Thucydides Accounts of the Degradation of Athenian Honor

Thucydides account of the Peloponnesian war served as a window into Athenian societal culture. Carrying the reader from Pericles moving speech to the assembly, through Cleon and Diodotus oratory battle over the fate of Mytilene, and finally to the Athenian proposal to the Melians, Thucydides detailed the transformation of Athens from a state based on justice and freedom to a empire with a corrupted soul. This corruption did not occur over night, but was the result of increasing tyrannical behavior by the part of Athens in its interactions with other Greek city states. The stages of this development can be analyzed into three parts: Pericles war speech, the dialogue on Mytilene, and the Melian debate. Pericles speech was propagated by the horn of war against the Lacedaemonians. In the midst of the conflict, the Athenians called an assembly to determine their course of action. Their choices were to either agree to Spartas demands, which included dismantling the siege of Potidaea, freei ng Aegina from their rule, and cancelling their embargo of Megara, or war. At this juncture, the prime Athenian statesman, Pericles, presented his advice: never give in. For Pericles, Athens can never subjugate itself to any power and must fight for its autonomy. In order to win the war, Athens must focus on its people and avoid mistakes. They cannot base their campaign on saving their property, but keeping the integrity of their forces. This stance is exemplified as Pericles said,Show MoreRelatedEssay The Greek Economy2993 Words   |  12 Pagesevidence on Greek civilization comes from literary works. The majority of which comes from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle. While they cover all aspects of the Greek world, they concentrate more on political, military and diplomatic history, in particular, that of Athens. This gives us a biased and prejudiced view of both the own author’s opinions and that of the Athenian society. As such, any evid ence must be treated with caution, and while we cannot say with complete