FOREWORD
1deus ex māchinā While the Latin term is commonly used, it dates only from the seventeenth century and is not found in Classical Latin; the Greek phrase apò mēkhanēs theós (‘god from the machine’) is found in a fragment of a play by the fourth/third-century BC Athenian dramatist Menander.
2came bottom Five comedies normally competed in the Dionysiac festival, but it is thought that the number was temporarily reduced to three during the Peloponnesian War. Clouds came in third place after Cratinus’s Wineflask and Ameipsias’s Konnos.
3published a few years later The date of the second version is not known, but internal evidence points to a date between 420 and 417 BC: Dover (1989).
4investigation of physical phenomena Plato, Phaedo 96a–99d: see Vander Waerdt (1994).
5rose from his seat The story is told in Aelian’s Varia Historia 2.13.
6raised stage on three sides Csapo (2010) outlines the development of the site of the theatre, with images of its likely appearance in the fifth century.
7colourful fiction However, Marshall (2016), p. 201, argues that the details given by Aelian ‘are too vivid and plausible for them to be accidental or felicitous inventions’.
8some twenty-four years earlier Marshall (2012) argues that there will have been subsequent performances after 423 BC. Recurrent comic parodies (e.g. of Euripides’ Telephus) also suggest that memorable performances might have had an afterlife of more than twenty years, regardless of the fact that many spectators would not have seen the original play and may have had little idea what it was about.
9older man A parallel may be drawn with the biography of Dr Johnson, best known from Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson (1791): Boswell first met Johnson in 1763, when he was twenty-two and his subject fifty-four years old.
10posterity As Lefkowitz (2008) writes, ‘it is not because of his thinking that Socrates has been remembered … Rather, Socrates has remained an inspiration to politicians, thinkers, and artists for more that two millennia because of his death.’
11comparison with the founder of Christianity See Taylor (2007) and Wilson (2007), pp. 141–52.
1
1‘The one thing I actually know’ Plato has Socrates say (Symposium 199b2–3) ‘See now, whether … you would like to hear the truth about Love’.
2famous for its music and styles of dance See Levin (2009).
3pun Elizabeth Belfiore (2012), for instance, suggests (p. 144) that Socrates ‘puns on Diotima’s epithet “Mantinean” (201d2), in stating that divination (manteia) would be required to understand what she means and that he doesn’t understand (ou mathonta) what she is talking about (206b9–10)’.
4export of dildoes The joke is found in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (line 109), but it was probably a commonplace of comedy.
5censorship law This is an inference from the evidence for a decree about ‘not comedying’ in force from 440/39 to 437/6. It is not clear exactly what the decree forbade, but Sommerstein (2004), p. 209, notes that the date of the repeal ‘was a time when Perikles was in less than full control of Athenian political life: the previous year Pheidias had been prosecuted, and had fled into exile, on charges of corruption in which Perikles was directly implicated, and 437/6 may have been the year in which another of the statesman’s associates, Anaxagoras, was likewise prosecuted and likewise fled the country’.
6sacrifices A precedent may be found in Book 1 of Homer’s Iliad: after Apollo inflicts a plague on the Greek army because of their leader Agamemnon’s disrespect of the god’s priest Chryses, the Greeks atone by performing a sacrifice.
7loving kiss See Plutarch, Pericles 24.6. Earlier Plutarch writes (8.1–2) that Pericles ‘far excelled all other speakers as a result of which they say that he got his nickname; though some think that he was called “Olympian” because of the buildings with which he adorned the city, and others from his ability as a statesman and a general’.
8born around 424 BC The date of Plato’s birth is usually put at 427 BC, but there is a strong argument for dating it to 424 BC: see Nails (2002).
9a matter for surprise ‘Given the acceptability and wide practice of pederasty in Socrates’ circle, and Socrates’ erotic nature, it would be most unusual if he did not engage in it himself’ writes Littman (1970), p. 175. He goes on to quote the fourth–third-century philosopher Bion of Borysthenes, cited by Diogenes Laertius (4.49), as saying that ‘if Socrates felt desire for Alcibiades and abstained, he was a fool; if he did not, his conduct was in no way remarkable’.
10no older than twenty Such an age was well beyond normal marriageable age for well-born Athenian women, so it may explain why Xanthippe ended up with the eccentric older Socrates, regardless of whether she was related to the Alcmaeonids or came from a relatively elite background.
11gave her lodging Plutarch, Aristides 27.
12Aristoxenus Huffman (2012), pp. 269–81, argues for Aristoxenus’s veracity. Nails writes (2002), p. 209, ‘Because our contemporaneous sources, Plato and Xenophon, say with one voice that Xanthippe was Socrates’ wife, I do not accept a second marriage to Myrto.’ But Plato and Xenophon may have suppressed the fact that Myrto, whom they probably never met (she may have died before they became acquainted with Socrates), was Socrates’ earlier and only legitimate wife, and that Xanthippe, whom they knew in person, was his mistress.
13aristocratic Schorn (2012), pp. 208–9, claims that Aristotle assumed that Myrto was the mother of Socrates’ children since he says (Rhetoric 2.1390b28–31) that they were ‘well-born’ but degenerated; but this may simply mean that they did not live up to Socrates’ own high qualities.
14children Plato, Apology 35d5–7.
15laughing The story is reported by the Christian author Theodoret; see Huffman (2012), pp. 278–9.
16Lamprocles Socrates’ child by Xanthippe, even if born out of wedlock, would have been considered legitimate thanks to a decree passed during the Peloponnesian War allowing Athenian men to have legitimate children by their mistresses (Diogenes Laertius 2.26).
17amorous relationships Diotima’s doctrine presents an expectation and endorsement of multiple relationships in the suggestion that the young lover begins by going to ‘beautiful bodies’: Symposium 210a.
18sex-workers The quotation is from Against Neaira, attributed to Demosthenes (59.122) but authored by Apollodoros.
19unrestrained Citations regarding Socrates’ sexual nature by the fifth-century ad Christian authors Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, both quoting the third-century philosopher Porphyry, go back to Aristoxenus: Huffmann (2012), pp. 265–74. Aristoxenus reports that although Socrates was highly active sexually, he did not cause hurt by his behaviour (e.g. by being unfaithful, inconsiderate, or indiscreet).
20trial and death These events are the focus or starting-point of many fine studies of Socrates, including those of Stone (1988), Wilson (2007), Waterfield (2009), and Hughes (2010). The earlier work of Guthrie (1971) proceeds chronologically, but his otherwise excellent study makes no mention whatever of Aspasia.
21turning-point Suggested, for example, by Waterfield (2009).
2
1handsomely decorated shield Alcibiades’ shield was said to have been gilt-edged and embossed with a figure of Eros wielding a thunderbolt (Plutarch, Alcibiades 16). Littman suggests that this is a fantasy, perhaps derived from a comic satire on Alcibiades; but such an appurtenance might have suited the young man’s extravagant nature, even while attracting Socrates’ disapproval: ‘a golden shield is ugly if it does not fulfil its function’, he says in Xenophon’s Memorabilia (1.6).
2fight another day This opening section is intended as an imaginative recreation of Alcibiades’ account of the battle in Plato’s Symposium.
3Socrates’ intellectual influence Both Hornblower (1987), pp. 75–7, and MacLeod (1974) note possible indications of Socratic influence in Thucydides.
4building programme Even if the tribute was not simply expropriated to fund the building programme, it will have done so indirectly: see Kallet-Marx (1989).
5unable to swim Hall (2006) details the importance of swimming to the Greeks as part of their national identity (Ch. 9, pp. 255–87).
6battering rams The fifth century BC was a period of innovation in matters of both war and peace, as I explored in The Greeks and the New (Cambridge, 2011). Thucydides’ history gives evidence of the introduction of Greek (and in particular Athenian) military techniques and developments that, within a few decades, were to have an enormous impact on Greek military tactics and strategy, and in due course to contribute to the unprecedented conquests of Alexander the Great.
7form of typhus Owing to mutations over the past two thousand years, it’s likely that the plague cannot be precisely identified with any known modern disease: Poole and Holladay (1979).
8eating the corpses ‘Inside Potidaea they had already been forced to eat anything they could find there, including in some cases human flesh’ (Thucydides 2.70.2). The whole account of the siege comes from Thucydides.
9melancholy The condition was thought to arise from an excess in the body of ‘black bile’: Pseudo-Aristotle, Problems 31.1 (953a26–32) suggests that the temperament of famous and successful men standardly made them subject to it.
10catalepsy Brémaud (2012) traces different diagnoses of Socrates’ mental illness back to French psychiatrists in the early nineteenth century. The symptoms of catalepsy include fixity of posture, disregard of external stimuli, and decreased sensitivity to pain.
11severe battle Anderson (2005) argues for the identification with Spartolus.
12scarred The fields would not have been freshly burned, however, since in 429 BC the Spartans did not invade Attica (perhaps because of the plague) but instead attacked Plataea, Athens’ ally to the north.
13Ancient armies See van Wees (2004).
14fighting in full armour The usefulness of hoplomachia is commended in Plato’s Laches (182ab).
15war-dance Though most of the evidence is non-Athenian, Athenian dances in full armour are attested in Plato’s Laws 796b.
16active service in numerous battles Anderson’s (2005) account of this important aspect of Socrates’ life is more convincing than Wallace’s (2015a) attempt to dismiss Plato’s account of Socrates’ military service as a ‘joke’.
17Battle of Coronea The battle is dated to the year 447/6 BC; some historians suppose that it took place in the spring of 446, but the earlier autumn date seems preferable.
18ambiguous oracle See Bowra (1938).
19messmate Plutarch says ‘tent-mate’; possibly Plato is trying to avoid possible sexual implications by simply mentioning that they shared meals.
3
1Alcibiades Plato, Symposium 212c–213e.
2mid-thirties While Alcibiades’ birthdate is not known, 451 is most likely; it would mean he would just have come of age for active service at Potidaea in 432.
3well-born family Unlike ‘Alcmaeonid’, ‘Eupatrid’ does not denote a particular clan or family name, but means generally ‘of a good family’: Parker (1997), pp. 323–4.
4Deinomache Her identity as Pericles’ former wife is assumed by Azoulay (2010), p. 86, and may explain Pericles’ later guardianship of her son by Cleinias; Samons (2016), pp. 68–9, expresses doubt on the grounds that the tradition would have preserved her name.
5he was furious Plato, Alcibiades I, 110b1–6. While the dialogue is now generally thought not to have been written by Plato but by a follower of his around 350 BC, the early date still makes it valuable evidence for an informed perception of Socrates and his circle.
6related to Alcibiades On the evidence of an inscription, Bicknell (1982) proposed a speculative reconstruction of Aspasia’s genealogy, linking her to the family of Alcibiades; it is accepted by Henry (1995) and Nails (2002).
7Cicero The two anecdotes given here about Zopyrus and Socrates, found in Cicero’s On Fate (10–11) and Tusculan Disputations (4.80), are assumed to derive from Phaedo’s lost Zopyrus (a title recorded by Diogenes Laertius). If so, they might be accorded a degree of reliability, as Socrates’ devoted pupil will have been keen to show that Zopyrus’s negative characterisation of Socrates was false.
8physiognomic doctrines As found in the writings of the Swiss pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) following notions promulgated by the English physician Thomas Browne (1605–82).
9angry interlocutor He is named as Anytus, the man who was to be one of the accusers at Socrates’ trial.
10faces and phalluses The fact that Thucydides mentions ‘faces’ only may be out of delicacy, or because he made the assumption that people would assume that the mutilation involved the phalluses. Herms that survive show damage to both areas.
11met his end For the different accounts of Alcibiades’ death see Nails (2002), p. 15, and Rhodes (2011), pp. 101–4.
12a poor leader Xenophon Memorabilia 1.32–3; in Plato’s Gorgias (515e–516d) Socrates uses a similar metaphor to show that Pericles had also been a poor leader.
13a heroic death Lefkowitz (2008); she adds (citing Bloch, 2002), ‘By choosing hemlock (rather than execution by suffocation) Socrates was able to die painlessly … Poison hemlock affects the peripheral nervous system, so that the victim gradually loses sensation in his limbs, but retains mental lucidity until the poison causes his lungs and heart to fail.’
4
1Travel Journal The title of Ion’s book, Epidēmiai, literally means ‘Stays’ (in various places) or ‘Visits’.
2early homosexual liaison Graham (2008) analyses the implications of Ion’s statement; sexual rectitude Johnson (2011), for example, writes about Socrates that ‘he rejects homosexual love except at a superficial level’ (p. 96).
3surprised comment Plato, Phaedrus 230c–d.
4forbidden by law to enter the Agora It is not clear whether this was a legal prohibition, as some have assumed. Xenophon (Memorabilia 4.2.1) has Socrates say of Euthydemus that ‘he did not enter the Agora owing to his youth, but when he wanted to get anything done, he would be found sitting in a saddler’s shop near the Agora’.
5spiteful Huffman (2012) and Schorn (2012) show that Aristoxenus was a more reliable and unbiased witness to Socrates’ life and character than scholars have generally supposed.
6young man Plato, Theaetetus 144a–b.
7to meet Melissus No text states that Socrates met Melissus, but he is mentioned in Plato’s Theaetetus as someone for whom Socrates felt reverential respect – though, he adds, not as much as he felt for the older philosopher Parmenides ‘whom I met when I was very young and he was very old, and who seemed to me to possess a mind of profound nobility’ (183e).
8450s Anaxagoras may have arrived in Athens in 456/5 BC (Rhodes, 2018).
9ideas of perspective The discovery of perspective was attributed both to Anaxagoras and to the painter Agatharchus of Samos, but this should not be taken to be ‘vanishing-point’ perspective known to artists and draughtsmen. It was simply a recognition of what is implied by the fact that the further away objects are, the smaller they appear.
10came across as eccentric The testimony to Anaxagoras is found in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (1179a13–15).
11on a par Plutarch notes that the two explanations of the ram deformity, made from different perspectives, were not in fact incompatible. Greek rationalism coexisted with irrationalism throughout antiquity, as Dodds showed in his classic study The Greeks and the Irrational (1951).
12is it the brain Plato, Phaedo 96b.
13the inventor of science See Leroi (2014).
14shifted his focus A parallel may be drawn with the career of Sigmund Freud: starting out as a student of neurology, he realised that science had not advanced to the point where the nature of the brain’s interaction with thought could be discovered, so turned his attention instead to inventing the ‘science’ of psychoanalysis: see Gay (1988), p. 80.
15peace agreement While the so-called ‘Peace of Callias’ is generally accepted by scholars, there are problems of evidence (it is not mentioned by Thucydides) and some are inclined to think it was an invention of fourth-century historians.
16heard himself Thucydides does not explicitly say that he was present at Pericles’ speech in 430 BC, but Bosworth (2000) argues that there are good reasons for thinking that he was.
17it has been suggested By Kallet in Morgan, ed. (2003).
18Damon See Wallace (2015b). However, it seems unlikely that Plato cited Damon’s own words to argue for political stability if their aim had been to propose the opposite: Lynch (2013) argues that Damon’s observations were simply a basis for Plato to develop his own philosophical positions.
19violation The precise issue of illegality is disputed: it may have been that the generals were not given due opportunity to defend themselves at all.
20passionate lovers Thucydides 2.43.1.
21a dim view See Plato, Gorgias 515e–516b.
5
1hostile tirade Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889).
2469 BC in the suburb of Alopeke Diogenes Laertius (2.44) gives the date as 6 Thargelion (i.e. May/June) 468 BC. However, as Plato says that Socrates was seventy at his death in 399, I retain the generally accepted date, as well as tacitly assuming that Socrates was born in the deme to which he was affiliated.
3dilute the power Cleisthenes may have hoped that the Alcmaeonids, who were poorly placed in the old system, would be well placed in the new: Lewis (1963).
4twelve hundred Alopeke furnished ten Councillors in the fourth century, and as one of the larger demes is calculated to have had about 2 per cent of the total citizen population, which may have been as high as sixty thousand before the Peloponnesian War: Hansen (1988), pp. 23–5.
5fine praise Plato, Laches 181a.
6kalos kagathos The main discussion of the term is in Xenophon, Oeconomicus 6.12–7.3.
7class Ober (2011), p. 161, concludes that ‘his inherited financial position was relatively secure … it is undeniable that his conventional Athenian upbringing made it possible for him to become a philosopher’.
8mathematical proof Plato, Meno 82b–85c.
9quoting Homeric passages Plato, Ion 583d–539d.
10discipline The Plutarchan treatise On Music 1140a records that ‘Greeks of ancient times believed that they needed to use music to mould the souls of the young towards gracefulness and decorum, supposing that music is a valuable resource in all circumstances and for every serious action, particularly in facing danger in war’.
11in the forefront For testimony by the tragedian Phrynichus, see Power (2012), pp. 288–90. Little is known of Lampros of Athens, who should be distinguished from the Lampros of Erythrae (a city in Ionia), the teacher of Aristoxenus in the fourth century.
12Euripides’ ‘teacher’ Discussions are listed in Karamanou (2006), pp. 94–5. Wildberg (2009) argues that the two were closely associated in real life.
13New Music Csapo (2004) brilliantly describes the turbulent social impact of the New Musicians. In Book 4 of the Republic, Plato represents Socrates as disapproving of the effects of the New Music on youngsters.
14Spartan war-dance See Wheeler (1982), pp. 229–30. Other ancient nations had similar traditions, some of which survive such as the Persian zurkhaneh combat dance.
15Fair-haired Eros Anacreon fragment 12.
16success for three teams These were the first, second and fourth prizes rather than the first three; sources differ, but the odd distribution carries greater credibility.
17Our customs are absurd Xenophanes fragment 2.
18soothe his spirit Achilles is portrayed playing the lyre and singing in Homer’s Iliad Book 9, verses 185–91.
19breastplate In Xenophon’s Memoir of Socrates (3.10.9–15) Socrates is depicted discussing the virtues of a good breastplate with Pistias the armourer.
20property qualification Under the laws of Solon laid down in the sixth century BC, hoplites needed wealth amounting to an annual harvest of at least 200 medimnoi (around 400 litres), much greater than the produce of a small farmer: Foxhall (1997).
21idealised picture We should treat with some reserve the figure of 500 drachmas given by Xenophon (Oeconomicus 2.3) as being the sum total of Socrates’ wealth, since the context is Socrates’ claim that despite his material situation he is ‘rich enough’; but even if he were so reduced in later life, it would have been by his own choice.
22such a course Plato, Apology 23b. A parallel may be drawn with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who gave away his inheritance of one of the greatest fortunes in pre-war Europe to concentrate on thinking, working first as a schoolteacher and later as a hospital porter.
23superior beauty The passage discussed is from Xenophon’s Symposium (5.2–8).
24youthful misbehaviour See Lane Fox (2016).
25Socrates is now depicted Zanker (1995), pp. 34–9 and 58–60.
26hyperthyroidism Papapetrou (2015).
27perceived negative effects Various approaches to the question of hearing voices, including a discussion of Socrates’ daimonion, are presented in Smith (2007).
28out of place The term atopos, literally ‘out of place’, is often used to characterise the older Socrates in the writings of his biographers.
29forming friendships See Zuckert (2012), p. 384, who cites the relevant passages: Plato’s Apology 31c–d, Republic 396c, and Theages 128d–31a.
30hallucinogenic vapours Recently compiled geological evidence is presented by Broad (2006).
31oracles uttered by the Pythia In Why the Pythia does not now give oracles in verse (22), Plutarch says of the Pythia of his own day ‘having been brought up in the house of farming folk, she brings nothing with her of art or practice or skill as she descends into the sanctuary’. The same is likely to have been true in Socrates’ time.
32visited Delphi Aristotle is cited by Diogenes Laertius (2.23) regarding the visit, and by Plutarch (Against Colotes 1118c) regarding the inscription.
33wisest of men Plato, Apology 21b–e.
6
1critique of orators Plato, Menexenus 234c–235c.
2Menexenus This is likely to be Menexenus son of Demophon who appears in Plato’s dialogue Lysis, rather than the son of Socrates suggested by Dean-Jones (1995).
3family connection See Bicknell (1982), and the genealogical discussion in Ellis (1989), pp. 5–9.
4ten years Some scholars suggest that Pericles left his first wife for Aspasia, but the historical chronology does not support the idea: see Nails (2002), p. 225.
5wife in effect There is uncertainty about Aspasia’s exact status. It was not illegal in the fifth century, as it was to become in the fourth, for a citizen to marry a non-Athenian wife. As a non-citizen Aspasia may not have been able to attain legal marital status; however, it has been argued that she did so exceptionally. Vernant (1990, p. 59) notes that ‘we do not find the institution of marriage perfectly defined in fifth-century Athens … there continued to exist different types of union whose implications for the woman and her children varied according to the historical circumstances’. For simplicity, many use the word ‘married’ of Aspasia’s union with Pericles.
6inseparable partners Henry (1995) suggests that Aspasia’s rapid remarriage after Pericles’ death may support indications in comic drama that Pericles tired of her (p. 16); but comic allegations about Pericles’ alleged sexual waywardness are more likely to have been scurrilous attacks on his famous uxoriousness.
7real target Stone (1988) pp. 233–5, ably dismisses Plutarch’s misapprehension; see also Hornblower s.v. Aspasia in the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd edn). As Stone writes (p. 234), ‘we know of no other case in which a comic poet ever convicted himself of seriousness by taking his jokes and lampoons into court … He would have cut a strange figure as a prosecutor of impiety.’
8incredulity Pomeroy (1994), p. 234, writes ‘It is quite remarkable that Socrates (or Xenophon) should choose the hetaira Aspasia as an example,’ but also notes ‘Her status was elevated when she became involved in a monogamous relationship with Pericles, and when her sons were granted citizenship’ – events that spanned most of her life in Athens.
9relationship coach See Henry (1995), pp. 43–5. Döring (2011), p. 31, describes the discussion recorded in Aeschines’ Aspasia, concluding, ‘Thus there is an intimate connection between Aspasia, Xenophon and his wife, and Socrates’ remark that he was Aspasia’s student in matters of love’; but he interprets this connection as Aeschines’ ‘projecting a Socratic aspect’ onto Aspasia, rather than one that genuinely reflects the influence of Aspasia’s thinking on Socrates.
10Megara The different and somewhat perverse interpretation of the Megarian Decree by de Ste Croix (1972) – that it was a religious rather than an economic sanction – is generally rejected. Aristophanes’ story of the theft of prostitutes has often been thought to be a play on Herodotus’s opening chapters; Pelling (2000), p. 154, suggests that both authors are more likely to be parodying popular explanations of how wars are thought to begin.
11relationship The Greek citation in Athenaeus 13.589d is vague about exactly what kind of relationship it was; after listing other possible testimony (including artistic) to a love affair between Socrates and Aspasia, Pomeroy (1994), p. 82 n. 45, states that it ‘hints at an amorous relationship between the two’. Hermesianax’s florid verses (fragment 7.91–4) are dismissively characterised by Henry (1995), p. 64, as portraying Socrates’ feelings as ‘an adolescent crush’.
12what made Socrates different Lefkowitz (2008).
13express contradistinction Belfiore (2012), pp. 140–6, summarises the way in which Plato in the Symposium presents Socrates as failing fully to endorse either Diotima’s views or methods, not least in that, as a teacher, she ‘differs so radically from the philosopher-pupil who reports her words’ (p. 142).
AFTERWORD
1hold his drink We are told that no one ever saw Socrates drunk; at the end of Plato’s Symposium he continues to drink and debate with Agathon and Aristophanes into the early hours while other participants have fallen into a drunken sleep: Symposium 220a.
2egalitarian outlook Among the Vatican Sayings of Women is one that runs, ‘When asked what Socrates’ greatest attribute was, Xanthippe said “The fact that he presents the same face to noble and lowborn men alike”’.
3cannot relate to him Most (1993) gives excellent reasons why the vow refers to an ordinary recovery from illness, but argues that Plato is the person referred to; but since Plato is known to be still unwell, he less plausibly suggests that Socrates is predicting Plato’s recovery in a deathbed vision.