Characters and Main Belief

Otanes

Herodotus, Histories, pro-democracy

Megabyzus

Herodotus, Histories, pro-oligarchy

Darius

Herodotus, Histories, pro-monarchy

Clisthenes

Herodotus, Histories OR Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians; mixed up democracy (to know difference: Aristotle spells it Cleisthenes)

Peisistratus

Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, “tyrant” but good king

Solon

Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, first guy appointed to help Athens: did by lot, cancelled debts, started mixing

Pericles

Thucydides, Funeral Oration, general + pride of Athens and honor in death; Athenian superiority

Cleon

Thucydides, Mytilenian Dialogue, death, justice, realism OR Aristophanes, Knights, corrupt slave to Demos

Diodotus

Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Mytilenian Dialogue), long term goals + finding friends

Melian envoy

Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Melian Dialogue), this is not a debate, Athens should find friends, die rather than slavery

Athenian envoy

Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Melian Dialogue), this is not a debate about morals, power takes over (realism)

Antigone

Sophocles, Antigone, duty to gods and brother

Creon

Sophocles, Antigone, duty to city

Ismene

Sophocles, Antigone, men rule

Haemon

Sophocles, Antigone, a good king listens

Chorus (elders)

Sophocles, Antigone, a good king listens and Antigone is glorious

Tiresias

Sophocles, Antigone, the gods don’t like what you’re doing, just correct mistake it’s okay

Demos

Aristophanes, Knights, old, deaf king - metaphor for “the people”, responds to bribes and words

Sausage Seller

Aristophanes, Knights, represents the mixing, serves people

Demosthenes

Aristophanes, Knights, slave to Demos, common people for politicians; also the guy who accuses Aeschines IRL

Nicias

Aristophanes, Knights, slave to Demos, Demosthenes’ aide in plan

Chorus (equestrian class)

Aristophanes, Knights, stop Cleon

“Thus had Clisthenes the Sicyonian done. The Athenian Clisthenes, who was grandson by the mother's side of the other, and had been named after him, resolved, from contempt (as I believe) of the Ionians, that his tribes should not be the same as theirs; and so followed the pattern set him by his namesake of Sicyon. Having brought entirely over to his own side the common people of Athens, whom he had before disdained, he gave all the tribes new names, and made the number greater than formerly; instead of the four phylarchs he established ten; he likewise placed ten demes in each of the tribes; and he was, now that the common people took his part, very much more powerful than his adversaries.”

Clisthenes, Herodotus, mixing up of tribes to create new version of government; changes in Athenian democracy to make it more democratic - raised common people up.

Isagoras

Herodotus, Histories, enemy of Clisthenes OR Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, enemy of Cleisthenes (to tell difference: Herodotus uses a lot more words in sentences and says friendship instead of friend).

“They are jealous of the most virtuous among their subjects, and wish their death; while they take delight in the meanest and basest, being ever ready to listen to the tales of slanderers. A king, besides, is beyond all other men inconsistent with himself. Pay him court in moderation, and he is angry because you do not show him more profound respect - show him profound respect, and he is offended again, because (as he says) you fawn on him.” 

Otanes, Herodotus, why kings are bad, overall argument for democracy

“This played havoc with the whole plot. Of the two of them Harmodius was at once dispatched by the spearmen, and Aristogeiton died later, having been taken into custody and tortured for a long time. Under the strain of the tortures he gave the names of a number of men that belonged by birth to families of distinction, and were friends of the tyrants, as confederates. For they were not able immediately to find any trace of the plot, but the current story that Hippias made the people in the procession fall out away from their arms and searched for those that retained their daggers is not true, for in those days they did not walk in the procession armed, but this custom was instituted later by the democracy.”

Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, describing how tyrants came into power. These were the tyrants that gave “tyrants” a negative connotation, after their rule, Athens went back to democracy and Clisthenes aided this.

“I will begin at our ancestors; being a thing both just and honest that to them first be given the honour of remembrance in this kind. For they, having been always the inhabitants of this region, by their valour have delivered the same to succession of posterity hitherto in the state of liberty. [2] For which they deserve commendation, but our fathers deserve yet more; for that besides what descended on them, not without great labour of their own they have purchased this our present dominion and delivered the same over to us that now are.”

Pericles, Thucydides, Funeral Oration, Peloponnesian War, honoring dead on Veteran’s Day and celebrating Athenian greatness. Honoring ancestors and dead.

“For my own part, I am of the opinion I was before; and I wonder at these men that have brought this matter of the Mytilenaeans in question again and thereby caused delay, which is the advantage only of them that do the injury. For the sufferer by this means comes upon the doer with his anger dulled; whereas revenge, the opposite of injury, is then greatest when it follows presently. I do wonder also what he is that shall stand up now to contradict me and shall think to prove that the injuries done us by the Mytilenaeans are good for us or that our calamities are any damage to our confederates.”

Cleon, Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Mytilenian Dialogue, delaying will cause harm, must rettribute, there is tyranny in your empire

“For a good statesman should not go about to terrify those that contradict him but rather to make good his counsel upon liberty of speech. And a wise state ought not either to add unto, or, on the other side, to derogate from, the honour of him that giveth good advice, nor yet punish, nay, nor disgrace, the man whose counsel they receive not. [6] And then, neither would he that lighteth on good advice deliver anything against his own conscience, out of ambition of further honour and to please the auditory, nor he that doth not, covet thereupon by gratifying the people some way or other that he also may endear them.”

Diodotus, Thucydides, peloponnesian War, Mytilenian Dialogue, politicians love to talk but let’s not go back and forth, let’s focus on advice. Compare to Cleon’s depiction in Knights.

“As we therefore will not, for our parts, with fair pretences, as, that having defeated the Medes, our reign is therefore lawful, or that we come against you for injury done, make a long discourse without being believed; so would we have you also not expect to prevail by saying either that you therefore took not our parts because you were a colony of the Lacedaemonians or that you have done us no injury. But out of those things which we both of us do really think, let us go through with that which is feasible, both you and we knowing that in human disputation justice is then only agreed on when the necessity is equal; whereas they that have odds of power exact as much as they can, and the weak yield to such conditions as they can get”

Athenian convoy, Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Melian Dialogue, we’re not gonna make excuses, we’re gonna take you because you’re weak. Not democratic, just empire.

1: I would not encourage you—no, nor, even if you were willing later, [70] would I welcome you as my partner in this action. No, be the sort that pleases you. I will bury him—it would honor me to die while doing that. I shall rest with him, loved one with loved one, a pious criminal. For the time is greater [75] that I must serve the dead than the living, since in that world I will rest forever. But if you so choose, continue to dishonor what the gods in honor have established.
2: I do them no dishonor. But to act in violation of the citizens' will—of that I am by nature incapable.

1: You can make that your pretext! Regardless, I will go now to heap a tomb over the brother I love.

2: Oh no, unhappy sister! I fear for you!

1: Do not tremble for me. Straighten out your own destiny.

2: Then at least disclose the deed to no one before you do it. [85] Conceal it, instead, in secrecy—and so, too, will I.

1: Go on! Denounce it! You will be far more hated for your silence, if you fail to proclaim these things to everyone.

Antigone and Ismene, Sophocles, Antigone, Ismene is arguing for rule of man, Antigone for rule of gods and family duties.

“Think, therefore, on these things, my son. All men are liable to err. [1025] But when an error is made, that man is no longer unwise or unblessed who heals the evil into which he has fallen and does not remain stubborn. Self-will, we know, invites the charge of foolishness. Concede the claim of the dead. Do not kick at the fallen.”

Tiresias, Sophocles, Antigone, telling Creon he just should reverse his decision and everything will be a-okay. Makes an Iliad reference.

“Do not, then, bear one mood only in yourself: do not think that your word and no other, must be right. For if any man thinks that he alone is wise—that in speech or in mind he has no peer—such a soul, when laid open, is always found empty. [710] No, even when a man is wise, it brings him no shame to learn many things, and not to be too rigid. You see how the trees that stand beside the torrential streams created by a winter storm yield to it and save their branches, while the stiff and rigid perish root and all? [715] And in the same way the pilot who keeps the sheet of his sail taut and never slackens it, upsets his boat, and voyages thereafter with his decking underwater.”

Haemon, Sophocles, Antigone, telling Creon to listen to the people and be a good king.

“Strike, strike the villain, who has spread confusion amongst the ranks of the Knights, this public robber, this yawning gulf of plunder, this devouring Charybdis, this villain, this villain, this villain! I cannot say the word too often, [250] for he is a villain a thousand times a day. Come, strike, drive, hurl him over and crush him to pieces; hate him as we hate him; stun him with your blows and your shouts. And beware lest he escape you; he knows the way Eucrates took straight to a bran sack for concealment.”

Chorus of Knights, Aristophanes, Knights, talking about Cleon. He is a public robber as he serves only himself. Even better, Cleon was alive during this - Aristophanes is making public commentary.

“Many among you, he tells us, have expressed wonder, that he has not long since had a piece presented in his own name, and have asked the reason why. This is what he bids us say in reply to your questions; [515] it is not without grounds that he has courted the shade, for, in his opinion, nothing is more difficult than to cultivate the comic Muse; many court her, but very few secure her favours. Moreover, he knows that you are fickle by nature and betray your poets when they grow old.”

Chorus of Knights, Aristophanes, Knights, talking about Aristophanes. Greek comedy was a place where public could laugh at themselves. Aristophanes is using his play to make a mockery of people and express opinion on politics.

“No, little you care for his reigning in Arcadia, it's to pillage and impose on the allies at will that you reckon; you wish the war to conceal your rogueries as in a mist, that Demos may see nothing of them, and harassed by cares, may only depend on yourself for his bread. [805] But if ever peace is restored to him, if ever he returns to his lands to comfort himself once more with good cakes, to greet his cherished olives, he will know the blessings you have kept him out of, even though paying him a salary; and, filled with hatred and rage, he will rise, burning with desire to vote against you. You know this only too well; it is for this you rock him to sleep with your lies.”

Sausage Seller, Aristophanes, Knights, talking about Creon’s greed and his disloyalty to Demos.

““Son of Erechtheus, understand the meaning of the words, which the sacred tripods set resounding in the sanctuary of Apollo. Preserve the sacred dog with the jagged teeth, that barks and howls in your defence; he will ensure you a salary and, if he fails, will perish as the victim of [1020] the swarms of jays that hunt him down with their screams.””

Cleon, Aristophanes, Knights, telling Demos the fortunes. He is going to say it favors him as adviser, Sausage Seller reveals his is not: that the for is not defending but licking plates clean.

Socrates

from Plato, Republic, is Plato’s character to voice opinions, was his mentor who got killed by Athenian “mob”

Plato

wrote Republic, doesn’t actually “speak”, against democracy; dialogue between Socrates and Plato’s brothers. “anatomy of a fall”: mapping hinge points of degradation of government; post-war

Pseudo-Xenophon

(the Old Oligarch), Const. of Athenians (NOT ARI ONE), critiques democracy while praising it, unknown author’s purpose

Aeschines

Against Timarchus, speaking to Athenian assembly, was part of envoy to Macedonians and accused of traitor by Demosthenes, going after Timarchus for moral status

Aristotle

Politics, Book 7 (or Const. of Athenians, but giving history, not trying to argue anything); anti-democracy, pro-education for rulers; only knowledgable should rule; lots of how people should live; Ari is creating a world that he wants, an ideal govt.; post-war

Plato’s Brothers

the other speakers in Republic

timoarchy

love of honor; in Plato; comes after best government

anatomy of a fall

aristocracy → timoarchy → oligarchy → democracy → tyranny

aristocracy

Philosopher Kings / a republic

“First, you recall, they laid down laws to protect the morals of our children, and they expressly prescribed what were to be the habits of the freeborn boy, and how he was to be brought up; then they legislated for the lads, and next for the other age-groups in succession, including in their provision, not only private citizens, but also the public men. And when they had inscribed these laws, they gave them to you in trust, and made you their guardians.”

Aeschines, Against Timarchus, Athenians have strict morals and laws to keep these morals, public men should follow them

“Now as for me, I neither find fault with love that is honorable, nor do I say that those who surpass in beauty are prostitutes. I do not deny that I myself have been a lover and am a lover to this day, nor do I deny that the jealousies and quarrels that commonly arise from the practice have happened in my case. As to the poems which they say I have composed, some I acknowledge, but as to others I deny that they are of the character that these people will impute to them, for they will tamper with them.”

Aeschines, Against Timarchus, describing the fault with Timarchus, using past male lovers like Achilles and Patroclus to show counterpoint and that the real fault of Timarchus is that he sold himself as a prostitute; appealing to broad Athenian public who might have love affairs

“Then there is a point which some find extraordinary, that they everywhere assign more to the worst persons, to the poor, and to the popular types than to the good men: in this very point they will be found manifestly preserving their democracy. For the poor, the popular, and the base, inasmuch as they are well off and the likes of them are numerous, will increase the democracy; but if the wealthy, good men are well off, the men of the people create a strong opposition to themselves.”

Pseudo-Xenophon (Old Oligarch), Const. of Athenians, if “good” are in charge, the rest are “enslaved” under them; the poor will make a government for the people

“It is my opinion that the people at Athens know which citizens are good and which bad, but that in spite of this knowledge they cultivate those who are complaisant and useful to themselves, even if bad; and they tend to hate the good. For they do not think that the good are naturally virtuous for the people's benefit, but for their hurt. On the other hand, some persons are not by nature democratic although they are truly on the people's side.”

Pseudo-Xenophon (Old Oligarch), Const. of Athenians, people hate the “good” because they don’t look out for the people, they look out for their good

“Now it is clear that the best constitution is the system under which anybody whatsoever would be best off and would live in felicity; but the question is raised even on the part of those who agree that the life accompanied by virtue is the most desirable, whether the life of citizenship and activity is desirable or rather a life released from all external affairs, for example some form of contemplative life, which is said by some to be the only life that is philosophic.2 For it is manifest that these are the two modes of life principally chosen by the men most ambitious of excelling in virtue, both in past times and at the present day—I mean the life of politics and the life of philosophy.”

Aristotle, Politics Book 7, describing his ideal constitution, philosophers and educated people rule, they have virtue (not by luck but by practice)

“For since the period of parentage terminates, speaking generally, with men at the age of seventy at the outside, and with women at fifty, the commencement of their union should correspond in respect of age with these times. But the mating of the young is bad for child-bearing; for in all animal species the offspring of the young are more imperfect and likely to produce female children,1 and small in figure, so that the same thing must necessarily occur in the human race also.”

Aristotle, Politics Book 7, talking about ideal marriages, shows that Aristotle thinks government should control everything even from birth to create “ideal” citizens

““Are you aware, then,” said I, “that there must be as many types of character among men as there are forms of government? Or do you suppose that constitutions spring from the proverbial oak or rock and not from the characters of the citizens, which, as it were, by their momentum and weight in the scales draw other things after them?”

“They could not possibly come from any other source,” he said.

“Then if the forms of government are five, the patterns of individual souls must be five also.”

“Surely.”

“Now we have already described the man corresponding to aristocracy or the government of the best, whom we aver to be the truly good and just man.”

Plato, Republic Book 8, Socrates and Plato’s brother; Socrates describing the five types of government and the people that make them up; “government of the best”: remember the “noble lie” where the men who rule are philosophers made of gold

“They do,” said I, “and such other trifles as these. The teacher in such case fears and fawns upon the pupils, and the pupils pay no heed to the teacher or to their overseers either. And in general the young ape their elders and vie with them in speech and action, while the old, accommodating themselves to the young, are full of pleasantry and graciousness, imitating the young for fear they may be thought disagreeable and authoritative.”

“By all means,” he said.

“And the climax of popular liberty, my friend,” I said, “is attained in such a city when the purchased slaves, male and female, are no less free than the owners who paid for them. And I almost forgot to mention the spirit of freedom and equal rights in the relation of men to women and women to men.”

Plato, Republic Book 8, Socrates and Plato’s brother; comparing equal rights to enslavement; ironic and sarcastic, the relationships between people deteriorate (pupil/teacher; man/wife); this is about the growth of tyranny out of democracy

noble lie

myth that everyone’s soul is made of metal; rulers: gold, warriors: silver, producers: iron or brass

Aristotle's goods

of body (beauty), of external (wealth, birth, friends), of soul (virtue)

politeia

Aristotle’s ideal city; city of citizens; but governing class must be knowledgable

“First therefore we must consider whether some regulation in regard to the boys ought to be instituted, next whether it is advantageous for their supervision to be conducted on a public footing or in a private manner as is done at present in most states, and thirdly of what particular nature this supervision ought to be.”

Aristotle, Politics

“For nobody would call a man ideally happy that has not got a particle of courage nor of temperance nor of justice nor of wisdom, but is afraid of the flies that flutter by him, cannot refrain from any of the most outrageous actions in order to gratify a desire to eat or to drink, ruins his dearest friends for the sake of a farthing, and similarly in matters of the intellect also is as senseless and mistaken as any child or lunatic. But although these are propositions which when uttered everybody would agree to, yet men differ about amount and degrees of value. They think it is enough to possess however small a quantity of virtue, but of wealth, riches, power, glory and everything of that kind they seek a larger and larger amount without limit.”

Aristotle, Politics

“We turn to those who, while agreeing that the life of virtue is the most desirable, differ about the way in which that life should be pursued. Some disapprove of holding office in the state, thinking that the life of the free man [20] is different from the life of politics and is the most desirable of any; whereas others think the political life the best life, for they argue that it is impossible for the man who does nothing to do well, and doing well and happiness are the same thing.”

Aristotle, Politics

“But since every political community is composed of rulers and subjects, we must therefore consider whether the rulers and the subjects ought to change, or to remain the same through life; for it is clear that their education also will have to be made to correspond with this distribution of functions. If then it were the case that the one class differed from the other as widely as we believe the gods and heroes to differ from mankind, having first a great superiority in regard to the body and then in regard to [20] the soul, so that the pre-eminence of the rulers was indisputable and manifest to the subjects, it is clear that it would be better for the same persons always to be rulers and subjects once for all; but as this is not easy to secure, and as we do not find anything corresponding to the great difference that Scylax states to exist between kings and subjects in India, it is clear that for many reasons it is necessary for all to share alike in ruling and being ruled in turn.”

Aristotle, Politics

““in case the people protests and says that it is not right that a grown-up son should be supported by his father, but the reverse, and that it did not beget and establish him in order that, when he had grown great, it, in servitude to its own slaves, should feed him and the slaves together with a nondescript rabble of aliens, but in order that, with him for protector, it might be liberated from the rule of the rich and the so-called ‘better classes,’¹and that it now bids him and his crew depart from the city as a father expels² from his house a son together with troublesome revellers?”

Plato, Republic

“for at that time, almost exactly as now, on the supposition that you had finished the description of the city, you were going on to say¹⁰ that you assumed such a city [543d] as you then described and the corresponding type of man to be good, and that too though, as it appears, you had a still finer city and type of man to tell of; but at any rate you were saying that the others are aberrations,¹ if this city is right.”

Plato, Republic

“And is it not true that in like manner a leader of the people who, getting control of a docile mob,¹⁶ does not withhold his hand from the shedding of tribal blood,¹⁷ but by the customary unjust accusations brings a citizen into court and assassinates him, blotting out¹⁸ a human life, and with unhallowed tongue and lips that have tasted kindred blood, banishes and slays and hints at the abolition of debts and the partition of lands“

Plato, Republic

““The allowing a man to sell all his possessions,¹ which another is permitted to acquire, and after selling them to go on living in the city, but as no part of it,² neither a money-maker, nor a craftsman, nor a knight, nor a foot-soldier, but classified only as a pauper³ and a dependent.””

Plato, Republic

“"Or the man," he says, "who has squandered his patrimony or other inheritance." For he believed that the man who has mismanaged his own household will handle the affairs of the city in like manner; and to the lawgiver it did not seem possible that the same man could be a rascal in private life, and in public life a good and useful citizen; and he believed that the public man who comes to the platform ought to come prepared, not merely in words, but, before all else, in life.”

Aeschines, Against Timarchus

“How has he administered his own property? He has devoured his patrimony, he has consumed all the wages of his prostitution and all the fruits of his bribery, so that he has nothing left but his shame.”

Aeschines, Against Timarchus

“I will explain to you the reason. It is because you enact the laws with no other object than justice, not moved by unrighteous gain, or by either partiality or animosity, looking solely to what is just and for the common good. And because you are, as I think, naturally, more clever than other men, it is not surprising that you pass most excellent laws. But in the meetings of the assembly and in the courts, you oftentimes lose all hold of the discussion of the matter in hand, and are led away by deceit and trickery; and you admit into your cases at law a custom that is utterly unjust, for you allow the defendants to bring counter accusations against the complainants.”

Aeschines, Against Timarchus

“three sorts of supporters, namely, are going to come into court to help the defendant: firstly, men who have squandered their patrimony by the extravagance of their daily life; secondly, men who have abused their youth and their own bodies, and now are afraid, not for Timarchus, but for themselves and their own habits, lest they one day be called to account; and still others from the ranks of the licentious, and of those who have freely associated with licentious men; for they would have certain men rely on their aid, and thus be the more ready to indulge in wrong-doing.”

Aeschines, Against Timarchus

“Furthermore, as a result of their possessions abroad and the tenure of magistracies which take them abroad, both they and their associates have imperceptibly learned to row; for of necessity a man who is often at sea takes up an oar, as does his slave, and they learn naval terminology. [20] Both through experience of voyages and through practice they become fine steersmen. Some are trained by service as steersmen on an ordinary vessel, others on a freighter, others -- after such experience -- on triremes. Many are able to row as soon as they board their ships, since they have been practising beforehand throughout their whole lives.”

Old Oligarch, Const. of Athenians

“And everywhere on earth the best element is opposed to democracy. For among the best people there is minimal wantonness and injustice but a maximum of scrupulous care for what is good, whereas among the people there is a maximum of ignorance, disorder, and wickedness; for poverty draws them rather to disgraceful actions, and because of a lack of money some men are uneducated and ignorant.”

Old Oligarch, Const. of Athenians

“If it seems advisable for their decisions not to be effective, they invent myriad excuses for not doing what they do not want to do. And if there are any bad results from the people's plans, they charge that a few persons, working against them, ruined their plans; but if there is a good result, they take the credit for themselves.”

Old Oligarch, Const. of Athenians

“They do not permit the people to be ill spoken of in comedy, so that they may not have a bad reputation;¹⁰but if anyone wants to attack private persons, they bid him do so, knowing perfectly well that the person so treated in comedy does not, for the most part, come from the populace and mass of people but is a person of either wealth, high birth, or influence. Some few poor and plebeian types are indeed abused in comedy but only if they have been meddling in others' affairs and trying to rise above their class, so that the people feel no vexation at seeing such persons abused in comedy.”

Old Oligarch, Const. of Athenians