Pericles of Athens (53 page)

49.
See Sommerstein 2004, 145–174.

50.
See Scholium to Aristophanes,
Acharnians
, 67; and Suda,
s.v. Euthumenēs
: it was during the archonship of Euthymenes (437/6 B.C.) that “the decree forbidding
comic personal attacks [
to psēphisma to peri tou mē kōmōidein
], passed under Morychides [440/439 B.C.] was abrogated.”

51.
See Lenfant 2003b.

52.
The fact that the demagogue Cleon was mocked by Aristophanes in the
Knights
did not prevent him being elected
stratēgos
a few weeks later by the very same Athenians who had vociferously applauded Aristophanes’
play. See Dover 1989, lvi.

53.
See Saetta Cottone 2005; and Stark 2004.

54.
See earlier,
chapter 3
.

55.
See Dover 1988a; Hunter 1993, 96–119 (“The politics of reputation: gossip as a social
construct”).

56.
See, for example,
Pericles
, 6.2, 8.3, 13.5, 16.7, 24.3, 24.6, 28.5, 30.1, and 31.2.

57.
Demosthenes,
On the Embassy
(19), 122: “because the situation was not yet stable and the future was uncertain,
the Agora was full of groups and gossip of every kind.”

58.
See, for example, Xenophon,
Memorabilia
, I.2.1.

59.
See, for example, Demosthenes,
Against Callimachus
(18), 9; Lysias,
Against Pancleon
(23), 2. See Ober 1989, 148.

60.
See Aeschines,
Against Timarchus
(1), 128–129; Demosthenes,
On the Embassy
(19), 253. Their disagreement concerned, not the status of rumor, but the people
incriminated by it.

61.
Against Timarchus
(1), 127–128. Rumor was the object of a cult in Athens, possibly ever since Cimon’s
victory at Eurymedon, in the early 460s. See Parker 1996, 155–156 and 233–234.

62.
Plato,
Laws
, 838c. See Bertrand 1999, 329–336, esp. p. 329.

63.
Detienne 2003, 70–77 (citation, p. 77).

64.
Aeschines,
Against Timarchus
(1), 129.

65.
Accept rumor, even when unfounded: that is precisely what Aristides does when he
writes his own name on an an ostracism potsherd, in response to a request made by
a fellow who does not know him but says he is irritated by his reputation as a just
man who is “royal and divine” (Plutarch,
Aristides
, 7.1–7).

66.
See, for example, Plato,
Protagoras
, 319c.

67.
Applause: Demosthenes,
Against Midias
(21), 14; and Aristophanes,
Assembly of Women
, 427–436. Protests: Aeschines,
Against Ctesiphon
(3), 224. Whistles: Xenophon,
Hellenica
, 6.5.49. Laughter: Aeschines,
Against Timarchus
(1), 80–84; Thucydides, 4.27.5. See Bers 1985; and Wallace 2004b, 223–227.

68.
Roisman 2004, 265.

69.
Villacèque 2013, 268-276.

70.
Pericles
, 14.2. See Tacon 2001, 183.

71.
Thucydides, 2.60.1–5. See Ostwald 1986, 200–201.

72.
Gomme 1956 (ad loc.).

73.
Plato,
Republic
, VI, 492c. See earlier,
chapter 9
.

74.
Ober 1998, 190.

75.
See earlier,
chapter 9
.

C
HAPTER
11. P
ERICLES IN
D
ISGRACE
: A L
ONG
S
PELL IN
P
URGATORY
(15
TH TO
18
TH
C
ENTURIES
)

 
1.
Voltaire 1765, 270–276 (“Périclès, un Grec moderne, un Russe”)—even though the editors
doubted the authenticity of the dialogue and instead attributed it to François Arnaud
Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard (1732–1817), a publicist and the son-in-law of the publisher
Panckouche, who was a royal censor and a member of the Académie Française.

 
2.
Rico 2002, 19.

 
3.
The date is certain, as S. Baldassarri has shown in his edition of the work (Bruni
2000, xv–xvii).

 
4.
Roberts 1994, 122–123.

 
5.
See Rawson 1969, 138.

 
6.
Montaigne 1877, vol. 2, 42–43 (
Essays
, II, 4).

 
7.
Ibid., vol. 2, 111 (
Essays
, II, 10:
On Books
).

 
8.
In 1566, Jean Bodin, in
La méthode de l’histoire
(Bodin 1941, 49) referring to Plutarch, exclaimed admiringly, “What could elude such
wisdom?”

 
9.
See earlier, introduction.

10.
Thucydides was translated again (badly) into French by Jean-Louis de Jassaud in 1600,
before becoming the object of the “faithless beauty” by Nicolas Perrot d’Ablancourt,
in 1662, which was an extremely free translation with numerous omissions.

11.
See Starobinski 1985, 14–17.

12.
Grell 1993, 138.

13.
See later in
chapter 12
, the section titled “The Periclean Myth at Its Peak.”

14.
See Castellaneta and Camesasca 1969, plate LI. Here, Pericles is the very embodiment
of temperance, urging these men who handle money to be as incorruptible as the
stratēgos
himself.

15.
See, for example, Machiavelli, preface to
The History of Florence
[1525], in Machiavelli 1965. See Roberts 1994, 129.

16.
Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius
[1512–1517], in Machiavelli 1882, vol. 2, 102.

17.
Ibid., vol. 2, 258.

18.
Consolatoria, Accusatoria, Difensoria
(1527), in Guicciardini 1867, 111 and 222 (author’s translation).

19.
See Roberts 1994, 125–126.

20.
On Carlo Sigonio, see Ampolo 1997, 16–19; and Cambiano 2003, 168–169.

21.
Sigonio 1593, 480: “tum vero Aristides, qui plurimum ex iis bellis auctoritatis erat
adeptus, et post eum, vir manu et lingua promptus, Pericles popularem hunc reip. statum
amplificarunt, cum omnia plebi et imperitae multitudini tradiderunt, quibus Solonis
legibus ei fuerat interdictum” (author’s translation).

22.
Ibid., 483: “Pericles populum mercede plebi ad iudicandum, et ad locos in theatris
ludorum causa emendos assignata insolentiorem, atq; arrogantiorem effecerit, & per
Ephialtem summam illam Areopagi potentiam labefecit” (author’s translation).

23.
See Baron 1968, 117–118.

24.
Bodin 1945, 237–238.

25.
Bodin 1606, 261 (book III, chap. 1).

26.
Ibid., 430 (book IV, chap. 1 ; modernized spelling).

27.
Ibid., 531–532 (book IV, chap. 7).

28.
Montaigne 1877
,
405 (book I, chap. 51 : “Of the vanity of words”).

29.
Ibid.

30.
Ibid.

31.
Hartog 2005, 172.

32.
Spon 1678, vol. 2, 147. See Pébarthe 2010b, 464–465.

33.
See Grell and Michel 1988.

34.
Hartog 2005, 203–204.

35.
See Saladin 2000.

36.
Grell 1995, 379–380.

37.
Chronologiae ex nummis antiquis restitutae
and
Prolegomena ad censuram veterum scriptorum
(1696). See Grell 1995, 409.

38.
Perrault 1693, vol. 1, part II, 206 (modernized spelling).

39.
Perrault 1697, vol. 4, 319–320.

40.
In the
Parallèle des anciens et des modernes
, in justification of the Quarrel, Perrault chose to cite Pericles’ funeral oration
in the translation produced by Nicolas Perrot d’Ablancourt, in order that readers
could pass judgment as objectively as possible.

41.
Fontenelle 1730, 93–94.

42.
The
Dialogues des morts
by Fénelon appeared in successive waves. The first four were published as early as
1700, but it was not until 1712 (the year of the death of the duke of Burgundy) that
a collection of forty-five further dialogues appeared. After Fénelon’s death, the
corpus of dialogues progressively grew until its definitive form was reached with
the publication of the
Oeuvres complètes de Fénelon
in the so-called Versailles edition, in 1823. It contained seventy-nine dialogues,
of which fifty-one were between ancient characters and twentyeight were between modern
ones.

43.
Alcibiades
, 7.3. See Diodorus Siculus, 12.38.

44.
Fénelon 1760, 80–81.

45.
The following dialogue picks up the same theme, again presenting Pericles as a warmonger
encouraged by Alcibiades. Pericles makes a more discreet
appearance in dialogue LV, which sets Louis XI, the symbol of a scheming tyrant, against
Cardinal Bessarion, the embodiment of a clerical scholar buried in his books. The
Athenian Pericles is once again the emblem of bombastic and, above all, outdated rhetoric.

46.
See Schlatter 1945, 351.

47.
Johnson 1993, 214.

48.
Hobbes 1989, 569–586: “On the life and history of Thucydides.”

49.
Ibid., 572.

50.
Ibid., 572–573.

51.
See Schlatter 1975, 14. Hobbes returns to a similar argument in the dedication that
he had written for his patron, Sir William Cavendish: “To Sir William Cavendish” in
Hobbes 1989, xx: he recommends reading Thucydides “for that he had in his veins the
blood of kings.”

52.
Hobbes 1839, LXXXVIII, l. 80–83 (
Thomas Hobbes Malmesburiensis Vita Carmine Expressa
).

53.
Dabdab Trabulsi 2006, 169.

54.
Hartog 2005, 78.

55.
Grell 1995, vol. 1, 498.

56.
Grell 1993, 136–137. However, Thucydides was restored to the taste of the time by
Charles Rollin, as P. Payen has shown. See later,
chapter 12
.

57.
D’Alembert 1893, 77 and 85.

58.
Johnson 1992, 149–157.

59.
Montesquieu 1989, 43 (
The Spirit of the Laws
, V, 3). See Cambiano 1974; and Nelson 2004, 155–194.

60.
Montesquieu 1989, 10–15 (
The Spirit of the Laws
, II, 2). See Mossé 1989, 56–58.

61.
Montesquieu 1989, 115 (VIII, 4) and 113 (VIII, 2).

62.
See, for example, Montesquieu 1989, 363 (XXI, 7): “The fine institutions of Solon.”
Similarly, in the article devoted to “Athens” in the
Encyclopédie
, Jaucourt has eyes only for the Athens of Solon: he suggests that the decline of
the city began almost immediately after the Persian Wars. See also his article, “Démocratie”
(
Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers
, V [1754], 816–818) and the remarks of Roberts 1994, 169–170.

63.
See Nippel 2010, 94; and Pébarthe 2010b, 465.

64.
Turgot,
Tableau philosophique des progrès successifs de l’esprit humain
, 11 December 1750, in Turgot 1913, 214–235, citations p. 225.

65.
On the quarrel about luxury, see for example Johnson 1992; and Ross 1975.

66.
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences
[1761], in Rousseau 1997a, 11.

67.
Ibid.

68.
A Discourse on Political Economy
[1761], in Rousseau 1997b, 8.

69.
Last Reply
, in Rousseau 1997a, 75 and note.

70.
See Guerci 1979, 182–183.

71.
Mably 1784, 80.

72.
Ibid., 88.

73.
Ibid., 89–90 (a passage not translated in the English version). Only in a short note
at the bottom of the page does Mably deign to recognize a degree of virtue in the
stratēgos
: “It must be acknowledged to the honour of Pericles that whatever works of Greece
either in architecture, sculpture or painting have commanded
the admiration of after ages were the fruit of his Government and of the attention
bestowed by him upon the most elegant subjects” (p. 92 and note).

74.
Ibid., 90. The English version considerably weakens and waters down the expression
used by Mably, when it translates “Cet adroit tyrant d’Athènes” (this adroit tyrant
of Athens) as “This Leader of the people.”

75.
Ibid., 103.

76.
Mably 1769, preface, “Life of Phocion.” See also Roberts 1994, 162–165.

77.
Mably 1769, 117–118.

78.
Barthélemy 1806.

79.
Vidal-Naquet 2000, 214.

80.
On the genealogy of this formula, see later,
chapter 12
.

81.
Barthélemy 1806, 268–269.

82.
Ibid., 269–270.

83.
Ibid.

84.
Ibid., 271. “In proportion as Pericles augmented his power, he was less lavish of
his influence and his presence. Confining himself to a small circle of relations and
friends, he was supposed to be solely occupied with plans for the pacification or
disturbance of Greece” (ibid.).

85.
Ibid., 272.

86.
Ibid., 274.

87.
Ibid., 329.

88.
Ibid., 330.

89.
Barthélemy 1806, 153.

90.
Ibid., 331.

91.
Ibid., 161.

92.
See Vidal-Naquet 1995, 90.

93.
See Mossé 1989, 88.

94.
Volney 1800, 169.

95.
See the remarks of Dubuisson 1989, 38, based on the study by Bouineau 1986: 2,597
explicit mentions of Rome as against 1,575 for Greece, while the implicit allusions
show an even greater imbalance.