will you take from them—since they have nothing? But if you are conquered, note how many good things you will lose.'"

Herodotus: Croseus fulfillment of Oracle (1.86)

[—--] had "destroyed a mighty empire—his own."

Herodotus: Cyrus' Mercy when burning Croseus at the stake(1.86-1.87)

"he recognized that he too was a man and that it was another man, no whit less in great fortune than himself, whom he was giving alive to the fire; besides, he was afraid of what he must pay in retribution and thought again how nothing of all that is in the world of men could be secure."

Herodotus: War is Bad (1.87)

"'For no one is, of himself, so foolish as to prefer war to peace; in the one, children bury their fathers, in the other, fathers their children."

Herodotus: Cambyses (3.29-38)

epileptic, crazy Persian king, stabs Apis (god of Egyptians, calf) in the thigh, later gets stabbed in the thigh

kills full brother by sending Prexaspes to do it, full sister (also his wife)

life under monarchy: judges (bound by tradition) try to acquiesce to his wishes without breaking the system, let him marry his sister by citing a law that the king can do whatever he wants

kills the son of the guy who killed his brother for him

[—-] tries to moderate him, [—-] tries to kill him, then wants him back but kills the people that spared him

Herodotus: Custom quoting Pindar

(Quoting [—-]) "'Custom is king of all'"

Herodotus: Thermopylae, Xerxes led 5,283,220 men against Greece, and the Spartans (led by Leonidas) defend the pass (even destroying the Persian elite) until they are betrayed and overrun (according to oracle they either lose or Sparta loses), but they delay the army and slaughter enough of them to save the Greeks

monument: "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their words we lie"

Thucydides: Melian Dialogue

hope leads men to ruin

Thucydides: Mytelian Debate, first quote Cleon,second quote Diodotus

“What you do not realize is that your empire is a tyranny exercised over subjects who do not like it and who are always plotting against you; you will not make them obey you by injuring your own interests in order to do them a favour; your leadership depends on superior strength and not on any goodwill of theirs.“

“But the right way to deal with free people is this – not to inflict tremendous punishments on them after they have revolted, but to take tremendous care of them before this point is reached, to prevent them even contemplating the idea of revolt, and, if we do have to use force with them, to hold as few as possible of them responsible for this.”

Thucydides: Sicilian Expedition, first quote Nicias, second quote Alcibiades

“But one’s enemy’s misfortunes are insucient grounds for self-satisfaction; one can only feel real condence when one has mastered his designs.”

“Remember, too, that the city, like everything else, will wear out of its own accord if it remains at rest, and its skill in everything will grow out of date; but in conict it will constantly be gaining new experience and growing more used to defend itself not by speeches, but in action.

Plato, The Republic: first line

I went down to the Piraeus yesterday

Plato, The Republic: Thrasymachus on Justice

Justice is the advantage of the stronger

Plato, The Republic: Education

education isn’t what people declare it to be, namely putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes

Plato, The Republic: Guardians

A guardian will be spirited, physically prepared, philosophical, a lover of learning, educated in music, poetry, and very specific stories, had been tested from birth. Have common messes and no private property. Women and children are in common

Plato, The Republic: Myth of Metals

It is "impious to defile this divine possession by any admixture of such gold"

Plato, The Republic: Happiness

We aren't aiming to make any one group outstandingly happy but to make the whole city so (420b)

Plato, The Republic: Laws

The true lawgiver oughtn't to bother with that form of law or constitution, either in a badly governed city or in a well-governed one—in the former, because it's useless and accomplishes nothing; in the latter, because anyone could discover some of these things, while the others follow automatically the way of life we established (427) (book IV ish?)

Plato, The Republic: tripartite theory of the soul

Rational

Appetitive

Spirited

Plato, The Republic: Philosopher KINGS

Until philosophers rule as kings in cities or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcible prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils, [——], nor, I think will the human race"

Plato, The Republic: democracy

"Democracy comes about when the poor are victorious, killing some of their opponents and expelling others, and giving the rest an equal share in ruling under the constitution and for the most part assigning people to positions of rule by lot"

Plato, The Republic: the consequences of extreme freedom

Extreme freedom can't be expected to lead to anything but a change to extreme slavery

Plato, The Republic: 3 definitions of justice, Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus

[—-]: Justice is telling the truth and paying your debts

[—-]: Justice is harming your enemies and doing good for your friends

[—-]: Justice is the advantage of the stronger

Aristotle, Politics: first lines

SInce we see that every city is some sort of community, and that every community is constituted for the sake of some good (for everyone does everything for the sake of what is held to be good), it is clear that all communities aim at some good, and that the community that is most authoritative of all and embraces all the others does so particularly, and aims at the most authoritative good of all. This is what is called the city or the political community. (1)

Aristotle, Politics: community

One who is incapable of sharing or who is in need of nothing through being self-sufficient is no part of a city, and so is either a beast or a god. (5)

Aristotle, Politics: the city

a city is by nature a sort of aggregation, and as it becomes more a unity it will be a household instead of a city

Aristotle, Politics: community as choice

Man is by nature a political animal. Hence even when they have no need of assistance from one another, they no less yearn to live together... they also join together, and maintain the political community for the sake of living itself

Aristotle, Politics: citizen

The unqualified citizen is defined by nothing else so much as by his participation in judgement and office... the citizen that we defined is above all a citizen in a democracy

Aristotle, Politics: citizen

A citizen... in the case of the best regime, he is one who is capable of and intentionally chooses being ruled and ruling with a view to the life in accordance with virtue

Aristotle: natural hierarchy/slavery

the slave is a sort of part of the master- a part of his body

Livy, The Rise of Rome:

the concern for peace also strengthened internal harmony, but the one order always tested the self control of the other”

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Preface 1

"It will be a source of satisfaction to celebrate to the best of my ability the history of the greatest nation on Earth"

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Preface 2

"My wish is that each reader will pay the closest attention to the following: how men lived, what their moral philosophies were, under what leaders and by what measures at home and abroad our empire was won and extended; then let him follow in his mind how as discipline broke down bit by bit, morality at first foundered; how it next subsided in ever greater collapse and then began to topple headlong in ruin—until the advent of our own age, in which we can endure neither our vices nor the remedies needed to cure them."

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Preface 3

"The special and salutary benefit of the study of history is to behold evidence of every sort of behaviour set forth as on a splendid memorial; from it you may select for yourself and for your country what to emulate and from it what to avoid"

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Lucius Tarquinius and Tullia (I.46)

"If you are the man I think I married, I salute you as husband and king. If not, my situation is worse than before, for what I have now is a criminal as well as a coward" (55)

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Lucretia

"But pledge with your right hands and swear that the adulterer will not go unpunished. Sextus Tarquin did this, an enemy in arms who last night took his pleasure, fatal, alas, to me—and if you act as your should, to him." (1.58)

"They repeated the oath after him; from that moment on, anger overestimating grief, they followed Brutus' lead in bringing the monarch to an end" (1.58)

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Book 2

"The history of a free nation in peace and war will be my theme from this point on, the election of annual magistrates and greater obedience to the commands of law than to those of men" (71)

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Veturia to Coriolanus

"Had I not given birth, I would die a free woman in a free country. I cannot suffer anything more disgraceful to you or more grievous to me than what I am suffering now"

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Book 3; Appius, Claudius, and Verginia

Appius Claudius and Verginia, Lucius Verginius (father), Lucius Icilius (betrothed)

"Snatching a knife from a butcher's stall and saying, 'I am asserting your freedom in the only way I know how, my daughter,' stabbed her to the heart. As he did so he looked back at the tribunal and cried, 'With this blood, Appius, I curse you and your life.'" (189)

Livy, The Rise of Rome: Canuleis' speech on intermarriage

"And so I say to the consuls that the plebians are ready to go to war now... but only if you restore the right of intermarriage and at last make our country whole again... only if there is full partnership, equal participation in the running of our country, only—and this is the mark of equality before the law—if one may be both a citizen obedient to his elected officials and then in turn become one of those officials himself... No one will risk his life in the service of arrogant overlords who refuse a share in the offices of state or the right of marriage in private life" (4.5)

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome: Tacitus on his writing

"I shall write without indignation or partisanship: in my case the customary incentives are lacking" (32)

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome: Fall of Roman Virtue

"The country had been transformed, and there was nothing left of the fine old Roman character. Political equality was a thing of the past; all eyes watched for imperial commands" (33)

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome: Aim

"Yet even apparently insignificant events such as these are worth examination. For they often cause major historical developments. This is so whether a country (or city) is a democracy, an oligarchy, or an autocracy. For it is always one or the other—a mixture of the three is easier to applaud than to achieve... Now that Rome has virtually been transformed into an autocracy, the investigation and record of these details concerning an autocrat may prove useful. Indeed, it is from such studies—from the experience of others—that most men learn to distinguish right and wrong, advantage and disadvantage" (173)

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome: Nero

"The emperor, in the presence of witnesses, put on the bridal veil. Disaster followed." (362)

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome: Boudicca (British woman speaking against Roman imperialism)

"I am fighting as an ordinary person for my lost freedom, my bruised body, and my outraged daughters"

Tacitus, Agricola: his mother and the liberal arts

"Agricola's mother was Julia Procilla, a paragon of feminine virtue. Brought up under her tender care, he passed his boyhood and youth in the cultivation of all the liberal arts. He was shielded from the temptations of evil companions, partly by his own sound instincts, partly by living and going to school from his very early years at Massilia, a place where Greek refinement and provincial puritanism are happily blended. I remember how he would often tell us that in his early youth he was tempted to drink deeper of philosophy than was allowable for a Roman and a future senator, but that his mother, in her wisdom, damped the fire of his passion. One can well understand that his lofty, aspiring nature was attracted strongly, if not too wisely, by the fairness and splendor of fame in its higher and nobler aspects. In time, age and discretion cooled his ardor; and he always remembered the hardest lesson that philosophy teaches—a sense of proportion." (54)

Tacitus, Agricola: danger of reputation under a tyrant

"Yet everything combined to give the young Agricola fresh skill, experience, and ambition; and his spirit was possessed by a passion for military glory—a thankless passion in an age in which a sinister construction was put upon distinction and a great reputation was as dangerous as a bad one." (55)

Tacitus, Agricola: good marriage

"From Britain Agricola returned to Rome to enter on his career of office, and married Domitia Decidiana, the child of an illustrious house. It was a union that brought him social distinction and aid to his ambition for advancement. They lived in rare accord, maintained by mutual affection and unselfishness; in such a partnership, however, a good wife deserves more than half the praise, just as a bad one deserves more than half the blame." (55)

Tacitus, Agricola: divide and conquer

"fighting in separate groups, all are conquered" (62)

Plutarch, Caesar: as Caesar crosses the Rubicon

"Let the die be cast"

Plutarch, Brutus:

"On the Ides of March, I gave up my life for my country, and have lived since then a second life for her sake, with liberty and honor" (265)

Augustine, City of God: Purpose

Here, my dear Marcellinus, is the fulfillment of my promise, a book in which have taken upon myself the task of defending the glorious city of God against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of the City. (5)

Augustine, City of God: Lucretia

"Guilt attaches only to the ravisher," but Lucretia was "excessively eager for honor" (28-30)

Augustine, City of God: Transitory nature

"The whole family of the servants of the supreme and true God... does not depend on hope in shifting and transitory things; and those servants have no reason to regret even this life of time, for in it they are schooled for eternity" (41)

Augustine, City of God: Purpose 2

My task, as far as I shall receive divine assistance, will be to say what I think necessary in explanation of origin, development, and appointed end of those two cities. And this I shall do to enhance the glory of the city of God (46)

Augustine, City of God: Kingdoms

"Without the slightest doubt, the kingdoms of men are established by divine providence" (179)

Augustine, City of God: Foreknowledge

"The religious mind chooses both, foreknowledge as well as liberty" (191)

Augustine, City of God: Purpose 3

My task is to discuss, to the best of my power, the rise, the development, and the destined ends of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly, the cities which we find, as I have said, interwoven, as it were, in this present transitory world, and mingled with one another (430)

Augustine, City of God: Time

They are utterly unable to rescue the immortal soul from this merry-go-round... for how can there be true bliss without any certainty of its eternal continuance?

Augustine, City of God: Twins

"The quarrel that arose between Remus and Romulus demonstrated the division of the Earthly City against itself, while the conflict between Cain and Abel displayed the hostility between the two cities themselves" (601)

Augustine, City of God: Dragnet

"Many reprobates are mingled in the church with the good, and both sorts are collected as it were in the dragnet of the gospel, and in this world, as in the sea, both kinds swim without separation" (831)

Augustine, City of God: War

"But the wise man, they say, will wage just wars... surely, if he remembers that he is a human being, he will rather lament the fact that he is faced with the necessity of waging just wars; for if they were not just, he would not have to engage in them, and consequently there would be no wars for a wise man" (861)

Al-Farabi, The Attainment of Happiness: Political science

"This is political science. It consists of knowing the things by which the citizens of cities attain happiness through political association in the measure that innate disposition equips each of them for it." (61)

Al-Farabi, The Political Regime: The Supreme Ruler

"The supreme ruler without qualification is he who does not need anyone to rule him in anything... he is able to guide well all others... this is found only in the one who possesses great and superior natural dispositions, when his soul is in union with the active intellect." (36)

Al-Farabi, The Attainment of Happiness: unitary executive

"So let it be clear to you that the idea of the Philosopher, Supreme Ruler, Prince, Legislator, and Imam is but a single idea." (79)

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed: Purpose

"The first purpose of this treatise is to explain the meanings of certain terms occurring in the books of prophecy... for the purpose of this treatise and of all those like it is the science of the law in its true sense" (3)

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed: reference point for laws

"Accordingly the facility or difficulty of the Law should not be estimated with reference to the passions of all the wicked, vile, morally corrupt men, but should be considered with reference to the man who is perfect among the people" (381)

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed: Law

Law is "the arrangement... of the circumstances of people in their relations with one another and provision for their obtaining, in accordance with the opinion of that chief, a certain something deemed to be happiness" (383)

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed: Prophets

"Therefore I say that the Law, although it is not natural, enters into what is natural. It is a part of the wisdom of the deity with regard to the permanence of this species of which He has willed the existence, that He put it into its nature that individuals belonging to it should have the faculty of ruling. Among them there is the one to whom the regimen mentioned has been revealed by prophecy directly; he is the prophet or the bringer of the nomos... They are a sovereign who adopts the nomos in question, and someone claiming to be a prophet who adopts the Law of the prophet—either the whole of it or a portion" (382)

Aquinas, Treatise on Law: law definition from lecture

Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good made by one with the care of the community and is promulgated

Aquinas, Treatise on Law: 90. On the essence of law

"Law belongs to those who rule and by participation to those who are ruled" (5)

"Law should have coercive power in order to induce others effectively to virtue" (5)

"Promulgation is necessary for law to have force" (11)

Aquinas, Treatise on Law: 91. On Different Kinds of Law

"Divine law was necessary to give direction to human life" (11)

Aquinas, Treatise on Law: 94. On The Natural Law

"Both the precepts of the natural law and the first principles of scientific demonstrations are self-evident principles" (35)

Aquinas, Treatise on Law: 95. On Human Law

"A human law diverging in any way from natural law will be a perversion of the law and no longer a law"

Aquinas, Treatise on Law: 97. On Revision of Laws

"Laws can be rightly revised to suit the changed condition of human beings" BUT "the binding force of law is diminished when laws are reversed, since custom is removed. And so human laws should never be revised unless the commonweal gains in one respect as much as it loses in the other" (65)

Aquinas, Treatise on Law: 97. On Revision of Laws—consent and ruler

"If a people is free, that is, self-governing, the consent of the whole people, which custom indicates, counts more in favor of a particular legal observance than the authority of its ruler, who only has the power to frame laws as the ruler acts in the name of the people" (67)

Aquinas, Treatise on Law (105. On the Reason for Precepts Governing the Administration of Justice)

"All citizens should participate in the regime... the best institution of rulers belongs to a city or kingdom, in which one person is chosen by reason of his virtue to rule over all, and other persons govern under him by reason of their virtue. And yet such a regime belongs to all citizens, both because its rulers are chosen from the citizens and because all citizens choose its rulers. For this is the best constitution, a happy mixture of kingdom, since one person rules, and aristocracy, since many govern by reason of their virtue, and democracy since rulers can be chosen from the people and since the choice of rulers belongs to the people" (89)

Thucydides, Pericles Funeral Oration

But the man who can most truly be accounted brave is he who best knows the meaning of what is sweet in life and of what is terrible, and then goes out undeterred to meet what is to come

Thucydides, Melian Dialogue

“the standard of justice depends on the equality of power to compel and that in fact the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.”

Livy, Rise of Rome, contrast between numa and romulus

"Rome, which had originally been established through force of arms, should be re-established through justice, law, and proper observances" (24)

tacitus, nero

Rome by night came to resemble a conquered city

tacitus, agricola

His spirit was possessed by a passion for military glory- a thankless passion in an age in which a sinister construction was put upon distinction and a great reputation was as dangerous as a bad on

augustine, city of god

That city is eternal; no one is born there, because no one dies. There is true felicity.. The sun does not rise ‘on the good and the evil’ the ‘sun of righteousness spreads its light only to the good”,

maimonides guide to the perplexed

the true reality of prophecy consists in being an overflowing from God...intermediation of the Active Intellect... toward the imaginative faculty

maimonides guide to the perplexed

you should take great care during these precious times not to set your thought to work on anything other than intellectual worship consisting in nearness to God

aquinas treatise on law

if the aim of the lawmakers strives for real good, that is, the common good regulated by divine justice, law consequently makes human beings absolutely good. But if the aim of the lawmakers is set upon what is not absolutely good, then law makes human beings relatively, not absolutely good, namely in relation to such regime