The Peloponnesian War
- Athens' strength grew after Greece defeated the Persian Empire, in which Athens played a pivotal role.
- Athens was beginning to rival and even surpass Sparta in power,
- Athens dominated the trade of Greece.
- Sparta and Corinth convinced many other states to fight against "the tyrant city".
- The Peloponnesian war began in 431 B.C.
- Pericles, tyrant of Athens opted to concede territories to the Spartans and her allies. He moved all Athenians within the city walls and executed Naval raids on the Spartans. He opted for a war of attrition. Unfortunately, the overcrowded city was decimated by a plague. Then Pericles died. Athens fell into the hands of ill-equipped demagogues
- In 415 B.C. Athens made the mistake of attacking Sicily and wasted troops and money. Within two years of the attack the mighty Athenian navy had been decimated.
- The war continued for ten years simply out of bitterness on the Athenian side.
The Old Oligarch
The Old Oligarch was an unknown author who criticized the Athenian democracy. He concluded that a state has to make a choice between freedom an good governance.
Aristophanes
- Criticized the Athenian democracy for being inefficient, indecisive and irresponsible
- Aristophanes was not as mild mannered in his criticisms as the Old Oligarch was
- Aristophanes preferred the country gentleman to the urban aristocrat. He hated ignorance wherever one lived, but despised the urban leaders of the Assembly for being disloyal and without piety, hell bent on destroying tradition
- Aristophanes attack on democracy: He hates the jury system of paying poor people to serve jury duty. While the jurors claim to be powerful, Aristophanes calls them slaves of the demagogues.
- Aristophanes' solution: He offers a communism, very similar to Plato's Utopia, with common houses, women and meals.
What War does to Man
Spartan idealism and Athenian idealism split cities in two. The aristocrats sided with sparta as the common man sided with Athens.
"War which takes away the comfortable provision of daily life is a hard master, and tends to assimilate men's characters to their conditions" (Jones, 54).
Intelligence is no longer a virtue.
Importance of political unity
Thucydides was shocked by the brutality and savagery of the war and even more so that it was a civil war in Hellas.
The unity of a city-state was a difficult achievement as men still held family and clan loyalties, which had held over since a more primitive time.
Class warfare between rich and poor also prevented city-state unity.
The polis played an integral part in every Greek's life and unity was a huge aspiration for every individual polis.
The "New" Man
The old man was a conservative like Aristophanes and held virtue as esteemed, loved a simple life, had respect for law, religion, customs and was deeply patriotic.
The New man, born of civil war was a tyrannical cynic. He was self-serving.
Euripides
Horrors of War: The Trojan Women
Early on, Euripides had been pro-Athens and anti-Sparta. He was patriotic and optimistic. The Trojan Women was a stark difference. He was no longer hopeful.
He believed in a moral order and that the moral order was a natural order. He held that the Greeks were violating that natural order.
He believed war to be futile.
He mentions a dichotomy between reason and passions. Passions lead to destruction.
The war shook his belief in the moral order and the existence of the gods. He doubts because of the war.
Euripides must have been a deeply religious man and his loss of faith must have been excruciating to him.
Euripides contrasted with Sophocles
Aeschylus (b. 525 B.C.) fought in the Persian War and believed religion to be benign and enlightening.
Sophocles (b. 495 B.C.) represents a belief in Athenian greatness. He believed in a transcendent divine law.
While Sophocles was only fifteen years older than Euripides, he was vastly different in his outlook on life.
The Dissolution of the Old Ideal
Egoism had destroyed the Greek unity of the polis and patriotism.
The passions here destroyed the Greek reliance on reason.
The orderliness of Greece decayed as the Civil War ground ever on.
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