Paul Woodruff: Thucydides On Justice Power and Human Nature
“The Sicilian Expedition,” “The Aftermath of the Sicilian Expedition”:Books 6, 7 and 8 pp. 111-160.
Due Thursday April 09, 2015.
Illustration: Arethusa, Fresh Water Nymph and Protectress of Syracuse, Surrounded by Dolphins. Minted after the Syracusan Land and Naval Victory over Athens, 413 BCE.
0. The Athenians wanted to invade Sicily, but did not want to appear as aggressors. What excuse did they come up with for their expedition? [Introduction, p. 111]
1. What did the Sicilians of Egesta want from the Athenians? Did their delegates tell the Athenians the truth about their resources? [Introduction, pp. 111-112]
2. Why was Nicias opposed to the Sicilian Expedition? Give at least three of his arguments. 6.9-14
3. Why, according to Thucydides, was Alcibiades eager to support and lead the Sicilian Expedition? 6.15
4. What reasons does Alcibiades give the Athenians for supporting him as commander, and in favor of the Sicilian Expedition? 6.16-18
5. How does Nicias’ speech about the magnitude of the Expedition backfire? What does he say, and what is the reaction of the Athenians? 6.19-26
6. What two alleged acts of impiety at Athens imperiled the Sicilian Expedition, and who was blamed for them? What does ‘hermokopia’ mean? What is the proper way to write ‘hermokopia’ in Greek letters? 6.27-29 [Summary, p. 123-124]
7. When the Syracusans hear about Athenian movements, Hermokrates makes a speech to them. What does he say? 6.33-34 [Summary, p. 124]
8. What is Athenagoras’ political position vis-à-vis Hermokrates? How does Athenagoras’s speech at Syracuse inject local politics into the question of a possible Athenian invasion? 6.35-40 [Summary, p. 124]
9. Why did the Athenians send a fast ship to get Alcibiades while he was commanding the Sicilian expedition? 6.53-54 [Summary, p. 125]
10. Thucydides interrupts his narrative to give an account of Aristogeiton and Harmodius. What is the reason for this digression, and what does this tell us about Thucydides as an historian? 6.53-54
11. What corrective does Thucydides offer to the traditional story of Harmodius and Aristogeiton? What does “tyrannicide” mean? 6.54-59
12. How did Alcibiades escape from the men who came to Sicily to arrest him? 6.61
13. What does Alcibiades say to the Spartans about Athenian democracy? 6.89
14. What does Alcibiades say about his love for Athens? 6. 92
15. Why did Nicias send messengers to Athens? Why did he give them a letter to the Athenians? 7. 8-10 [Summary, pp. 129-30]
16. What were the contents of Nicias’ letter to the Athenians? What was the Athenian reaction to his letter and his requests contained therein? 7.8-17 [Summary, pp. 129-30]
17. What problems did the Athenians encounter when fighting the Syracusans at night? How did the night battle come out? 7.42-45
18. In addition to being besieged by their enemies, what physical and mental problems afflicted the Athenian troops? 7.47
19. Why did Nicias not want to accept Demosthenes’ good advice to leave Syracuse, and what does this tell us about the character of the Athenians back in Athens? 7.48
20. What fatal weakness did Nicias show — in relation to the eclipse? 7.50
21. What emotions possess the Athenians in 7.55? How do these compare to those in the great battle that follows (7.71)? Why do you think that Thucydides concentrates on emotions so much in this book?
22. What emotions possess the Syracusans in 7.56? How does this contrast with those of the Athenians in the previous section?
23. Why were the Syracusans too drunk to follow up their victory over the Athenians right away? How does the Syracusan Hermocrates use dolos to compensate for this weakness? 7.72-73
24. What emotions does Thucydides describe as the Athenians leave their camp to retreat by land? How do these contrast with the splendor and glory of their setting out? 7.75
25. What does Nicias say about the gods to encourage the Athenians? 7.77
26. Why does Nicias tell his men that they are instantly a city wherever they settle, and conclude, “It is the men, you see, and not the walls or empty ships, that are the city”? 7.77
27. Why did Nicias turn himself over to Gylippos and the Spartans rather than to the Syracusans? 7.85
28. How did Nicias and Demosthenes die? 7.86
29. What was Thucydides’ attitude towards Nicias? 7.86
30. How did the Syracusans treat the men they imprisoned in the quarries? 7.87
31. Why does Thucydides call the Sicilian disaster “the greatest in all Greek history? 7.87
32. What were the emotions of the Athenians in Athens when the news of the Sicilian disaster arrived there? What actions did they take? 8.1
33. What were the reactions of the other Hellenes when they learned the news of the Sicilian disaster? 8.2 [p. 155]
34. How did the Persians become involved in the Peloponnesian War after the Sicilian disaster? [p. 155-156]
35. What happened to the government of Athens in 411? [p. 156]
36. What kind of government followed the collapse of the 400, and what was Thucydides’ opinion of it? 8.97 [p. 158-159]
37. Where was the final battle of the Peloponnesian War fought? Who won? What historian recorded this event? [p. 159]
38. What did the Spartans do to Athens after they defeated them? What historian recorded this event? [p. 159]
39. Who were the “30 Tyrants” of 404 BCE? When did the Athenians restore their democracy?
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