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Xenophon, Critias and Theramenes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

S. Usher
S. Usher
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway College, University of London
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Extract

The speeches of Critias and Theramenes form the central tableau of Xenophon's account of the reign of terror of the Thirty at Athens in 404–3 B.C. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the style and content of these speeches, in order to discover to what extent they may have been based on the texts of the original speeches. The vividness and pathos of the narrative of the siege of Athens, her surrender, the establishment of the Thirty and their expulsion have seemed to some commentators to have the quality of personal reminiscence. Recently the case for Xenophon's having been a witness of some of the events of this period has been argued anew, and in the present writer's view convincingly, by E. Delebecque, who refers to several passages which seem to convey personal impressions of events. Delebecque also argues, to the satisfaction of Sir Frank Adcock, that Xenophon composed this part of the Hellenica before setting out on the Cyreian Expedition. The acceptance of both these theses would add some weight to the present argument; but the possibilities here envisaged do not depend upon their support.

According to Xenophon's account, both speeches were delivered before the βουλή. The members of this body had been chosen by the Thirty, so that it seems certain that they were men who were known to favour the oligarchy. But whatever were Xenophon's political views at the time, it is unlikely that he was old enough to be a member in 404 B.C. Hence it is improbable that he heard either speech. Four possibilities may therefore be considered:

(1) That the substance of the speeches was reported to him from memory by a member, who perhaps took special pains to remember some of the purple passages.

(2) That his informant took the speeches down in shorthand.

(3) That Xenophon obtained complete copies of the speeches, and condensed them. (Both speeches as they stand are too short to be historical.)

(4) That the speeches in the Hellenica are entirely the product of his imagination.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 88 , November 1968 , pp. 128 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1968

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References

1 Hell. ii 2.3–end.

2 See Büchsenschütz, , Xenophons Griechische Geschichte (Leipzig, 1876) 11Google Scholar; Schwarz, , Rhein. Mus. xliv (1889) 165Google Scholar; Luccioni, , Les Idées Sociales et Politiques de Xénophon (Ophrys, 1947) 11.Google Scholar

3 Essai sur la Vie de Xenophon (Paris, 1957) 61.

4 Op. cit. 29–39.

5 Thucydides and his History (Cambridge, 1963) 99.

6 Hell. ii 3.23.

7 Id. ii 3.11.

8 Thirty was the minimum age for membership (see Hignett, , Ath. Constit. 224Google Scholar); Xenophon was probably born around 427 B.C. (see Delebecque, op. cit. 23–4).

9 Hell. ii 3.16.

10 See Diels, , Fragmente der Vorsokratiker ii 308–329.Google Scholar

11 Xen. Mem. i 2.25; Justin v 9.15; Philostr. Vit. soph. i 16.

12 Hermog. Περὶ Ἰδεων 2, 11 (Rhet. Graec. Spengel ii 415, 27).

13 Arist. Rhet. iii 16.1416b, 26.

14 De Oratore ii 22.93; Dion. Hal. De Lysia 2.

15 Philostr. Vit. soph. ii 1.14.

16 Loc. cit.

17 Loc. cit.

18 The reliability of Hermogenes', judgments has been established statistically in a previous article, AJPh lxxxi (1960) 369–72.Google Scholar

19 Hermog. loc. cit.

20 Philostr. Vit. soph. i 16.

21 Hermog. op. cit. 1, 6 (Rhet. Graec. Sp. ii 292–3).

22 Hell. ii 3.24.

23 id. 29.

24 id. 32.

25 id. 34.

26 Arist. Rhet. iii 6.

27 Hell. ii 3.31.

28 id. 34.

29 id. 33.

30 Id. 25, 27, 28, 29, 33.

31 Id. 25, 26 (ἡμῶν αὐτῶν), 33, 34 (ὑμῶν αὐτῶν).

32 Cf. Lysias' use of τὸ πλῆθος τὸ ὑμέτερον (esp. in xiii, e.g. 1, 2, 9, 10, 16).

33 Anon. Περὶ Σχημάτων (Rhet. Graec. Sp. iii 144). It is thus related to σεμνότης (cf. Hermog. op. cit. Sp. ii 290, 17–18).

34 Hell. ii 3.24.

35 Its originality will be discussed below.

36 Id. 31.

37 Id. 32.

38 Id. 31.

39 Id. 33.

40 Id. 34.

41 Op. cit. 1, 12 (Sp. ii 330 ff.) κάλλος and ἐπιμέλεια are here not differentiated, but the relatively abstract meaning of the former seems to suggest that the latter is the means by which it is achieved.

42 Hell, ii 3.25.

43 Id. 33.

44 Id. 28; 29; 34.

45 Id. 25.

46 Id. 28.

47 Loc. cit. (337–8).

48 (24); (27); (34).

49 Id. 32.

50 Ibid.

51 Id. 33.

52 Id. 34.

53 Id. 28–9.

54 Diels, op. cit. 320–1.

55 Op. cit. 316–17; 323–5.

56 Cf. Cyrop. i 1.1, where the process of constitutional change is described without mention of violence.

57 See Vorrenhagen, E., De Orationibus quae sunt in X. Hellenicis (Diss. Elberfeld, 1926) 25–27.Google Scholar

58 See Ryffel, H., Μεταβολὴ Πολιτειῶν (Berne, 1949) 18, 44 ff.Google Scholar

59 See Diels, op. cit. ii 55B245, 249.

60 27–29.

61 See Diels, op. cit. 339 ll.19–21 and Gorgias, Palamedes 17 for contemporary views on treason.

62 A nautical metaphor survives in a fragment of Critias, Diek ii 81B6, l.20 (λιμένα).

63 The word occurs once only elsewhere in Xenophon, in a passage which could have been recently written (Hell. ii 3.15), when the author had Critias' speech in mind.

64 Diodorus Siculus implies that Critias' speech was long (xiv 4.5 πολλὰ κατηγορήσαντος).

65 Hell. ii 3.23. Their presence proved necessary (id. 50).

66 Cic. De Orat. ii 22.93: multa Lysiae sunt, nunnulla Critiae, de Theramene audimus. The distinction between Theramenes and the writers known to have survived seems plain. Radermacher, points out (Artium Scriptores [Vienna, 1951] 115)Google Scholar that Cicero could have said the same of Pericles, of whom there is a firm tradition that he wrote no political speeches.

67 Aristoph. Frogs 534 ff.

68 Proleg. Sylloge 34, 129–30, 327.

69 See Hudson-Williams, , ‘Political Speeches in Athens’ in CQ n.s. i (1951) 68–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

70 77, in which Theramenes is said to have reproached the returned exiles and those who had been given a share in the government.

71 Hell. ii 3.29–40.

72 Id. 36.

73 Id. 43, 47, 49.

74

75 Id. 41–2.

76 Id. 48.

77 Cf. the close verbal correspondence between Hell. ii 3.19 and Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 36.2Google Scholar (See Wilamowitz, , Aristoteles und Athen i 165–6Google Scholar).

78 Hell. ii 3.35.

79 Hell. i 7.5–6.

80 Hell. ii 3.38.

81 Id. 11.

82 Id. 41.

83 Id. 20.

84 Id. 37.