The Plutarch Podcast

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Although Theseus never actually existed, Plutarch, in documenting his life, wants to cull important lessons for Greeks and Romans. Just as Theseus wrestles with villains threatening civilization, Plutarch forces his readers to grapple with the role of virtue in politics, or, less abstractly, the role the virtuous man has to play in his polis: i.e. how to be a citizen rather than a subject. This becomes explicit at the end of Theseus's life when he ceases to be a good king and becomes a tyrant, stripping citizenship from the Athenians by returning them to subjugation under a king.

Historical Context - Emergence from the Dark Ages

• Bronze-Age to Iron Age transition:
  • Dark Ages:
    • What were they?
  • Bronze Age civilizations:
    • Egypt
    • Hittites
    • Sumer/Akkad/Babylonians
    • Minoans and Myceneans (Aegean)
  • Middle Period:
    • As most major civilizations in decline, the smaller civilizations seem to rise and fill in the gaps:
      • Phoenicians
      • Hebrews
      • Arameans
      • Philistines
    • For the Greeks, though, they lose writing and reading and see a mass exodus from the old urban centers of Mycenean Greece.
  • Iron Age civilizations:
    • Neo-Assyrians
    • Neo-Babylonians
    • Persians
    • Greeks
    • Romans
    • Etc...

Outline

• Parentage
• Comes of age
  • Delphi
  • Theseus’s haircut
• Sword and Sandals under a rock
  • Sea = safe
  • Land = dangerous
• Theseus personally cleans up the land around the Saronic Gulf
  • @ Epidaurus (wins his club)
  • On the isthmus of Corinth
  • Crommyonian Sow
  • Wrestles near Eleusis
  • Procrustes
    • Cf. Hercules and how he killed his monsters and fiends
• Theseus receives first real hospitality at the Cephisus River, just outside of Athens
• Arrival in Athens
  • Medea!? Poison!?
  • Recognition and Inheritance
  • Revolt!
  • First battle in Athens (neighborhoods named)
• Bull of Marathon
• Theseus and the Minotaur
  • Plague and Expiation
  • The most “likely” (common?) story
  • Was Minos good/bad?
    • Why does Plutarch have to defend Minos?
  • Alternative stories
    • Vary by geographic region
  • Return: the sail!
  • Philosophical Problems: The Ship of Theseus
• Theseus unites Athens and Attica
  • Centralizes authority
  • Institutes common feasts
    • Oscophoria
    • Panathenaic Festival
  • Establishes three classes of citizen:
    • Nobles
    • Craftsmen
    • Farmers
  • Gives nobles most power over law and religion
  • Opens Athens as a “commonwealth of all nations” (cf. Romulus welcoming refugees)
• The many other adventures of Theseus
  • The Amazons
    • Source for Shakespeare’s Hippolyta and Theseus in Midsummer Night’s Dream?
    • Second battle in Athens, more neighborhoods named
  • False marriages
  • False adventures
    • Theseus did NOT participate in
      • Jason and the Argonauts
      • Meleager and the Boar (cf. Iliad Book 9; Ovid Metamorphoses Bk. 7/8)
      • Seven Against Thebes
  • His friendship with Perithous
    • Did involve him in the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
  • Seizure of Helen
    • Ends up in prison to the King of Molossus
    • Heracles frees him
• Theseus returns to Athens
  • Castor and Pollux
    • brothers of Helen and mythical Spartans
    • causing trouble in Athens

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Parallel - Demosthenes

Cicero lived and died as a political failure. In what ways, then, is his failure worth studying. In what ways did he succeed? In many ways, he and Vergil become the teachers of Western Europe all the way down to the present day. Can we declare Cicero a victor in the long-run, or should we study only his failures as a warning?

Outline

• Cicero's Early Political Rise
  • Military tribune under Sulla in Italy
  • Pro Rosciō – defends a political enemy of Sulla’s
  • Flees to Greece
    • Delphic advice
    • Fluent in Greek, studying Greek philosophy
  • Quaestor in Sicily
    • Fights corruption
    • Breadbasket of Italy (before the Romans conquered Egypt)
  • Praetor in Rome
• Consulship – height of Cicero's powers
  • Conspiracy of Catiline
    • Catiline not elected consul
    • Turns to force and fire to overthrow the Senate and the city of Rome
  • Trial before the Senate?
  • Death Penalty?
    • Caesar’s speech - clementia
    • Cato’s speech – treason deserves death, always has.
  • Vixerunt – they have lived! (i.e. they’re dead)
  • Cato declares Cicero pater patriae “father of the fatherland”
  • Cicero later reminisces about the event as “arma togae cedunt” (De Officiis I.77)
    • Arms yield to the toga (On duties I.77)
• Bona Dea Scandal and Exile
  • Publius Clodius Pulcher changes from friend to enemy
  • Cicero flees, then Clodius officially banishes him
    • Depressed in Greece (cf. Demosthenes depressed in Troezen)
• Return from Exile and First Round of Civil War
  • Returns like a hero
  • Forgiven by Caesar (cf. Demosthenes forgiven by Alexander)
  • Not included in Brutus and Cassius’ conspiracy
    • see Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act II, scene i
    • Brutus says “He will never follow any thing / That other men begin”
• Second Round of Civil War
  • The Philippics – consciously comparing the tyranny of Philip with the tyranny of Antony
    • Attacks Mark Antony explicitly
    • Antony retaliates with proscription (etym.)
  • Octavian not strong enough to save Cicero
    • Act IV, scene I of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
• History written by the victors?
  • Augustus later sees his nephew reading a book of Cicero... how does he react?
  • Octavian eventually removes statues and honors of Mark Antony, but Cicero’s writing is preserved.
    • One of the best-preserved authors from pagan antiquity
      • Thanks to Tiro and Atticus
    • Influenced:
      • St. Jerome
      • St. Augustine
      • Erasmus
      • Luther
      • Locke
      • Hume
      • Jefferson
      • Adams
    • Strongest influence in bringing together Latin and Greek thought
      • Much like Plutarch
      • Wanted to "teach philosophy to speak Latin" (Tusc. 2.5)
        • philosophia nascatur Latinis quidem litteris ex his temp

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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/dion
Season 4 is brought to you by Hackett Publishing. Use coupon code PLUTARCH for 20% and free shipping in the US and Canada.
Important People

Dionysius I (the elder) - Tyrant of Syracuse taking power shortly after the Peloponnesian War and reigning until 367 BC. For some authors, he's the textbook tyrant in the way he held on to power, the fear that prevented him from trusting almost anyone (except his nephew Dion), and his cruelty. Though Plutarch doesn't mention it, this is the tyrant who shows up in stories like Damon and Pythias or The Sword of Damocles. Dionysius is called D-Prime in this podcast so that we don't confused him with his son or nephew.

Dionysius II (the younger) - Less accomplished and intelligent than his father, Dionysius does manage to rule Syracuse not once, but twice. We'll see his comeback in Timoleon's story...

Dion - The main character of our tale and one of Plato's best and brightest students. When he fails to convert either the elder or younger tyrant to philosophy, he finds himself exiled, stripped of most of his wealth, and finally discovers his wife has been ordered by the tyrant to marry another man. This means war and Dion takes it to Syracuse. Can he become the next philosopher-king? Will he instead train up a virtuous democracy to overthrow fifty years of tyranny? Tune in to find out!

Plato - Yep. Plato was a real person who had a real life outside of his dialogues (in which he never makes himself a character). You'll want to check out Plato's Seventh Letter for another perspective on the events in this Life. If you haven't read this life, though, Plato's Seventh Letter will be a great deal more obscure.

Philistus - An accomplished military mind banished by D-Prime but recalled by D-2, Philistus had taken up his pen in exile and written as a historian. As a political enemy and counterweight to Plato's influence on D-2, Plutarch has a lot of reason to hate this man.

Heracleides - The perfidious but fun-loving rival as Dion tries to tame the tyrannical democracy. Heracleides would rather feed the beast and the tensions certainly mount as Dion fights not one tyrant, but two.

Callippus - This perfidious Athenian doesn't seem important until the end... and then he's fatally important.

Important Places

Corinth - Mother city (metropolis, μητρόπολις) of Syracuse and prosperous city on the Peloponnesus.

Syracuse - 5 major neighborhoods

• Ortygia - The original island settled by the Corinthians who founded Syracuse. It still contained
• Achradina - The heights of the mainland settlement overlooking the ocean and the Neapolis region, famous for the stone quarries in which the Athenians died during the Peloponnesian Wars and after which Dionysius would use for political prisoners.
• Neapolis - the most recent addition to the city, North and West of Achradina and Ortygia, but enclosed by the fortifications D-Prime built
• Tyche - district of Neapolis
• Epipolae - high plateau in the Neapolis, included in the walls D-Prime built

Key Virtues + Vices

Courage (ἀνδρεία - manliness, courage) - Dionysius I and Plato have a fight about what virtue consists in. Plato concedes that andreia is important but then proves publicly that tyrants are the least manly men.

Aloofness - Dion struggles to win friends and influence people.

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Full Show Notes for Plutarch's Life of Cleomenes
Roman Parallel - Tiberius Gracchus
Important People

Aratus - The same Aratus from the last life, but older and more experienced now. Between Aratus, Cleomenes, and Philopoemen, it becomes clear that the Greeks themselves are the architects of their own undoing. None of these three men cooperates with the other and this dissension makes easy target for Antigonus.

Megistonoüs - Cleomenes's father-in-law and right-hand man once he takes the throne.

Antigonus III "Doson"- The king of Macedon who eventually comes down to the Peloponnesus in person to settle the Spartan mischief. His death is reported right after winning his kingdom back from barbaric Illyrian invaders. He was the most powerful person standing in Cleomenes' way, but Cleomenes is unaware of his death until he has already landed in Egypt.

Ptolemy III - The successor of Alexander and ruler of wealthy Alexandria when Cleomenes arrives. He dies too soon to fulfill his promises to Cleomenes.

Ptolemy IV - Ptolemy III's son is not fit to rule, interested more in parties and pleasures. As such, he does little to help Cleomenes and eventually grows suspicious of Cleomenes's lack of interest in partying.

Sphaerus the Stoic (or Sphairus) - This student of the founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Cittium, teaches Cleomenes in his youth and helps him reform the Agōge to what it was. Plutarch has some criticisms for Stoicism in this Life that are worth considering.

Important Places

Argos - An important polis in north-western Peloponnesus, Cleomenes takes, but does not hold the city. While this is more than Pelopidas could do, it nonetheless marks the beginning of the end for him, and his father-in-law dies trying to take the city back.

Corinth - The actual gateway to the Peloponnesus, called by Philip of Macedon "the fetters of Greece." Cleomenes has to allow Antigonus to take this fortified position when he falls back to quell the revolt in Argos.

Sicyon - Aratus's hometown! Just north and east up the road from Corinth, on the opposite end of a bay facing that polis. Sicyon is not a populous or powerful polis, but their hometown hero's talents at forging unity in the Peloponnesus puts them on the map, until Cleomenes's dreams of Spartan hegemony threaten that unity.

Key Virtues

πειθαρχίας (obedience) - This touches on a Platonic concept of knowing how to lead and be led (also popular with Xenophon). (cf. 18.4)

ἐγκράτεια - self-control - A virtue that overlaps well with Lycurgan laws and Stoic ethics.

ἀφέλεια - simplicity - The ultimate Spartan virtue, particularly when compared to other Greek poleis like Athens or Corinth.

φιλότιμος - love of honor - This virtue could better be translated ambition, but so could the next one.

μεγαλόφρων - great-mindedness / ambition - The natures that seek the great things. This is ambition to a T. Not all of us want to be president, but those that do are this type.

εὐλαβὲς - piety - Another virtue Agis had but Cleomenes lacked. For a Spartan, there's a paucity of Cleomenes consulting the gods or being a religious leader in almost any form throughout this life.

Key Vices - Undermining Spartan Culture

ἀκολασία - intemperence (opposite of σωφροσύνη)

βωμολοχία - buffoonery

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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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