Style and Necessity in Thucydides by Tobias Joho

Author:Tobias Joho [Joho, Tobias]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192540034
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2022-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

5.4 Victors and Losers After Pylos: An Unlikely Similarity

Thucydides provides insight into the moods that prevail among the Athenians and the Spartans after the Athenians’ final success at Pylos and the capture of 120 Spartan and 172 Peloponnesian hoplites. These sentiments will shape their general mindset during the ensuing phase of the War. Although drastically contrary states of mind are dominant in each city, nevertheless both sides, victors and losers, turn out to be equally subject to natural inclinations that elude the moderating influence of rational control.

The Spartans have been reduced to a state of wholesale passivity with regard to the War and are in the grips of fear in the face of a potential revolution of the Helots: Thucydides describes them as ‘fearing that a revolution affecting the arrangements of their political system might happen to them’ (φοβούμενοι μὴ σφίσι νεώτερόν τι γένηται τῶν περὶ τὴν κατάστασιν, 4.55.1). Thus, the Spartans have succumbed again to fear, the mental state that has been crucial in triggering the Peloponnesian War. The phrasing of the passage merits attention: first, Thucydides uses nominal periphrasis involving a verb in the perfect, thus expressing occurrence as opposed to agency (γένηται); secondly, he fills the position of the subject with a phrase that interlocks two substantivized neuter expressions (νεώτερόν τι…τῶν περὶ τὴν κατάστασιν); thirdly, he marginalizes human agency by using a dative to refer to the Spartans (σφίσι), thus suggesting their passive exposure to circumstances.

According to Thucydides, the reason for the state of shock that prevails among the Spartans is as follows: ‘the calamity which had befallen them on the island had been great and unexpected’ (γεγενημένου μὲν τοῦ ἐν τῇ νήσῳ πάθους ἀνελπίστου καὶ μεγάλου, 4.55.1). Thucydides combines the term πάθος with a perfect participle of γίγνομαι, a combination that expresses maximum passivity. The situation confronting the Spartans is marked by greatness and unexpectedness, the typical characteristics of a μεταβολή. Thucydides systematically avoids phrasing that might suggest human agency. After mentioning the capture of Pylos and Cythera (Πύλου δὲ ἐχομένης καὶ Κυθήρων, 4.55.1), Thucydides uses another genitive absolute: καὶ πανταχόθεν σφᾶς περιεστῶτος πολέμου ταχέος καὶ ἀπροφυλάκτου (‘and War, swift and uncontainable by precaution, encircled them from all sides’, 4.55.1). Thucydides represents the War as the Spartans’ arch nemesis: it ‘encircles them’, in the guise of an enemy laying siege to his adversary. Used this way, the verb περιίσταμαι usually requires a personal subject.35 Instead of merely being confronted with a human opponent, however, the Spartans must deal with an impersonal super-agent, the Peloponnesian War itself.

Thucydides’ observations at 4.55 about the general mood prevailing at Sparta in the wake of Pylos feature further phrases that convey the Spartans’ passivity (4.55.3):

καὶ ἅμα τὰ τῆς τύχης πολλὰ καὶ ἐν ὀλίγῳ ξυμβάντα παρὰ λόγον αὐτοῖς ἔκπληξιν μεγίστην παρεῖχε…

And at the same time the strokes of fortune caused very great consternation, since they had happened to them contrary to expectation in such great numbers and in so short a time…

Just as in the previous passage, Thucydides does not direct attention to people acting, but emphasizes events happening (ξυμβάντα).

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