The Rise of Athens

Socrates, as he really was It is hard to know what Socrates was like and what he believed. Plato and Xenophon, our two sources, give inconsistent accounts, which probably reflect how their very different personalities interacted with Socrates, rather than factual disagreements. Plato’s early dialogues probably throw the brightest light on their “cool, distant, reticent and ironic” (Oxford Classical Dictionary, p. 1419) subject.

“The unexamined life is not worth living” Plato Apol 38a.

One day Socrates came across him Diog Laer 2 6 48.

“Socrates was always in the public eye” Xen Mem 1 1 10.

a shoemaker called Simon Sellars, pp. 207ff.

Unlike Gorgias, who claimed to know everything Plat Gorg 447d.

“is the perpetual possession” Plato Symp 206A.

“bringing forth such notions” Ibid., 210c.

“By gazing upon the vast ocean”

Ibid., 210d.

“a beauty whose nature is marvelous” Ibid., 211a–b.

Men have been kept as captives Plato Rep 514a–520a for the allegory of the cave.

wore his hair long Ath 12 534C.

“Good evening gentlemen” Plato Symp 212e–213b.

“If I compliment anyone but him” Ibid., 214d.

“mass of imperfections” Ibid., 216a.

19. DOWNFALL

Thucydides (books 6 and 7) remains the main source for the war, supplemented by Diodorus Siculus. Towards the end he hands over the baton to Xenophon’s much less adequate Hellenica

. Plutarch also continues the life stories of Alcibiades and Nicias.

At dawn on a fine June day The description of the fleet’s departure is taken from Thuc 6 30–32 and Diod 13 3.

“This expedition…was by far and away” Thuc 6 31 2.

“Now we can wank and sing” Ar Pe 289–90.

“The Spartans have not kept their oaths” Sommerstein, p. 230.

a celebratory ode Plut Alc 11 2.

“The Hellenes expected to see our city” Thuc 6 16 2 and 3.

He married well The story of Alcibiades’ marriage and alleged plan to kill Callias is told in Ando Alc 4 13–15 and Plut Alc. Some argue that the Andocides speech is a forgery, but see Raubitschek. Even if it is spurious it contains truths. Such accounts, which place Alcibiades in a poor light, are not improbable and are consistent with what we know of his public career.

A third-century poet wittily remarked Bion, c. 325–c. 250. See Diog Laer 4 49.

Divorce seems to have been uncommon See Cohn-Haft.

Venus de Milo

The statue is to be found today in the Louvre museum in Paris.

a debate between spokesmen Thuc 5 84–116.

“It is a necessary law of nature” Ibid., 5 105 2.

“Dear, lifeless lips” Eur Troj 1180–85. I use Philip Vellacott’s translation, Euripides, The Bacchae and Other Plays, Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, 1954.

an execrable poet Ar Frogs 86ff.

“to conquer the whole of the island” Thuc 6 6 1.

“Cleon in hyperbole” Bury, p. 459.

“no great expectation” Plut Alc 17 4. See also Plut Nic 13 6.

Scattered throughout Athens stood Herms Rubel, pp. 74–99.

“exaggerated the whole thing”

Thuc 6 28 2.

A contemporary who later admitted to having played a part Ando Alc 16. The man was Andocides. His testimony must be treated with caution, for he was defending himself years later in a courtroom speech. But there is little doubt that he is voicing here widespread fears. The real perpetrators of the defacement of the Herms and the mock Mysteries were never identified beyond doubt.

Lamachus, an elderly man Plut Alc 18 1.

“Thessalus, the son of Cimon” Ibid., 22 3.

“six perfume bottles” IG I³ 421h.

“I’ll show them that I am still alive” Plut Alc 22 2.

“I will render you services” Ibid., 23 1.

“when they saw him” Ibid., 23 3.

resold into servitude at rock-bottom prices Hell Ox 17 4.

“Every single thing the city needed” Thuc 7 28 1–2.

“kept on sitting around” Plut Nic 14 4.