The Virtue of Thucydides’ Brasidas

Burns, Timothy W.

doi:10.1017/s0022381611000065

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Even the notoriously hesitant and laconic Spartans unleash their general Brasidas upon Thrace, where he assures the people of Acanthus that voluntary accession to Sparta will earn generous terms while interference with the project of liberation will force him to burn their crops for the sake of the greater good (Thucydides, 1996: 271). Although the direct clash between Cleon and Brasidas at Amphipolis results in both of their deaths, the Athenian rout exposes the hollowness of reputation compared to genuine nobility of spirit (see Burns, 2011: 516).…”

Section: Melian Dialoguementioning

confidence: 99%

Daring and deliberation: Virtue, rhetoric, and diplomacy in Thucydides’ account of the Athenian empire

Fleury

2018

Journal of International Political Theory

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In Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, the juxtaposition between the speeches in defense of the Athenian empire and their political effects uncovers critical insights into the need for rhetoric to balance the tasks of domestic enthusiasm and diplomatic interaction. In Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles boasts that Athens has perfected “daring and deliberation,” having built an empire through courageous deeds while maintaining a democracy in which competing interests and perspectives receive a fair hearing. These qualities justify Athenian supremacy, but actually maintaining it instead calls for Athens to be cautious and for its subjects to accept the status quo without question. As Athens perceives a decline in its wartime fortunes, it struggles to preserve a reputation for daring and deliberation without undertaking actions that would falsify its self-representation. Its virtues become a substitute for its interests, so that it can no longer act with either morally or prudently. The declining effectiveness of Athenian rhetoric speaks to Thucydides’ teaching that warfare, while presenting an opportunity for a city to display its greatest traits, is far more likely to corrupt them, which requires that orators reconcile the city’s sense of its own righteousness with the realities of its situation.

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Section: Melian Dialoguementioning

confidence: 99%

Daring and deliberation: Virtue, rhetoric, and diplomacy in Thucydides’ account of the Athenian empire

Fleury

2018

Journal of International Political Theory

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“…See, e.g.,Burns (2011).14 Similarly, Aristotle intertwines alikeness at the level of common opinions to what is likely in the future (e.g.,Aristotle 1984Aristotle : I, 1, 1355.…”

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The Thucydidean Brink

Aaltola

2020

Democratic Vulnerability and Autocratic Meddling

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The Thucydidean Brink PEOPLES' social networks, especially in the democratic West, have been radically altered, even reconfigured. The patterns of acknowledging and recognizing authority-both political and scholarly-have turned from a relatively hierarchic orientation (where authority is recognized to reside "at the top," as, for example, in the political elite or expert community) toward a shape that is characterized by more nonhierarchic or horizontal-i.e., peer group-flows. A major contributor to these transformations has been the effect of social practices enabled by social media platforms. This has opened up the space for new types of politicians, politically expressed emotions, and patterns of identification. New ways of campaigning for elections have opened up avenues for large-scale external influencing of Western democracies. These new politically expressive practices further feed the polarization of citizens. Political regression at home-the weakening of widely shared social bonds and common identifications-has become possible in new, qualitatively different, and even politically empowering ways. Furthermore, this disruptive agitation opens up vectors for external powers to meddle and disrupt based on their own regressive motivations.In many ways, President Donald J. Trump's election campaign in the 2016 presidential election was a clear watershed. Meddling in elections by external actors is not a novelty as such. However, it became clearly recognizable in the new methods used by these actors during and in the dramatic aftermath of the 2016 elections. The Trump campaign utilized

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Thucydides and Social Processes: Beyond Tragedy

Koutsoukis

2023

International Political Theory

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The Virtue of Thucydides’ Brasidas

Cited by 4 publications

References 15 publications

Daring and deliberation: Virtue, rhetoric, and diplomacy in Thucydides’ account of the Athenian empire

Daring and deliberation: Virtue, rhetoric, and diplomacy in Thucydides’ account of the Athenian empire

The Thucydidean Brink

Thucydides and Social Processes: Beyond Tragedy

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