Madness: a form of love

THUCYDIDES, II c. 460 - c. 400 B.C. Diotorus spoke at the assembly where the Athenaian's were re=considering their decree to kill all the men of Mytilene. He urged them to stay the executions. Cleon spoke first, and urged against it, at the same time attacking the habit of re-considerations which he said merely allowed speaker's to display their vanity. (III 38.2 -3, 27.3 -4). Diototus thus began by defending the propriety of the practice of re=deliberation about the city's affairs, which he called "the greatest things."  He warns that the city is harmed when speakers accuse one another (for instance, of being corrupted by moneY) because then fear deprives them of councelors. Speakers who make such accusations should not be permitted to speak. In a 'moderate city', no unsuccessful speakers should be dishonored or feel so. The Athenians, he says boldly, are so envious that they would reject what is manfestly the best advice for the city if they surspecte...

 THUCYDIDES c. 460-c. 400 B. C. Thucydides is the author of a single book, The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. He presents his "quest for truth" (I 20:3) as an account of a single political event, the twenty-seven-year war through which the Spartans and their allies brought down the Athenian empire. He claims that his study of it will be useful for those who seek clarity, not only about the war, but more generally about the past, and even about the future, which in his view will again resemble the past that he has brought to light. The book is littered with speeches by those who took part in the war, which speak to our own own moral and political concerns and add to the vivid presencing of it. They call upon us to take sides for and against them. It is by fostering these concerns that Thucydides makes us receptive to his claim of the war's universal significance. Thucydides himself, however, is very reticent about making explicit judgements. Just like in ...