Summary Of The Melian Dialogue

Without being either the ones who made this law or the first to apply it after it was laid down, we applied it as one in existence...and one that will endure for all time,” (Thuc., V, 105). The Athenians see no injustice in doing simply as their nature impels them to do. In fact, the Athenians see their offer of subjugation to the Melian people as more than reasonable, “What we will demonstrate is that we are here to help our empire and that there is salvation for your city in what we are now about to say, since we hope to rule over you without trouble and let both parties benefit as you are saved,” (Thuc., V, 91). Following their belief in doing what is necessary to strengthen themselves, even at the expense of others, is what brings Athens to Melos.

There was absolutely nothing that could set me apart from the sea of designer purses, overly expensive shoes, and cherry flavored lip glosses. In high school, it seems if you weren’t marginalized into a group or follow the status quo you were seen as the misfit. One day, I experienced an epiphany in the back of my Government class, I wasn’t content with the illusion of the perfect teen. I had acceptable grades, I was well liked by most of my student body; however, I couldn’t come to the terms that I neglected what really mattered to me. At home my family would describe me with words such as: “eclectic, unique and remarkable.”, but at school I conformed into a person with a lackluster personality. I reckon that college is a place where each student is not the same and has the ability to be their true selves without being judged. This being, another reason why I respect your institution on the importance of accepting different cultures and

Action from necessity is a constantly recurring theme in Thucydides’ The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. A sentiment used to explain the growth of the Athenian Empire which some Athenians espoused to an assembly at Sparta best quantifies necessity, “. . . we were necessarily compelled at first to advance the hegemony to where it is—especially by fear, and then by honor, and later by benefit.” (Selected Passages 1.75.3). This claim, referred to as the Athenian Thesis, is used to advance the two following implications: all states act with the motivations of fear, honor and interest and no one can condemn a state for doing so. The Athenian Thesis influences the way many of the Athenian elite structure their patterns of reasoning in both noticeable and subtle ways.

A reading of Thucydides’, Pericles’ Funeral Oration and The Melian Dialogue uncovers both contrasting and comparable viewpoints on Athenian politics, power, aims of war, and empire. Thucydides presents two differing characteristics of Athens, one as the civilizer in Pericles’ funeral oration and the other as an tyrant in the Melian dialogue. In the funeral oration delivered by Pericles during the first year of the war, the Athenian leader emphasizes the idealized personal image of the Athenians in regard to their constitution and good character. Pericles goes on to praise the Athenian democratic institution of Athens that contributes to their cities greatness; in Pericles’s own words, “The Athenian administration favors the many instead of few… they afford equal justice to all of their differences” (112, 2.37). This quote emphasizes the good character of the Athens’ to coax and encourage the Athenians to preserve and better their great empire into the future. On the other hand, in the Melian dialogue, this notion of justice and equality is irrelevant; one, because Athens compared to Melos, is the stronger of the two and thus, is more powerful. Further, Athens, will continue to acquire absolute power and build its empire by conquering Melos and whomever else stands in its way. Through Pericles’ funeral oration and the Melian dialogue, the following conclusions/themes will demonstrate both the changing and somewhat stable nature of Athenian policy with regards to empire,

In Athens, as we stand today, Metic are not allowed the right to own property, which, as we all know is crippling in our society. They are however forced to pay taxes. Taxed without rights to vote or to serve on our juries. They pay to be excluded. This willingness to remain in Athens as opposed to wherever they may have originated from, or where their parents may have originated from, should be taken as a compliment on our part. The city we run, is such that they are not only willing to stick around through that, but that they stuck with us through a losing war.

While in college, I will accomplish being focused, freely self-expressive, assertive, optimistic, and more outgoing. As a freshman, I am excited to venture out into this world of college, although I was nervous at first. I had never been on my own before and I grew accustomed to being

Thucydides also used other’s speeches as resources to show insight into the events occurring. He used the Melian dialogue to show the wit of the Athenians and illustrate their impulsive desire to conquer independent cities (Thucydides p. 102-108). This passage illustrates the beginning of the end for the Athenians. The Melians were a colony of the Lacedaemonians and did not take a side in the ongoing war, but Athens eventually probed them to war (Thucydides 102). This foreshadows the battle at Syracuse in which Athens went blindly into out of desire to simply slight the Spartans. Thucydides uses speeches to show insight to the people’s thoughts and to add foreshadowing to future events.

In The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides chronicles the events, battles, and democratic processes of the war between Athens and Sparta. Shortly after war broke out, Pericles delivered his funeral oration in honor of the courageous Athenians who already perished in battle. Through his funeral oration, Pericles reveals the true nature of Athenians. Ultimately, they were good natured since all the citizens of Athens willingly and dutifully served their country, and ultimately the common good; the structure of Athens and its government provided many outlets to do so. This relationship between the government and the people delineated itself as one of mutual reciprocity, seeing that the nature of Athenians directly correlated with

Making use of rhetoric devices and compromising the ideals of democracy breach the ideals of traditions in the Greek society. Unlike that in the “Clouds”, Thucydides does not show any sign of flaws of the traditional values.

The book written by Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, contains two controversial debates between distinguished speakers of Athens. The two corresponding sides produce convincing arguments which can be taken as if produced as an honest opinion or out of self-interest. The two debates must be analyzed separately in order to conclude which one and which side was speaking out of honest opinion or self-interest, as well as which speakers are similar to each other in their approach to the situation.

Daniel Mechenko HIS 1001 Professor Trumbach Paper 2 Sophism For many years, ancient Athens had been governed entirely by aristocrats with peasants contributing little to nothing to politics due to the imbalance of power. However, after the birth of democracy, which was implemented by Solon, the Aristocrats did not have as much power at their disposal relative to previous era. Peasants acquired the right to vote for their leaders, and because of this, an individual looking to obtain political power had to be a proficient orator in order to sway the citizens of Athens to elect him as a public official.

Compare and contrast Thucydides’ and Socrates’ analyses of the fate of Athenian democracy in war, of why the Athenians went to war, and of how and why they failed.

The Melian Dialogue presents the negotiations between the Athenians and the Melians regarding the imminent invasion and conquer of the island of Melos for expansion purposes. The Athenians give the Melians two options: surrender or be destroyed. From the negotiation, the Melians reasonably expect war and understand that the “contrary case, slavery” is a conceivable possibility (CCW 56). The Melians recognize that the Athenians are much stronger, however, they refuse to submit as subrogation is the outcome. In this instance, the Melians adopted a liberal perspective as they focused on the wellbeing of their civilization. The Athenians argued that the Melians “would have the advantage of submitting before suffering the worst, and we

The Melian Dialogue is a debate between Melian and Athenian representatives concerning the sovereignty of Melos. The debate did not really occur-the arguments given by each side were of Thucydides own creation. Thus it is reasonable to assume that we can tease out Thucydides' own beliefs. In this paper, I will first extract Thucydides views from the Melian Dialogue and then analyze whether or not these views are well founded.

Thucydides, in structuring the Melian Dialogue explicitly shows us that the Melos is a smaller and weaker nation in comparison to Athens however, the Melians’ illogicality of weakness to go up against Athens can somewhat justify the Athenians act of being greedy. The Athenians stresses the senselessness of resistance and the inescapably of capitulation but the Melians remain steadfast in their decision to be neutral and tries to shift the argument to issues of justice and hints at the possibility of human and divine assistance. The Athenians aware of the weakness of the Melians says, “Your strongest arguments depend upon hope and the future, and your actual resources are too scanty, as compared with those