PPoorrttllaanndd SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy PPDDXXSScchhoollaarr Young Historians Conference Young Historians Conference 2018 Apr 18th, 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM TToo WWhhaatt EExxtteenntt DDooeess AArriissttoopphhaanneess’’ KKnniigghhttss RReeflfleecctt GGrreeeekk OOppiinniioonn ooff CClleeoonn aanndd tthhee PPeellooppoonnnneessiiaann WWaarr?? Samuel M. Hinerfeld Riverdale High School Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/younghistorians Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the Military History Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Hinerfeld, Samuel M., "To What Extent Does Aristophanes’ Knights Reflect Greek Opinion of Cleon and the Peloponnesian War?" (2018). Young Historians Conference. 20. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/younghistorians/2018/oralpres/20 This Event is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Young Historians Conference by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Hinerfeld 1 Samuel Hinerfeld Keldorf Western Civilization 14 March 2018 EQ: To what extent does Aristophanes’ K nights reflect Greek opinion of Cleon and the Peloponnesian War? Aristophanes’ early comedies were highly critical of the Peloponnesian War. In Babylonia and K nights, he critiques all aspects of the war, but is particular in his condemnation of Cleon, an Athenian General who many scholars regard as the first demagogue. Aristophanes satirizes Cleon by portraying him as the manipulative slave of the frail, temperamental Demos–the embodiment of the Athenian assembly– in T he Knights. Aristophanes satirizes him again in P eace , which follows Cleon’s demise, staged days before the Peace of Nicias was ratified. Aristophanes’ early comedies offer many critiques of Cleon, but it is K nights t hat provides the clearest representation of Cleon’s leadership over the corrupted Athenian Assembly. Aristophanes’ satires of the Peloponnesian War were extremely popular among the Athenian elite; however, K nights p articularly corroborates the opinions of Greek intellectuals like Thucydides, Socrates, and Plutarch. Despite his status among Athen’s intellectual elite, they collectively failed to dissuade the Athenian Assembly from ushering the downfall of Greek power. While Aristophanes’ Knights w as largely ineffective in swaying support for Cleon and the conflict against Sparta– it is notable in its ability to illuminate a clear and accurate reflection of the irrational nature of Athen’s volatile democracy under Cleon. Knights i s Aristophanes’ most direct attack on Cleon. Though, his disregard for him was previously expressed in his work The Acharnians. In it, the comedy’s protagonist threatens to, Hinerfeld 2 "cut up Cleon the Tanner into shoe-leather"(Aristophanes 121). A charnians was a broader satirization of the fickle nature of Athenian Democracy– in Knights, he turns upon Cleon personally, as payback for the stream of attacks from the demagogue presented to the Athenian Assembly, which resulted in legal ramifications for Aristophanes. Aristophanes produced T he Babylonians in 426 BCE for the Festival of the Great Dionysia–in it, he slanders Cleon and the Polis, and accuses Athens of enslaving their allies. In retaliation, Cleon prosecuted Aristophanes and banished him from the Great Dionysia. K nights was Aristophanes’ fourth comedy. It won first prize at the Lenaia festival in 324 BCE. K nights has five characters– manifestations of Athen’s different civilian stratifications. The first is Demos, also meaning 'The People,' - a rich, self-indulgent, superstitious, weak creature–the representation of the Athenian Democracy. The Demos’ slave–who heeds his every desire–is represented as 'the Paphlagonian,' or sometimes 'the Tanner,' a reference to how Cleon earned his fortune. Aristophanes portrays Cleon as an unprincipled, lying, cheating, and pilfering thief, fawning the Demos while cheating his subordinates out of power. Aristophanes assumed even more risk by portraying Cleon himself onstage–the demagogue invoked so much terror that no other actor would play him. Cleon’s subordinates in the play are Nicias and Demosthenes. Nicias was High Admiral of the Athenian Navy, and Demosthenes was a Vice-Admiral. They led military expeditions throughout the entirety of the Peloponnesian War– Aristophanes features them in Knights a s both were duped by Cleon during his reign over the Athenian Assembly. The final character, the Sausage-Seller– the protagonist of K nights– is used by Nicias and Demosthenes to oust 'the Paphlagonian' from power by helping him win the Demos' favour. Using Cleon’s strategy of flattery and political subterfuge, the sausage-seller bests Cleon and Hinerfeld 3 drives him out of Athens. A comprehensive understanding of Aristophanes’ critiques presented in Knights is dependant upon a context of Athenian Democracy and the Peloponnesian War. By the end of Pericles’ reign over Athens c. 429 BCE, the city had entered an artistic and intellectual golden age. Democracy empowered the entire population of Athens, regardless of class or merit. With no qualifications required, Athenian politics proved to be ineffective under the strain of war. Information about the Peloponnesian War primarily comes from Aristophanes’ contemporary Thucydides - from his work H istory. Thucydides was previously an Athenian General during the Peloponnesian War, but after leading a disastrous defense in the colony of Amphipolis, was punished into exile. Thucydides is regarded by modern scholars as the father of scientific history– who attempted to provide an objective interpretation of the war. Despite his efforts, he shares Aristophanes’ sympathies for Nicias and Demosthenes– the Athenian Generals who both fell victim to Cleon’s subterfuge. Diodorus of Sicily was a Greek historian born in 90 BC in Agira, Italy. He is famous for his global history Bibliotheca Historica, a collection of world history tracing the origins of civilization to the beginning of Caesar’s Gallic Wars c. 60 BCE. In his collection, Diodorus writes that the Peloponnesian War was instigated when Athens concluded an alliance with the city-state Corcyra in 433 BCE– beginning a besiegement of Potidaea, which in turn threatened the position of Corinth. Sparta feared that the Athenian Empire was becoming too powerful, but it still attempted to solve the conflict through arbitration. Pericles, the most powerful Athenian General at the time, denounced the Spartan’s attempts for peace, equating arbitration with surrender to the Spartans. With no other options, Sparta declared war against Athens Hinerfeld 4 (Diodorus, W orld History 12.41.1.) Pericles’ wartime strategy saw the abandonment of Athens’ countryside to concentrate Athenian power in the city itself. He decided that Athens’ “Long Walls” provided ample protection to connect the city with its port. As long as Athens controlled the sea, its freedom from Sparta was secure; however, by 429 BCE, it became apparent that Pericles' strategy was too expensive. A horrific plague killed about a third of Athens’ citizens, along with Pericles. In 425 BCE, Athens’ Assembly urged the Generals to pursue a more aggressive policy against Sparta. In response, Athenian general Demosthenes led a band of light infantry onto the island of Sphacteria, where he captured 292 Spartans. The statesmen, Cleon, who was previously credited with tripling Athenian citizen’s income, delivered troops to Demosthenes and went on to assume credit for the victory at Sphacteria, cementing his power over the Athenian Assembly. The Assembly’s agenda was dictated by the Council of Five Hundred, and legal cases were settled by the Jury Courts, composed of six thousand citizens formed into ten juries. Gilbert Murray, former Regius of Greek at University of Oxford, writes that while the system was nearly impossible to corrupt, it had no way to: “Ensure competency, nor to check the dangers of popular prejudice and passion”(Murray 2). Elections were only held for generals and executive magistrates. Athens was a “pure” democracy, in the sense that it was, as Murray writes, “Governed by the feelings of the Assembly at the moment and the personal influence of the leaders of public opinion”(Murray 3). The fickle nature of emotions led to a divided and irrational governing body, which soon resulted in the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta. The main political parties in Athens were the Moderates and the extreme Democrats. Hinerfeld 5 Moderates, like Nicias, were wholly opposed to conflict against Sparta. Many Athenians proudly remembered the cooperation between Sparta and Athens during the Greco-Persian War. Moderates hoped this partnership could be maintained, and the intellectual classes generally agreed that it was necessary to secure the livelihood of Hellas. In 432 BCE, the Spartans demanded that “Athens should ‘set the Hellenes free,’ i.e. dissolve her Empire. Pericles saw that to obey such an order was to accept a position of ‘slavery,’ or definite subjection, to Sparta”(Murray). Following Pericles rule, Cleon became the leader of the war party in Athens. Timothy Burns, professor of Political Science at Baylor University, notes that there were no speeches between Pericles and Cleon’s rule in Athens, writing: Between the eulogy of Pericles (2.65) and Cleon’s first speech (3.36.6ff.) we hear no speeches at Athens. He is the first Athenian leader to appear after Thucydides has warned us of the decline in leadership at Athens that followed the death of the manifestly public-spirited and intelligent Pericles, a decline marked by more self-interested and pandering attempts to lead the demos, that is, by its more democratic, less de facto monarchic character. (Burns 230) Cleon was widely regarded as an offensive, corrupting force over the Athenian Assembly. He rose to power using his wealth; like the Athenian General Nicias, he had no noble background. Unlike Nicias, Cleon was reviled by his contemporary intellectuals for his radical policies and erratic behavior. Aristotle writes in his Constitution of the Athenians about Cleon, stating that: “With his attacks, he corrupted the Athenians more than anyone else. Although other speakers behaved decently, Cleon was the first to shout during a speech in the Assembly, use abusive language while addressing the people”(Aristotle 28.3). This marked the end of an era of orderly Hinerfeld 6 and rational governance in Athens. In 426 BCE, Aristophanes presented his play B abylonia at the Festival of Dionysia. The play satirized Athens involvement in the war. It was because of this play that Cleon attempted to prosecute Aristophanes. While the verdict of this trial is unknown, Cleon had revoked from Aristophanes the privilege of performing at the Festival of Dionysus after he claimed Aristophanes to have besmirched Athenian reputation among its foreign allies. Aristophanes was relegated to performing his works at the Festival of Lenaea, where only Athenian citizens were permitted to attend. This sparked Aristophanes’ hatred for Cleon, and from here his comedies begin to offer useful information about the statesman's policy. Following Cleon and Demosthenes’ victory at Sphacteria, the Spartans offered Athens a truce. Cleon immediately dismissed their peace treaty, convinced that Athens had secured a victory over Sparta. Cleon convinced the Assembly, and the war resumed. Cleon and his democratic supporters continued to perpetuate the conflict, and they would not stop until Sparta was part of the Athenian Empire. The Moderates, who only sought Athenian independence, had their success in 421 BC when the Peace of Nicias was signed, and it seemed as if cooperation between the two states was guaranteed. Aristophanes’ P eace was both a celebration of the anticipated war’s end, and a cautionary, bitter reflection of the war. Aristophanes warned that war was deeply rooted in Greek culture, and he foreshadowed the next generation of leadership to fall back to the ways of Cleon and his extreme Democrats. Aristophanes was accurate in his predictions, as the hostilities resumed months later. Cleon reigned over a markedly trying time in Athenian history. At the start of the Peloponnesian War, Athens suffered a plague which likely killed off a third of its population Hinerfeld 7 (Thucydides VII 20). The majority of Athenian citizenry were farmers who were unemployable within the city. Pericles set up a system to pay those on the Assembly, and Cleon notably increased their fees during his own rule. A majority of public funds were confiscated from criminals put on trial by the Demos’ various juries. According to Aristophanes, put on trial for, “No offence except wealth and lack of political influence”(Murray 6). Cleon was particular in his treatment of Athens’ citizens, soldiers and sailors; often neglecting their income, and treating them with disdain. They had no way of voicing their resentment in the daily voting. The voters of the Demos determined public policy, and Aristophanes notes that Cleon cared little for the populace as long as he was satisfying the Demos (Aristophanes 776) . During this time, food and supplies were terribly scarce, and the city was brimming with refugees displaced by the war. Cleon and the Demos’ insatiable appetite added insult to injury. While Athens lost leagues of territory, “twenty thousand slaves”(Thucydides VII, 27), and much of its trade network, Cleon placated the Demos through bribery and theft. Like Thucydides, Plato, Isocrates, and other witnesses of the time, Aristophanes was highly critical of extreme Democracy. However, his courage in attacking the great demagogue from a position of no regard was unprecedentedly remarkable. Before he’d secured his status in the public sphere, “Aristophanes had already championed the subject allies against Athenian oppression in the B abylonians, and had even stated a good case for the Spartans against the fury of popular war fever in the Acharnians” (Murray 7). With Babylonians, Aristophanes invoked Cleon’s wrath, who attempted to have the playwright exiled. But it was K nights t hat not only incriminated the corrupt statesmen, but offers the clearest insight into the tribulations of Athens’ Demos during this period. Hinerfeld 8 Knights is Aristophanes’ most direct and accurate critique of Cleon–Written in 425 BCE, a year after the Acharnians and the same year Cleon was elected General over the Peloponnesian War. The title of the play derives from the Chorus, like most of Aristophanes’ plays. The knights of Classical Athens were wealthy, politicized and educated, they saw through Cleon’s populism, and were important allies in Aristophanes’ comic crusade against him. Aristophanes makes a tirade of accusations against Cleon, questioning his use of the Assembly for personal and political gain, his repeated attempts at political censorship, (including Aristophanes and Thucydides, who Cleon banished from Athens)his ill use of state funds, and his manipulation of criminal trials in order to steal his victims’ assets. Many historians refer to K nights for its detailed portrayal of Cleon’s ascension over the Demos. In the beginning lines of K nights, Demosthenes complains about Cleon’s strategy to delegitimize the other Athenian leaders–effectively turning himself into a tyrant. Demosthenes states that Cleon, “Drives us off and lets no other man Wait table; stands there with a cowhide fan To flap any competitor away”(Aristophanes 53). Aristophanes accuses Cleon of supplanting the Demos’ greed to secure his power, while preventing his peers from influencing the Democracy. Professor Burns claims that Aristophanes represents Cleon “in the same manner as Thucydides did in H istory” (Burns 249). The similarities between their representation of Cleon is notable. Cleon is portrayed as brash and violent in both of their works, and both men accuse Cleon of stealing credit for the victory at Pylos from Demosthenes. Dr. Foster, Professor of History at Ashland University, claims in her work, Thucydides and Herodotus, t hat Thucydides represented the same characterization of a greedy Athenian assembly as Aristophanes did in Hinerfeld 9 Knights. She writes that his, “Important and repeated image of the assembly ‘stretching out for more’, reconfigures the greed that was a main characteristic of the corrupt demos of Knights” (Foster 147). These similarities in their condemnation of Cleon have led many historians to believe that the authors shared a common resentment for Cleon, though most observe that the connection between Aristophanes’ contemporary representation and Thucydides’ recount twenty years later provides legitimacy to interpretations of Cleon as a war-mongering, and ultimately disastrous leader. Aristophanes and his contemporaries were strongly opposed to the greed of the Demos. Cleon and the Sausage-Seller, the protagonist of Knights, p rey on his susceptibility to bribery to gain control over him. The Chorus lambasts Cleon, claiming him to be a, “Tax-extortor, bribe-extractor, pit and whirlpool of blackmail!”(Aristophanes 251). Cleon employed many amoral and illegal strategies to increase his stream of bribes into the Assembly. Dr. Foster notes that the Sausage Seller and Cleon share the same tactics as they compete for the Demos’ favor, writing, “The aim of both the Sausage Seller and the Paphlagonian had been to instill greater and greater appetite into Demos in order to control him through satisfying his desires”(Foster 136). Cleon and the lowly sausage seller’s cheap tactics are merely reflections of Cleon’s ignoble strategies for securing the popular opinion of the Athenian jury. Thucydides regards this as one of Cleon’s few personal strengths, writing that “The demagogue at that time was most persuasive to the People” (Thucydides 4.21.3, cf. 3.36.6). Unlike Thucydides, Aristophanes refused to acknowledge Cleon’s success as a populist, though he inadvertently credits Cleon’s influence in his later play W asps, which critiques the corrupted