For Tuesday April 07, 2015
Paul Woodruff: Thucydides On Justice Power and Human Nature:Human Nature Laid Bare in Civil War,” “Justice and Power: Acanthus and Melos”: pp. 89-109.
Video of Trireme Ship Sheds (Zea Harbour Project)
OUTLINE OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
0. How, where, and why did the oligarchic sympathizers at Corcyra commit suicide? 3.81
1. What were three of the reasons that there was so much killing on Corcyra? 3.81
2. How did the centrality of stasis change the way people used language during the Peloponnesian War? In other words, what examples does Thucydides give of how “they reversed the usual way of using words to evaluate activities”? 3.82
3. What does Thucydides consider to be the cause of all the evil stasis that beset the Greeks during this war? How does Thucydides distribute the blame between the democrats and the oligarchs? 3.82 (end)
4. What happened to those citizens who refused to side with one stasis or another on Corcyra? 3.82
5. What does Thucydides say about human nature and envy in the midst of stasis? 3.84
6. Where did the 500 oligarchic refugees from Corcyra go when they escaped? What did they do with their ships when they returned to the island, and why? 3.85
7. Why did the Athenians turn the Corcyrean oligarch refugees over to the Corcyrean democrats? What did the democrats do to them? 4. 47-48.
8. Why did some of the Corcyrean oligarchs commit suicide? 4. 47-48.
9. Why did the stasis on Corcyra finally come to an end? 4.48
10. Why did the Spartiate Brasidas want to speak to the people of Acanthus? Where is Acanthus? 4.84
11. What does Brasidas say is the purpose of his visit to Acanthus, and what reassurance does he give the people? 4.86
12. How does Brasidas address the issue of civil strife (stasis) in Acanthus? 4.86
13. What threat does Brasidas make if the Acanthians do not accept his offer of “freedom”? What decision to the Acanthians make, and why? 4.87
14. Where is Pylos? What happened at Pylos in 425? How was Cleon involved? [Summary, p. 100]
15. Where is Amphipolis? What happened at Amphipolis in 422. How were Cleon and Brasidas involved? [Summary, p. 100-101]
16. In the “Second Preface,” what does Thucydides say marked the end of the entire 27-year war?
17. What is Thycydides’ opinion of the “Peace of Nicias,” which he calls “the period of the treaty in the middle”? 5. 26
18. What does Thucydides say about oracles in the “Second Preface”? 5. 26
19. What autobiographical information does Thucydides reveal in the “Second Preface”? How does this information contribute to his credibility? 5. 26
20. Find Melos on a handy map of Greece. What is it near? Name two nearby lands or waters. What is their origin, and what are their political sympathies? 5.84
21. The Athenians in the Melian dialogue say that they will not use “moral arguments” to justify themselves. What do they do instead? 5.89
22. What do the Athenians say about Justice? 5.89
23. What choices do the Athenians offer the Melians? 5.92-95
24. Why won’t the Athenians allow the Melians to stay neutral in the war? And what argument do the Melians use to try to get the Athenians to leave them alone? 5.92-98
25. What do the Melians say about the gods and the Spartans? 5.104
26. What does nature compel both gods and men to do – that the Athenians say they are doing? 5.105
27. Why do the Melians believe that the Lacedaemonians will come to their aid? Why do the Athenians deny that they will? 5.107-110
28. What is the Melians’ final decision about alliance with Athens? 5.112
29. What happened during the siege of Melos, and how was the siege resolved? 5.114-116?
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