The Plutarch Podcast

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Full Show Notes Available at https://plutarch.life/phocion

Season 4 is brought to you by Hackett Publishing - Use the coupon code PLUTARCH for 20% off and free shipping at hackettpublishing.com
Roman Parallel - Cato the Younger (95–46 BC)

Phocion was three years old when Socrates died in 399 and then lives through the reigns of Philip, Alexander, and dies under Cassander's takeover of Athens. Though less well-known than his contemporary, Demosthenes, Plutarch wants us to remember him as a political leader who did the best he could with a bad situation.
Key Vices and Virtues

• Bravery (ἀνδρεῖος) - Phocion tempers it with caution, but leads in person up to and past the age of 80!
• Justice (δικαιοσύνη) - Phocion's realism that Athens does not have the power to resist the Macedonians makes him a great, if still ignored, advocate for justice. He wants to preserve the peace and harmony of the city, while receiving as fair a deal as he can for Athens, which will be conquered by an army four times in his life.
• Moderation (σωφροσύνη) - Sometimes also translated as “prudence,” this is not only the virtue that keeps Phocion from accepting any bribes, but also the virtue he tries to give to the Athenian people in their erratic behavior to their Macedonian overlords. His wife also practices this virtue, but his son never learns it from either parent (cf. Plato's Meno which examines whether or not virtue can be taught and looks at famous leaders whose sons did not have the same virtues as their fathers).
• Austerity (αὐστηρόν) - Not one of Aristotle's virtues, but one Plutarch takes pains to highlight. Whether it's walking barefoot, wearing fewer clothes than necessary, or controlling even things like laughter and crying, Phocion struck everyone as toughest first on himself, and then only secondarily hard on others.
• Simplicity (ἀφελείᾳ) - While the ancient Greeks (and Romans) never considered poverty a virtue as the Christians later did, there was a respect for the simplicity of knowing your limits. This knowledge of what is necessary for life makes Phocion (and his wife, see section 19) reliable and incorruptible.

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Check out what I'm up to this summer and fall and see if you can learn some Greek and Latin with me.
Full Show Notes Available at https://plutarch.life/timoleon
Season 4 is brought to you by Hackett Publishing - Use the coupon code PLUTARCH for 20% off and free shipping at hackettpublishing.com
Important People

Timophanes - Timoleon’s brother and the first tyrant we meet in this story. His name, rather fittingly, means "seems honorable."

Dionysius II - The tyrant whom Dion overthrew, but did not execute. He returns to power after Dion’s death only to be replaced by Hicetas.

Hicetas - The tyrant who replaces Dionysius II, who had allied with the Carthaginians to gain power. Starting out allied with the Corinthians, he becomes Timoleon’s main enemy in the fight to free Syracuse.

Mago - Carthaginian general allied with Hicetas and leading a formidable navy. He’s the first Carthaginian general to “capture” Syracuse, though it’s Hicetas who hands the city over.

Plato - Though dead by the time Timoleon comes to power, he haunts this dialogue both in its analysis of tyranny and its understanding of justice.

Key Virtues and Vices

Justice (δίκη - dikē) - Plutarch argues (30.9) that Justice preserved Timoleon’s good fortune. With this in mind, it’s helpful to remember that Dion didn’t have the same good fortune, though he seems to have deserved it. Perhaps he stepped off the road of Justice and Plutarch allows us to decide where and when. Timoleon also puts justice and honor over convenience (5.1), his brother acts without justice (4.5) when he becomes tyrant, and Timoleon not only acts justly (5.1; 10.7; 29.6), but physically restores the courts of justice (22.3) to the democracy of Syracuse that before had to rely on the whims of the tyrant.

Gentleness (πραότης - praotēs) - Though not mentioned often, it's important for us to remember that this is a virtue listed explicitly in Aristotle's Ethics and one that Plutarch takes great interest in for his characters. Timoleon is introduced to us as gentle (3.4), but not with tyrants and base men. We're also told at the end that he dealt gently and justly with friends (37.5), but boldly and powerfully against barbarians (i.e. Carthaginians in this case). See Plutarch's "On the Moderation of Anger" or Aristotle's Ethics Book 4, Ch. 5 (1125b35) for a more thorough discussion of this virtue and its most obvious excess: anger.

Wisdom (φρονήσις - phronēsis) - Especially on the heels of Dion’s life, Timoleon just strikes us as lucky. Yet, Plutarch primes us in the preface (0.8) to read with an eye for his wise choices and not to judge every decision by its (usually positive) outcome. Plato's wisdom even helps men like Dionysius (15.4)

External Links

• Ambleside Online's Study Guide for Timoleon
• Herman Melville's Poem Timoleon, of which I read the eighth and final stanza in the podcast
• English Translation of Plutarch's Life of Timoleon
• Greek and English of Plutarch's Life of Timoleon (Perseus)
• Art of Manliness

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Alcibiades fought and strategized for Athens, Sparta, Persia, Athens (again), and Thrace, proving that he fought the entire time only for himself. Was it vanity or pride? Enjoy the first truly negative portrayal Plutarch tries to give, though Plutarch in all his humanity can still defend Alcibiades from his most malicious detractors.
Parallel: Coriolanus
Important People

Spartans:

• Agis II - Spartan King at the time Alcibiades defects to the Spartans. Alcibiades advises Agis to occupy Deceleia, preventing the Athenians from accessing their farms for the remainder of the war.
  • Timaea - Spartan Queen
  • Leotychides - son of Timaea and Alcibiades, disinherited from the throne.
• Lysander - Wily Spartan naval commander who finally manages to defeat the Athenians decisively at sea. He then besieges Athens and sets up a government of thirty tyrannical oligarchs backed up by a Spartan bodyguard. Alcibiades wisely never engages directly with Lysander, though one of his lietuenant does in Alcibiades's absence.

Persians:

• Pharnabazus - One of two powerful Persian satraps in Western Asia Minor with which Alcibiades fights once while trying to keep access to the Black Sea open for Athens. The second time they meet, Alcibiades has abandoned Athens for the last time and seeks to become what Themistocles was, a resident and advisor of the Persian Empire.
• Tissaphernes - A scheming satrap with a great deal in common with Alcibiades. He does and says what he needs to to get his own way. We'll see him again in the Life of Agesilaus.
• Cyrus - Younger son of the Persian King Darius II, Cyrus comes out to Asia Minor to deal with squabbling satraps and to crush Athens for good. He allies himself with Lysander and funds the navy that ultimately destroys Athens.

Athenians:

• Nicias - Alcibiades's main political rival in Athens, famous for his superstition and his vacillation, Alcibiades's confidence and charisma attract a much larger following.
• Antiochus - A vice-commander left in charge while Alcibiades away. He ignore Alc's direct command. notto engage with Lysander and in the ensuing battle loses and dies.

Important Places

Deceleia (23.2) - A mountain citadel of Attica, about 14 miles from Athens towards Boeotia, commanding the Athenian plain and the shortest routes to Euboea and Boeotia, occupied by the Spartans in 413 B.C. at Alcibiades's advice!

Samos (25) - Island in the east-central Aegean originally conquered by Pericles but serving as a strategic base for the Athenian navy during the Peloponnesian Wars. When an oligarchic revolution occurs in Athens, Samos becomes the base-in-exile of the democratic faction, which Alcibiades leads triumphantly home.

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Nicias helps us understand why losers are still worth studying. Like Cassandra, he prophesied for the Athenian people that they could not defeat Syracuse and then when selected as a leader for the expedition, he comes quite close to overturning his own prophecy.
See the full show notes here.
Parallel: Crassus

Important People

• Cleon - The first demagogue to exert influence after Pericles's death, he prosecuted the war against Sparta fairly succesfully, though at much greater loss of life than Pericles had, only to die about 10 years after the war had begun in a battle to regain a former Athenian conquest: Amphipolis.
• Alcibiades - Brazen and unpredictable, this student of Socrates will get his fair treatment in the life right after this one. He makes an appearance here as a pro-war demagogue, talented general, and traitor to the Athenians.
• Lamachus - One of the original three generals sent to Syracuse. He dies in a duel he initiated against a Syracusan commander.
• Demosthenes - Not the orator of a couple generations later. A talented general during the Peloponnesian War that is sent to replace Alcibiades and Lamachus and bring fresh perspective and troops.
• Gylippus - The Spartan general hired by the Syracusans to lead their troops and defeat Athens. With the help of the Corinthian naval commander Gongylus, he succeeds.

Important Places

Delos - An island in the middle of the Aegean Sea, sacred to Apollo, on which Nicias funds an elaborate choral festival. It used to be the site of the taxes collected for the Delian League, but under Pericles this money had been moved to Athens. Many historians take this move to signal the death of the League and the beginning of the Athenian Empire.

Syracuse - Largest and wealthiest polis on the island of Sicily, Syracuse had made enough enemies who sought the help of Athens in freeing them from Syracuse's oversight.

Egesta (Segesta) and Leontini - The smaller Sicilian poleis that ask Athens for help against Syracuse.

Plemmyrium (see map below) - The strategic promontory which Nicias controls for much of the battle against Syracuse. Control of this promontory allows him access to his supply lines back in Athens by means of the sea. When he loses access to this, his situation grows dire rather quickly as retreat is almost entirely cut off.

Epipolae (see map below) - A triangular plateau rising above the city of Syracuse allowing a view inside the city. Since it is surrounded on all sides by cliffs, it's also an easily defensible position. While Nicias captures this strategically important landmass, he also uses its position to oversee the siege of Syracuse as he orders his soldier to build a wall around the entire polis, about the same size, according to Plutarch, as the wall around Athens.

Thapsus - Nicias's chosen landing point, about 5 miles north of Syracuse (not on the map below). Fun fact: it happens to be the archaeological site in which archaeologists have found the oldest signs of an inhabited town on the island of Sicily.

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Check out the full show notes here.
Pericles brought Athens to its peak, but ended his own life in a plague at the beginning of a long war with Sparta.

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