Pericles of Athens
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43. Plutarch, Pericles, 35.4, mentions a fine of 15 or 50 talents; Diodorus Siculus, 12.45.4, for his part, records a sum of 80 talents. See Podlecki 1998, 51. While the nature of the charges indicates a rendering of accounts (theft, misappropriation of funds), the timing—in mid-mandate—suggests, rather, a trial for high treason.
44. Ephorus, FGrHist 70 F 196 (= Diodorus, 12.38.3–4): “As he had used for his own personal purposes [idiai] quite a large part of the sum [from the treasury of the Delian League that had been transferred to Athens] he was asked to explain this, but he fell ill and was incapable of providing a justification.”
45. Brenne 1994, 13–24. See Plutarch, Cimon, 4.7.
46. Hall 2006, 388.
47. See earlier, chapter 7, the section titled “Pericles and Aspasia” (for the critics of his relationship with Aspasia).
48. Information relating to these censure issues has been collected and examined by Halliwell 1991.
49. See Sommerstein 2004, 145–174.
50. See Scholium to Aristophanes, Acharnians, 67; and Suda, s.v. Euthumenēs: it was during the archonship of Euthymenes (437/6 B.C.) that “the decree forbidding comic personal attacks [to psēphisma to peri tou mē kōmōidein], passed under Morychides [440/439 B.C.] was abrogated.”
51. See Lenfant 2003b.
52. The fact that the demagogue Cleon was mocked by Aristophanes in the Knights did not prevent him being elected stratēgos a few weeks later by the very same Athenians who had vociferously applauded Aristophanes’ play. See Dover 1989, lvi.
53. See Saetta Cottone 2005; and Stark 2004.
54. See earlier, chapter 3.
55. See Dover 1988a; Hunter 1993, 96–119 (“The politics of reputation: gossip as a social construct”).
56. See, for example, Pericles, 6.2, 8.3, 13.5, 16.7, 24.3, 24.6, 28.5, 30.1, and 31.2.
57. Demosthenes, On the Embassy (19), 122: “because the situation was not yet stable and the future was uncertain, the Agora was full of groups and gossip of every kind.”
58. See, for example, Xenophon, Memorabilia, I.2.1.
59. See, for example, Demosthenes, Against Callimachus (18), 9; Lysias, Against Pancleon (23), 2. See Ober 1989, 148.
60. See Aeschines, Against Timarchus (1), 128–129; Demosthenes, On the Embassy (19), 253. Their disagreement concerned, not the status of rumor, but the people incriminated by it.
61. Against Timarchus (1), 127–128. Rumor was the object of a cult in Athens, possibly ever since Cimon’s victory at Eurymedon, in the early 460s. See Parker 1996, 155–156 and 233–234.
62. Plato, Laws, 838c. See Bertrand 1999, 329–336, esp. p. 329.
63. Detienne 2003, 70–77 (citation, p. 77).
64. Aeschines, Against Timarchus (1), 129.
65. Accept rumor, even when unfounded: that is precisely what Aristides does when he writes his own name on an an ostracism potsherd, in response to a request made by a fellow who does not know him but says he is irritated by his reputation as a just man who is “royal and divine” (Plutarch, Aristides, 7.1–7).
66. See, for example, Plato, Protagoras, 319c.
67. Applause: Demosthenes, Against Midias (21), 14; and Aristophanes, Assembly of Women, 427–436. Protests: Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon (3), 224. Whistles: Xenophon, Hellenica, 6.5.49. Laughter: Aeschines, Against Timarchus (1), 80–84; Thucydides, 4.27.5. See Bers 1985; and Wallace 2004b, 223–227.
68. Roisman 2004, 265.
69. Villacèque 2013, 268-276.
70. Pericles, 14.2. See Tacon 2001, 183.
71. Thucydides, 2.60.1–5. See Ostwald 1986, 200–201.
72. Gomme 1956 (ad loc.).
73. Plato, Republic, VI, 492c. See earlier, chapter 9.
74. Ober 1998, 190.
75. See earlier, chapter 9.
CHAPTER11. PERICLES IN DISGRACE: A LONG SPELL IN PURGATORY (15TH TO 18TH CENTURIES)
1. Voltaire 1765, 270–276 (“Périclès, un Grec moderne, un Russe”)—even though the editors doubted the authenticity of the dialogue and instead attributed it to François Arnaud Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard (1732–1817), a publicist and the son-in-law of the publisher Panckouche, who was a royal censor and a member of the Académie Française.
2. Rico 2002, 19.
3. The date is certain, as S. Baldassarri has shown in his edition of the work (Bruni 2000, xv–xvii).
4. Roberts 1994, 122–123.
5. See Rawson 1969, 138.
6. Montaigne 1877, vol. 2, 42–43 (Essays, II, 4).
7. Ibid., vol. 2, 111 (Essays, II, 10: On Books).
8. In 1566, Jean Bodin, in La méthode de l’histoire (Bodin 1941, 49) referring to Plutarch, exclaimed admiringly, “What could elude such wisdom?”
9. See earlier, introduction.
10. Thucydides was translated again (badly) into French by Jean-Louis de Jassaud in 1600, before becoming the object of the “faithless beauty” by Nicolas Perrot d’Ablancourt, in 1662, which was an extremely free translation with numerous omissions.
11. See Starobinski 1985, 14–17.
12. Grell 1993, 138.
13. See later in chapter 12, the section titled “The Periclean Myth at Its Peak.”
14. See Castellaneta and Camesasca 1969, plate LI. Here, Pericles is the very embodiment of temperance, urging these men who handle money to be as incorruptible as the stratēgos himself.
15. See, for example, Machiavelli, preface to The History of Florence [1525], in Machiavelli 1965. See Roberts 1994, 129.
16. Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius [1512–1517], in Machiavelli 1882, vol. 2, 102.
17. Ibid., vol. 2, 258.
18. Consolatoria, Accusatoria, Difensoria (1527), in Guicciardini 1867, 111 and 222 (author’s translation).
19. See Roberts 1994, 125–126.
20. On Carlo Sigonio, see Ampolo 1997, 16–19; and Cambiano 2003, 168–169.
21. Sigonio 1593, 480: “tum vero Aristides, qui plurimum ex iis bellis auctoritatis erat adeptus, et post eum, vir manu et lingua promptus, Pericles popularem hunc reip. statum amplificarunt, cum omnia plebi et imperitae multitudini tradiderunt, quibus Solonis legibus ei fuerat interdictum” (author’s translation).
22. Ibid., 483: “Pericles populum mercede plebi ad iudicandum, et ad locos in theatris ludorum causa emendos assignata insolentiorem, atq; arrogantiorem effecerit, & per Ephialtem summam illam Areopagi potentiam labefecit” (author’s translation).
23. See Baron 1968, 117–118.
24. Bodin 1945, 237–238.
25. Bodin 1606, 261 (book III, chap. 1).
26. Ibid., 430 (book IV, chap. 1 ; modernized spelling).
27. Ibid., 531–532 (book IV, chap. 7).
28. Montaigne 1877, 405 (book I, chap. 51 : “Of the vanity of words”).
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Hartog 2005, 172.
32. Spon 1678, vol. 2, 147. See Pébarthe 2010b, 464–465.
33. See Grell and Michel 1988.
34. Hartog 2005, 203–204.
35. See Saladin 2000.
36. Grell 1995, 379–380.
37. Chronologiae ex nummis antiquis restitutae and Prolegomena ad censuram veterum scriptorum (1696). See Grell 1995, 409.
38. Perrault 1693, vol. 1, part II, 206 (modernized spelling).
39. Perrault 1697, vol. 4, 319–320.
40. In the Parallèle des anciens et des modernes, in justification of the Quarrel, Perrault chose to cite Pericles’ funeral oration in the translation produced by Nicolas Perrot d’Ablancourt, in order that readers could pass judgment as objectively as possible.
41. Fontenelle 1730, 93–94.
42. The Dialogues des morts by Fénelon appeared in successive waves. The first four were published as early as 1700, but it was not until 1712 (the year of the death of the duke of Burgundy) that a collection of forty-five further dialogues appeared. After Fénelon’s death, the corpus of dialogues progressively grew until its definitive form was reached with the publication of
the Oeuvres complètes de Fénelon in the so-called Versailles edition, in 1823. It contained seventy-nine dialogues, of which fifty-one were between ancient characters and twentyeight were between modern ones.
43. Alcibiades, 7.3. See Diodorus Siculus, 12.38.
44. Fénelon 1760, 80–81.
45. The following dialogue picks up the same theme, again presenting Pericles as a warmonger encouraged by Alcibiades. Pericles makes a more discreet appearance in dialogue LV, which sets Louis XI, the symbol of a scheming tyrant, against Cardinal Bessarion, the embodiment of a clerical scholar buried in his books. The Athenian Pericles is once again the emblem of bombastic and, above all, outdated rhetoric.
46. See Schlatter 1945, 351.
47. Johnson 1993, 214.
48. Hobbes 1989, 569–586: “On the life and history of Thucydides.”
49. Ibid., 572.
50. Ibid., 572–573.
51. See Schlatter 1975, 14. Hobbes returns to a similar argument in the dedication that he had written for his patron, Sir William Cavendish: “To Sir William Cavendish” in Hobbes 1989, xx: he recommends reading Thucydides “for that he had in his veins the blood of kings.”
52. Hobbes 1839, LXXXVIII, l. 80–83 (Thomas Hobbes Malmesburiensis Vita Carmine Expressa).
53. Dabdab Trabulsi 2006, 169.
54. Hartog 2005, 78.
55. Grell 1995, vol. 1, 498.
56. Grell 1993, 136–137. However, Thucydides was restored to the taste of the time by Charles Rollin, as P. Payen has shown. See later, chapter 12.
57. D’Alembert 1893, 77 and 85.
58. Johnson 1992, 149–157.
59. Montesquieu 1989, 43 (The Spirit of the Laws, V, 3). See Cambiano 1974; and Nelson 2004, 155–194.
60. Montesquieu 1989, 10–15 (The Spirit of the Laws, II, 2). See Mossé 1989, 56–58.
61. Montesquieu 1989, 115 (VIII, 4) and 113 (VIII, 2).
62. See, for example, Montesquieu 1989, 363 (XXI, 7): “The fine institutions of Solon.” Similarly, in the article devoted to “Athens” in the Encyclopédie, Jaucourt has eyes only for the Athens of Solon: he suggests that the decline of the city began almost immediately after the Persian Wars. See also his article, “Démocratie” (Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, V [1754], 816–818) and the remarks of Roberts 1994, 169–170.
63. See Nippel 2010, 94; and Pébarthe 2010b, 465.
64. Turgot, Tableau philosophique des progrès successifs de l’esprit humain, 11 December 1750, in Turgot 1913, 214–235, citations p. 225.
65. On the quarrel about luxury, see for example Johnson 1992; and Ross 1975.
66. Discourse on the Arts and Sciences [1761], in Rousseau 1997a, 11.
67. Ibid.
68. A Discourse on Political Economy [1761], in Rousseau 1997b, 8.
69. Last Reply, in Rousseau 1997a, 75 and note.
70. See Guerci 1979, 182–183.
71. Mably 1784, 80.
72. Ibid., 88.
73. Ibid., 89–90 (a passage not translated in the English version). Only in a short note at the bottom of the page does Mably deign to recognize a degree of virtue in the stratēgos: “It must be acknowledged to the honour of Pericles that whatever works of Greece either in architecture, sculpture or painting have commanded the admiration of after ages were the fruit of his Government and of the attention bestowed by him upon the most elegant subjects” (p. 92 and note).
74. Ibid., 90. The English version considerably weakens and waters down the expression used by Mably, when it translates “Cet adroit tyrant d’Athènes” (this adroit tyrant of Athens) as “This Leader of the people.”
75. Ibid., 103.
76. Mably 1769, preface, “Life of Phocion.” See also Roberts 1994, 162–165.
77. Mably 1769, 117–118.
78. Barthélemy 1806.
79. Vidal-Naquet 2000, 214.
80. On the genealogy of this formula, see later, chapter 12.
81. Barthélemy 1806, 268–269.
82. Ibid., 269–270.
83. Ibid.
84. Ibid., 271. “In proportion as Pericles augmented his power, he was less lavish of his influence and his presence. Confining himself to a small circle of relations and friends, he was supposed to be solely occupied with plans for the pacification or disturbance of Greece” (ibid.).
85. Ibid., 272.
86. Ibid., 274.
87. Ibid., 329.
88. Ibid., 330.
89. Barthélemy 1806, 153.
90. Ibid., 331.
91. Ibid., 161.
92. See Vidal-Naquet 1995, 90.
93. See Mossé 1989, 88.
94. Volney 1800, 169.
95. See the remarks of Dubuisson 1989, 38, based on the study by Bouineau 1986: 2,597 explicit mentions of Rome as against 1,575 for Greece, while the implicit allusions show an even greater imbalance.
96. Dubuisson 1989, 33.
97. Robespierre 1967, 444.
98. See Mossé 1989, 92–93 and 124–125.
99. Billaud-Varennes, “Rapport du 1 floréal an II (20 avril 1794),” in Le Moniteur, II, no. 212: 860.
100. Saint-Just 1791, II, 5.
101. That was how P. Buonarroti saw it (Buonarroti 1828, 5): “The former [the Girondins and the ‘Indulgents’] sighed for the riches, superfluities and splendour of Athens; the latter desired the frugality, simplicity and modesty of the glory days of Sparta.”
102. Buchez and Roux 1836, 394.
103. Mossé 1989, 136.
104. Ibid., 139.
105. Ibid., 147. Already in Year II, Camille Desmoulins was singing the praises of Thrasybulus, calling him “the restorer of peace”: Desmoulins 1825, 72 [Le Vieux Cordelier, no. 4]; and Desmoulins 1825, 90–91 [Le Vieux Cordelier, no. 5].
106. Bouineau 1986, 106.
107. Buchez and Roux 1834,108.
108. Ibid., 118.
109. In the end, the Assembly passed a motion of compromise: “The right of peace and of war belongs to the Nation. War will be decided only by a decree from the Legislative Body following a formal and necessary proposal from the king, which must then be sanctioned by His Majesty.”
110. Hansen 1992, 18.
111. Federalist Papers, no. 6.
112. This association between Pericles and warfare persisted in the decades that followed. So, in 1803, when Hamilton wanted to proclaim that, for the French party of Louisiana, war was ineluctable, he, logically enough, chose the pseudonym Pericles. See Adair 1955, 285–287.
113. Grégoire 1977, 45. See Mossé 1989, 113.
114. Moniteur, Year II, no. 20, 860.
115. Grégoire 1977, 182.
116. Volney 1800, 171.
117. Ibid., 174–175.
118. Ibid., 178 (cited by Vidal-Naquet 1995, 99).
119. Vidal-Naquet 2000, 229.
120. Desmoulins 1825, 124 [Le Vieux Cordelier, no. 6 Nivôse an II, December 1793].
121. Ibid., 148.
122. Ibid., 157 [Le Vieux Cordelier, no. 7, February–March 1794].
123. Ibid., 153–154 [Le Vieux Cordelier, no. 7, February–March 1794].
124. Baudot 1893, 210. As Rawson 1969, 297, points out, Baudot’s Latin is altogether revolutionary!
125. Baudot 1893, 311.
CHAPTER12. PERICLES REDISCOVERED: THE FABRICATION OF THE PERICLEAN MYTH (18TH TO 21ST CENTURIES)
1. See, for example, the titles of Cloché 1949; Flacelière 1966; Mossé 1971, 43–66; and Maffre 1994. English-language scholarship speaks of “The Age of Pericles”: Watkiss Lloyd 1875; Robinson 1959; and Samons II ed. 2007. The Germans, for their part, evoke the “Perikleische Zeitalter”: see, in particular, Schmidt 1877.
2. Arnaud-Lindet 2001, 130–131.
3. Bodin 1945, 287.
4. See earlier, chapter 11.
5. Frederick had wanted his text to appear anonymously. Having entrusted his text to Voltaire, he changed his mind when Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia died, on 31 May 1740. Then, once on t
he throne, Frederick decided to prevent the appearance of his book, which nevertheless did appear after numerous corrections and rewritings. See Aizpurua 1994.
6. Frederick II of Prussia 1846–1856, book VIII, 304 (author’s italics).
7. On the importance of the work of Rollin, see later in this section.
8. Voltaire, Age of Louis XIV [1751], in Voltaire 1901 (vol. 12), 5.
9. Voltaire 1901 (vol. 12), 1–2. See Mortgat-Longuet 2006.
10. Voltaire 1784–1789 (vol. 66), lettre XLV, 108 (letter dated 28 October 1772).
11. See Mat-Hasquin 1981, 148. Unlike Rousseau, Voltaire had nothing but disdain for frugal Sparta and, in A Philosophical Dictionary (1764), in the article on “Luxury” (in Voltaire 1901 [vol. 6], 157), he exclaimed, “What benefit did Sparta confer on Greece? Had she ever a Demosthenes, a Sophocles, an Apelles or a Phidias? The luxury of Athens formed great men of every description. Sparta had certainly some great captains, but even these in a smaller number than other cities. But allowing that a small republic like Lacedaemon may maintain its poverty, men uniformly die, whether they are in want of everything or enjoying the various means of rendering life agreeable.”
12. Condillac, Cours d’études pour l’instruction du prince de Parme [1775], cited in Condillac 1798, 283 [Histoire ancienne, II, 5].
13. See Guerci 1979, 219.
14. Saint-Lambert 1765, 765.
15. Rollin 1790.
16. See Payen 2007b, 191; and Payen 2010.
17. Rollin 1790, vol. III, book 7, chap. 1, section 7, 204.
18. Ibid., section 10, 217.
19. Ibid. A few chapters further on, Rollin also deplores the detachment shown by Pericles at the deaths of those close to him: “Exceeding error! Childish illusion! Which either makes heroism consist in wild and savage cruelty; or, leaving the same grief and confusion in the mind, assumes a vain exterior of constancy and resolution, merely to be admired. But does martial bravery extinguish nature?” (Rollin 1790, vol. III, book 7, chap. 3, section 2, 279).
20. Rollin 1790, vol. III, book 7, chap. 1, section 11, 217–218.
21. See earlier, introduction.
22. Rollin 1790, vol. III, book 7, chap. 1, section 11, 218 (author’s italics).
23. Ibid., chap. 1, section 11, 230, n. 1.
24. Ibid., chap. 3, 283. See Thucydides, II, 65.
25. Lévesque 1811, preface, xx.
26. See Vidal-Naquet 1995, 108, citing Lévesque 1811 (vol. 3), 25.