Assignment:
Instructions: Consider an excerpt from the History of the Peloponnesian War of Thucydides (choose one of the options below). Analyze the main concepts and ideas presented in the text according to the specific guidelines in Options 1 and 2 below. Evaluate the validity of the arguments presented in the text. Support your arguments with concrete examples from the text.
OPTION 1: Pericles' funeral oration: What is democracy?
Reread Pericles' funeral oration in Thucydides 2.35-46, and answer the following question: What specific cultural values, lifestyle choices, and forms of social and political organization and functioning does Pericles consider an integral part of a democracy? In your answer to the question above, be sure to also address the following questions (not necessarily in the same order) and support your answer with the evidence from the text:
(1) If modern criteria of evaluation were applied to Pericles' view of democracy, would ancient Athens still be considered a democratic state?
(2) Are there gaps and/or flaws in Pericles' characterization of democracy?
(3) Do the main principles of democracy outlined by Pericles correspond to the modern (or your own) understanding of equality and justice?
(4) In what specific ways, according to Pericles, is Athenian democracy able to favor both individual rights and the interests of the community?
OPTION 2: The Realpolitik
of the Melian dialogue: Justice vs. Expediency.
Reread the Melian Dialogue in Thucydides 5.84-116. Imagine that you are an Athenian who attended a popular assembly in 416 BCE. The Athenian envoys have just reported on the course and results of the negotiations with the Melians. Imagine yourself going to the podium to defend one of the two opposing claims:
either
The Athenians' demand that Melos should become a part of the Athenian Empire is fully justified, it is the right course for the Athenians to force Melos into submission;
or
The Athenian arguments explaining their right to establish dominance over the Melians are flawed; it is not proper for the Athenians to force Melos into submission.
Be sure to refer to the specific arguments made by both parties, as presented in Thucydides. What are these arguments exactly? Are they valid or flawed in some way? Do the Athenian demands bear witness to disintegration of morals and democratic values of Athens or are they justified (at least to some degree), considering the circumstances? Remember, there is no right or wrong choice here.