WAS THE POLIS A PERSON IN CLASSICAL ATHENS? CIVIC BODIES AND CHORAL POLITICS IN THE THEATER

Abstract

In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides waits until he has passed the midpoint of Book 1 to introduce an individual speaking ‘character’ into his narrative. He does not do so until the scene of the Congress at Sparta (1.67–88), where it is first ‘the Corinthians’ and then ‘the Athenians’ who plead their cases before the Spartan assembly. One of the functions of this scene is to illustrate the internal division of opinion among the Spartans, and Thucydides now brings two distinct, elite Spartans onstage to voice their conflicting perspectives: King Archidamus addresses his countrymen urging caution (1.80–5), while the ephor Sthenelaidas makes suitably laconic remarks pressing for war (1.86). Before this turning point, Thucydides had carried out his analysis of the war's causes exclusively with reference to foreign rulers and Greek polis-populations (‘the Athenians’, ‘the Spartans’, etc.)—and not to any individual actors or leaders of those poleis, such as Archidamus and Sthenelaidas of Sparta.