The historian Thucydides described himself as a wealthy Athenian general whose exile to the Peloponnese allowed him to personally observe, from both the sides of the conflict, a comprehensive account of the Peloponnesian War. Book 1 in Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War” is dedicated to explaining over fifty years of the events and proceedings that led to the abandonment of the Thirty Year’s Peace and subsequent war. In Book 1 he identifies four main incidents, which I shall refer to as ‘grievances’, regarding the conduct of Athens towards both their Delian members and the Peloponnesian allies. Yet he also mentions what he deems to be a more ‘real’ truth than these four grievances that led to Sparta and the Peloponnese going to
Thucydides’ placement of Perikles’ “Funeral Oration” followed by the account of the plague is in every sense a “dramatic juxtaposition”[1]. The deliberate binary opposition of logos and ergon, and nomos and physis between the speech and plague makes these two events the antithesis of his work. With both the eulogy and the narrative that follows, the reader should understand a point of truth in human nature, and teach them something that time with never change, the past gives way to the events of the future. In his writing, Thucydides uses words and phrases to contrast Perikles’ speech with the plague in such a jarring way.
“Fetal Tissue Fallout, R. Alta Charo, J.D., September 3, 2015” In this article R. Alta Charo states that we have a right to use fetal tissue for research and therapy (Fetal Tissue, 1) The article goes into how a lot of people find this to be a moral issue and a matter of the conscience and explains how the antiabortion activist that don’t agree with the research are actually benefitting from the fetal tissue. They argue that the research supports abortions but have taken part in receiving vaccines and therapy that comes from the research. R. Alta Charo begins by talking about the argument over the antiabortionist activist who pretended to be a research company representative and gave out false, edited information from a Planned Parenthood video that goes over the services they provide.
Around 460 BCE a man named Thucydides lived to experience and record the historical storyline the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was an Athenian, unbiased, historian that is best known for the way he structurally reconciled information from the Peloponnesian War and is credible for the most reliable source that chronicled the war. The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient epic poem regularly deemed as the first great work of literature, gives civilization a definition to the people of ancient Mesopotamia (Earth of Its Peoples, 26). Gilgamesh, the ultimate leader of Uruk, pursues immortality throughout his journey, exemplifying his power and educating himself on humankind along the way. If a fellow Athenian were to recite the Epic of Gilgamesh to Thucydides, he would likely
Although Pericles’ words strived to inspire and encourage the Athenian people to fight valiantly against Sparta and its allies, they are not enough to embolden the Athenian people onto victory in the Peloponnesian War. His words do motivate Athenians to make tremendous effort in extending their power and defeating Sparta and its allies, but in the end, may have lead to Athenians’ demise. Fostering pride and determination throughout the war, Athens makes several attempts to expand its naval power, but fails in its plan to overtake Syracuse on the coast of Sicily, weakening its efforts against Sparta and its allied city-states. Finally, in the naval battle at Aegospotami, the Spartans have a decisive victory over Athens, and the Athenians eventually surrender, ending the Peloponnesian War.
As a world-renowned Athenian historian and general, Thucydides famed history The Peloponnesian War recounts some of Athens’ and other Greeks’ most telling moments world powers. Thucydides, unlike his predecessor Herodotus, approaches his history with a generally detached and serious tone, yet his opinion does shine through his writing at times. Perhaps, the Athenians’ Sicilian Expedition (415 BCE- 413 BCE) sections in the histories features the most of Thucydides’ opinion on a particular subject sneaking into the text. The Sicilian Expedition began with Athens’ distant Sicilian allies seeking help from Athens for civil strife, and Athens eventually agreed to assist and sent numerous ships and troops under the command of Nicias, Alcibiades,
Pericles,who was a general and statesmen in Athens, successfully maximized the Delian League showcasing Athenian imperialism. He won battles that arranged Sparta and Athens into a peace treaty. During this time Pericles advanced democracy in Athens allowing for the first time officials to be paid. Also during this time, he became a supporter for the arts and architecture that Athens developed. During the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles was elected by the state to give a speech over the fallen soldiers.
Much of Athenian life and politics was based on stories of Athenian history. These historical events shaped the way and life of Athenian actions. Yet what happens when the histories that become integral aspects of Athens are based on inaccuracies? The history of Harmodius and Aristogeiton and the impact that it had on Athens was so deep that it led to the catastrophe that was the trials surrounding the defacement of the statues of Hermes. However, Athenian misunderstanding of the situation brings into question the legitimacy of Athenian democracy as a whole, something Thucydides uses his retelling of Harmodius and Aristogeiton to convey.
The analysis showed that Myrtis and two other bodies in the mass grave had died of typhoid fever during the Plague of Athens in 430 BCE.” (Myrtis). Stories like Myrtis’ are very common. Not only did the Plague kill many citizens, but it altered society then and now, causing Athens to lose the Peloponnesian War. The Plague of Athens contributed
How does fear influence a person’s individual actions and decisions? In most cases, extreme fear makes people act in an emotional way, whether that be good or bad. Thucydides takes this human nature characteristic one step further and argues that humans act out of self-interest. This human nature plays an imperative role in the function of a Democracy. The unique aspect of democracy is that power lies with the people.
Plague of Athens In ancient times when ever there was a new disease it devastated the population. The Athenians of ancient Greece where no different from any other people in those regards. Due to the Peloponnesian War in which Sparta was attacking Athens, the crowded city environment was the perfect breeding ground for one such pestilence. The cramped living quarters, lack of fresh water, and proper disposal of waste only helped to spread the virus.
The full text is the History of the Peloponnesian War, which suggests that Thucydides was not only documenting the happenings of the plague in Athens, but also the happenings of the war in general. Therefore, this text should also be regarded as documentation of what happened in Athens when the plague hit. Thucydides claims that the reason the plague came to Athens was because the Peloponnesians who poisoned the water. Moreover, Thucydides does more than identify the sickness in his passage. He also takes note of how the plague came to Athens as well as the behaviour of the people when the plague
In deeper analysis, Malaria, Yellow Fever, and Smallpox have occurred for over 4,000 years and is known for greatly impacting humans and their history during the Antebellum era. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlighted in the beginning of the article, “Malaria became widely recognized in Greece by the 4th century BCE, and it was responsible for the decline of many of the city-state populations”. Since our medical resources weren’t available to individuals during the Antebellum era, they were able to infer when a person contracted malaria by analyzing their blood. They could also tell when individuals caught this said disease because they would show symptoms of fevers every third day, and the releasing of merozoites in our bloodstreams. Towards the end of the Yellow Fever epidemic, over 5000 individuals were dead.
The major diseases that affected the people in this assigned population and time period are small pox, measles, malaria, influenza, typhus and numerous of other diseases that killed thousands of people often in tandem. Nonetheless, with the foreigner’s arrival the course of history change; to begin with, the aching bones, high fever, burning chest, abdominal pain, consumption, and the headaches all erupted as signs, symptoms, and threats to mortality (Anderson, 2007, p. 148). However, an ancient idea regarding the causation and spread of diseases contemplated that air did not act as a medium for the spread of disease; rather air itself contained miasma or pollutant. Still, medical science deals with the human body in terms of health and its
A demagogue, defined by Michael Signer, is a “political figure who fashioned themself as [a] leader of the masses and who would go to almost any extreme to hold and expand their power” (2009, p. 20) . This is not a new idea. As M. I. Finely covers in their work “Athenian Demagogues,” the writer Thucydides discussed the demagoguery of the fall of Athens in the 400s B.C. Many other nations throughout history have also been exposed to this system of power. In America, this term, since 2011 , began to gain relevance as Donald J. Trump, of television and business fame, rose to power as the forty-fifth president of the United States.
