The Rise of Athens

Theseus, the national hero of Athens For the story of the discovery of Theseus’s bones, Plut Thes 36 1–4 and Plut Cim 8 3–6.

“no sense of shame” Thuc 1 5 1.

“And now he lies buried” Plut Thes 36 2.

14. THE FALLING-OUT

The main sources are Thucydides and Plutarch’s lives of Pericles and Cimon, with help from Diodorus Siculus and, regarding constitutional reforms, Athenian Constitution. See Barnes for pre-Socratic philosophers discussed below.

a series of tremendous earthquakes We have no firm dates and scholars place the earthquakes at different times during the decade. I follow Cambridge Ancient History 5, p. 108.

Some young men and boys Plut Cim 16 5.

twenty thousand deaths according to one source Diod 11 63 1.

“all the ephe

bes” Plut Cim 16 4–5.

“when Pericleidas the Spartan came here” Ar Lys 1137–40.

“put Sparta’s interests” Plut Cim 16 8.

persuaded the assembly to send out an expeditionary force It is possible that there were two Athenian expeditions—ibid., 16 8.

four thousand hoplites Ar Lys 1143.

“grew afraid of the enterprise” Thuc 1 102 3.

“I am not, like some Athenians” Plut Cim 14 3.

“On a slight pretext” Ibid., 17 3.

“Let Cimon take his sister” Unpublished: see Oxford Classical Dictionary under Cimon.

the lost leader was soon forgiven Plut Cim 17 5.

he was lucky to have survived The account given here of Pericles’ education is indebted to Garland, pp. 58, 61–63, 102–4, 172.

“played the role of masseur”

Plut Per 4 1.

“His was a tongue” Ibid., 4 3. Timon of Phlius was the commentator.

“About the gods” DK80b4.

“man is the measure” DK80b1.

an eclipse of the sun Per 35 1–2.

self-preservation and ambition Ibid., 7 3.

“Elpinice, you are too old” Ibid., 10 5.

Ephialtes was kidnapped one night and murdered Diod 11 77 6.

a certain Aristodicus Plut Per 10 7.

“poisonous accusation” Ibid., 10 6.

a citizenship law Arist Con 26 3.

two obols a day Some say it was one obol a day.

up to twenty thousand citizens…were in receipt Hammond, p. 301. Arist Con 24 3.

“The poor, the men of the people” Xen Con 1 4. This document was probably written in the 420s and so too early for Xenophon. Its author has received the modern nickname of the Old Oligarch.

“everywhere on earth” Ibid., 1 5.

A broken inscription survives Fornara, p. 78.

many Athenians escaped For the Egyptian expedition, Thuc 1 104, 109–10.

“From the time when the sea” Sim Ep 45 1–4.

Peace of Callias Some dispute that the peace was ever agreed, but see Isoc Pan 117–18 and Plut Cim 13 4–5.

a Panhellenic congress Plut Per 17.

15. THE KINDLY ONES

Aeschylus’s Oresteia is the main source (I am indebted to Philip Vellacott’s translation, Penguin Classics, London, 1959). Also Connolly and Dodge’s The Ancient City and Garland’s Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks.

See Hall as well as Goldhill for a full account of Greek tragedy.

A watchman stands on the roof This opening section derives from Aesch Ag 1–39.

“tragedy, then, is an action” Arist Poet 3 4–8, 3 13 21–25, 28–30.

performed only once In the fourth century the quality of new tragedies declined in step with a loss of political energy in the Athenian polity. Revivals of the classics became popular.

Athens spent more on theater Plut Pre 349a.

as many as 1,500 persons were involved Garland, p. 182.

“Lysicrates, son of Lysitheides” Camp, p. 147.

“slices from the great banquet” Ath 8 347e.

“ships and ropes rotted” Aesch Ag 194–95.

“harness of necessity” Ibid., 218.

he that’s coming must be provided for Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, 1 5 71–72.

“As our guest, call this your home” Aesch Cho 707.

“Oh misery!” Ibid., 691.