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Sunday, February 17, 2019

088 - Thucydides and Periclean Politics



In this episode, we discuss the life, influences, drawbacks, and positives of the “Father of Scientific History”, Thucydides (ca. 460-395 BC); the nature of Athenian politics and of political organizations in the time of Pericles; and the domestic political scene in Athens in the late 440s and early 430s BC, including the ideological clash between Pericles and the conservative Thucydides (not the historian) and the series of personal and judicial attacks on Pericles and his three closest associates (Phidias, Aspasia, and Anaxagoras)

447 BC - the decree of Pericles authorized the immediate use of 5,000 talents (and a further 3,000 talents later) on his building program; the building of the Parthenon began
444 BC - the pro-democratic Pericles and pro-oligarchic Thucydides clashed multiple times in the ekklesia over the way that Pericles was spending state money, as he considered it immoral to use allied phoros to finance an Athenian building program
443 BC - the Athenians voted to ostracize Thucydides over Pericles; possible date of the Old Oligarch's The Constitution of the Athenians
440 BC - Aspasia and Pericles had a son (Pericles the Younger) out of wedlock
440-439 BC - The Samian war; Aspasia became very unpopular as it was believed that she persuaded Pericles to intercede on behalf of her home city, Miletus, against Samos
438 BC - Phidias completed his great statue of Athena Parthenos for the Parthenon that was worth 100 talents of gold and ivory
437 BC - Draconides moved a decree, requiring Pericles to deposit the financial accounts for his building program with the Prytaneis of the Boule; Pericles' enemies prosecuted Phidias unsuccessfully for embezzlement but successfully on a charge of impiety for representing himself and Pericles on the shield of the statue of Athena Parthenon; Aspasia was also charged with impiety (unsuccessfully) on unspecified grounds; Diopeithes brought forward a decree, authorizing that atheism and "teaching about the heavens" were to be considered public crimes, probably directed against the philosopher Anaxagoras

Sunday, February 3, 2019

087 - Rhetoric and the Sophists



In this episode, we describe the development of rhetoric in the ancient Greek world as an art that could be studied and employed in the law courts and politics, and its importance especially in Classical Athens; the roles and various opinions of the Sophists, who were lecturers that traveled from city to city, teaching not only rhetoric but also all of the other subjects that were not being covered by traditional education; and the lives, influences, writings, and various theories put forth by the earliest Rhetoricians and Sophists, including Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiphon, Hippias, Prodicus, and Thrasymachus, as well as synopses on four of Plato's dialogues (Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias Major, and Hippias Minor)

Earliest Rhetoricians and Sophists:
Korax and Tisias of Syracuse (fl. mid-5th century BC)

Protagoras of Abdera (ca. 490-420 BC)
Gorgias of Leontini (ca. 485-375 BC)
Antiphon of Rhamnous (ca. 480-411 BC)
Hippias of Elis (ca. 460-400 BC)
Prodicus of Keos (ca. 465-390 BC)
Thrasymachus of Chalcedon (ca. 459-400 BC)