The Greatest Speech
In 431 BCE, the Athenian statesman Pericles delivered one of the most influential speeches of all time—a funeral oration.
It was the greatest speech for three reasons—it honored people who had served their city, it refocused Athenians on the road ahead, and—in its telling—gives us a snapshot of the Athens of the time.
Luck would have it that the historian Thucydides was among those who attended. In his telling, Pericles’ Epitaphs has endured for millennia as one of the most compelling descriptions of democracy in history.
Pericles, the first notable statesman of the ancient world, delivered the speech at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War (BC 431–404.) His oration honored the dead, but also praised democracy.
Lincoln consulted Pericles’ Oration before his Gettysburg address; so did Kennedy and Obama before theirs.
We’re once again a world at war—every single day we read of the violent effects of hate speech and fake news.
Humanity has been there many times before. We’d do well to remember “the form of government under which our greatness grew, and the national habits out of which it sprang.”
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To write his tale, Thucydides used the tools of evidence and objectivity to create a reliable historical record of the great war between Athens and Sparta. So we have the greatest speech by the first proper historian—a winning combination.
Before Pericles’ words inspired Athenians, the situation was dire. The war forced the people of Athens, including those from the countryside whose land was being pillaged by their enemies, to be in crowded conditions within the city walls.
And right before the Peloponnesian War started, citizens had to contend with a plague. Pericles himself eventually died from it. But before the plague took hold, people were dying in the war.
To be fair to Thucydides1, the historian had mixed feelings about democracy. His take was that under Pericles it was a good thing. But could be dangerous with some other leader.
The words in the recorded speech support the more positive stance.
On democracy
“Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.
If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition.
The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty.
But all this case in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.”
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Pericles makes three points about democracy:
People can advance because of merit rather than wealth or inherited class.
Citizens behave lawfully while doing what they like without fear of prying eyes.
There’s equal justice for all in private disputes.
Before the war with Sparta, Pericles had embarked on an ambitious program to strengthen democracy. He introduced reforms that allowed greater participation in government by the lower classes, including payment for jury service.
Under his leadership, Athens experienced momentous cultural and architectural growth. Pericles initiated the construction of the famous Parthenon on the Acropolis. In his view, culture and thought were part of a city’s greatness.
Antithesis was the salient technique Pericles utilized in his speech. To create a clear contrast between Athens and its enemies he juxtaposed the freedom and openness of Athenian society with the rigid and oppressive nature of Sparta.
There was a differences in values and power-sharing between the two cities. Athens was a model of democracy and enlightenment not just in words, but in deeds. With the value of examples in hand, Pericles could reinforce the city’s moral superiority.
As the Romans during their most prosperous time would, Athens welcomed people from other places.
“We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality…”
Ordinary people had power.
“Advancement in public life falls to reputations for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit…our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters…at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.”
Athens had poetry, philosophy, theater, sculpture and art; Sparta just had the arts of killing and enslaving. There were slaves in Athens too, but Sparta had more slaves than citizens.
But though Pericles’ Oration is inspiring, it’s a small window in Thucydides’ history.
Courage in the face of reality
In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche praises Thucydides for he “has himself under control.” Thucydides was an important Athenian figure during the Peloponnesian conflict.
He was a general while one of the greatest Spartan commanders—Brasidas—was fighting in Thrace. He also lived some time on Sparta as well after being exiled by the Athenians. This allowed him to provide insight on the conflict while not being completely one sided.
“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest, but if it is judged worthy by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content.
In fine I have written my work not as an essay with which to win the applause of the moment but as a possession for all time.”
Thucydides 2,435 years ago
In his History, he takes readers all across the theaters of war—from event to event as they happened chronologically. This helps us grasp the spatial and temporal dimensions of the war.
His chronological choice emphasizes the limitations and conditions of warfare in the Ancient world—the (small) scale of warfare, natural boundaries and limitations, dependencies on seasonality and geography, the importance of community for survival, political tensions, and the mythical foundations of ‘poleis.’
Part of the book’s popularity is the parallel to the American Empire, prompting such devices as a ‘Thucydides Trap.’2 In Athens we see the rhetoric of empire—we must rule you because if we don’t someone will rule us.
Some of the parallels scholars pointed to America, like Athens:
Is a sea-based power (in the classical Halford Mackinder sense).
Believes in spreading democracy by force whether others want it or not.
Doesn’t really practice democracy.
History ends with Athens in chaos. Sparta could have exploited the situation and conquered most of Greece. They didn’t. Pericles is the main figure of his narrative.
He’s honest, “We dominate people at home so that others should not control us.”
More than a democracy, Athens is an empire. And the danger with empire is that when you lose it, your enemies smell blood. Pericles, “The empire you possess is now like a tyranny—dangerous to let go.”
Speeches highlight an ideal. They’re motivated. Life is complex and we are easily misled by the framing of the arguments. Thucydides regards history as being caused by the choices and actions of human beings. Which is why is not surprising that he finds himself exiled.
“I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis, and being present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs more closely.”
Thucydides 2,435 years ago
Athens and Sparta were at war. Their fight was physical, but the war enveloped an entire civilization—it was a war of culture and society and its ripple effects were felt for centuries.
The history of humanity continues, and we once again have to face those who want their own culture to dominate, who want to cancel the advancements in life—public and private—that ordinary people have made.
American democracy might be flawed.3 And it’s not in great shape in other parts of the world as well. But it beats the alternative by a wide margin. Democracy is most at risk where the indifference of the many makes room for the ignorance of the few.4
“The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.”
Thucydides
You may have noticed that the greatest speech was held at a mass funeral during a protracted war. Pericles was no saint, he understood that the realities of power that made the Golden Age of Athens possible might also bring it down.
His death marked the beginning of the decline of Athens since, as Thucydides reports, his successors were inferior to him. They preferred to indulge the plebs and pursued a costly militaristic policy.5
History will tell how we did.
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References:
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (Penguin Classics, translated by Rex Warner, 1972)
‘Understanding democratic decline in the United States,’ Vanessa Williamson, Brookings Institute (October 17, 2023)
Thucydides (c.460-400 BC) was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. His version of Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied by political theorists, historians, and students of the classics. As a historian, he developed an understanding of human nature to explain behavior in such crises as plagues, massacres, and wars.
Term popularized by American political scientist Graham T. Allison to describe an apparent tendency towards war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemony.
A democracy index created by EIU demoted America from a ‘full democracy’ to a ‘flawed’ one in 2016 (along with Greece, Israel, Poland, and Brazil.) It has kept that status ever since (source requires free trial to read further). Canada, Japan, and most of Western Europe are still classified as ‘full democracies.’
Political scientists Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky in How Democracies Die (Crown):
“The electoral road to breakdown is dangerously deceptive… People still vote. Elected autocrats maintain a veneer of democracy while eviscerating its substance. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts.”
Etymology first. c. 1200, ‘lack of wisdom or knowledge,’ from Old French ignorance (12c.), from Latin ignorantia ‘want of knowledge.’ Ignoration (1832) has been used in the sense ‘act of ignoring.’ Meaning—lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.
As an Italian, I don’t want to forget that Benito Mussolini’s march on Rome was a very small affair, comparatively. The Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) used the threat of violence to prevail over more conciliatory heads. After the surrender, October 28, 1922 marked year zero on the calendar. The use of the stick and castor oil became the early methods to ‘convince’ those who resisted. Things escalated from there.
The expedition to Sicily is the best known example.