The Plutarch Podcast

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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

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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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Human sacrifice, debauched tyrants, and The Sacred Band of Thebes are all woven together in Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas, friend of Epaminondas and great Theban general.

Full show notes: https://plutarch.life/pelopidas

Important People

Epaminondas - Best friend of Pelopidas and philosopher-soldier-statesman of Thebes, Epaminondas is best known for his work on the battlefield in defeating the Spartans not just once, but nearly every time he meets them in pitched battle. 

Charon - The major leader of the democratic restoration inside of Thebes. His house provides the rendezvous point and he leads one of the two groups that assassinate the four tyrants put in place by Sparta. 

Philip of Macedon - The future king of Macedon who will solidify the generational instability Macedon has experienced for so long. In this life, he makes a brief appearance as one of thirty hostages who spends time in Thebes with a friend of Epaminondas, Pammenes. Philip brings all his first-hand experience of Theban military success back with him to Macedon. 

Alexander of Pherae - Tyrant over a polis in Thessaly begins spreading his power and conquering neighboring cities, who call on Thebes for protection against the tyrant. This man famously leaves a tragedy so that his subjects, who have never seen him cry, won't see how moved he is by actors on a stage. 

Important Places

Tegyra - 375 BC - Pelopidas's first real defeat of Spartan troops, it is this battle's success that encourages him to make the Sacred Band their own fighting unit, rather then spreading them throughout the phalanx. 

Leuctra - 371 BC - The first battle that humiliates the Spartans, showing the entire Greek world that Thebes is the dominant power under who two talented generals, Pelopidas and Epaminondas. 

Mantineia - 362 BC - Another succesful battle which Epaminondas fights without Pelopidas, who had died a couple years earlier. Because Epaminondas dies of wounds from this battle, the Theban hegemony over Greece dies with him and the poleis fight with each other with no clear leader until Macedon marches down from the North (338 BC). 

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Full Show Notes: https://plutarch.life/agesilaus

Important People

Agis II - The Spartan king and older brother of Agesilaus who led Sparta during most of the latter half of the Peloponnesian War. After his death around 398 BC, the Spartans must decide whether his son, whose father could be Alcibiades, has a legitimate claim to the throne or whether they should grant the kingship to Agesilaus. 

Lysander - Spartan naval commander who conquered Athens and annexed the old Athenian Empire, enriching his friends along the way. His influence in Sparta is powerful enough to reinterpret an oracle and convince the Spartan people to accept Agesilaus as their king. 

Xenophon - Personal friend of Agesilaus and Socrates, Xenophon made Agesilaus the protagonist of his Hellenika and then went so far as to write another encomiastic biography of Agesilaus. Plutarch writes this life and the Life of Pelopidas with these works of Xenophon in mind and attempts in part to provide for us a perspective that balances out the pro-Spartan biases of Xenophon with Plutarch's pro-Boeotian leanings. 

Pharnabazus - Are you a good satrap, or a bad satrap? Pharnabazus is the satrap Agesilaus would love to have as a friend, but will also respect as an enemy; he's a man of his word who honors his commitments and deals fairly with both enemy and friend. 

Tissaphernes - A perfidious satrap mistrusted by every Greek who interacts with him, particularly Alcibiades. When he meets his end (as detailed in this life), Plutarch can't find a reason to be sad. 

Antalcidas - The ephor (re-elected many times?) who negotiates in Persia for the King's Peace (387 BC sometimes also called the Peace of Antalcidas)

Sphodrias - The Spartan opportunist who attempts to take the Athenian port at the Peiraeus by surprise at night. He fails and is recalled to Sparta for trial, in which he is acquitted because of the influence of his friends and Agesilaus's son. 

Cleonymus - Sphodrias's son 

Epaminondas - The Theban general who invades Laconia twice, victorious in the battles of Leuctra (371 BC) and Mantineia (362 BC), his wounds at the latter lead to his early death and the unraveling of Theban hegemony in the Peloponnese. 

Archidamus III - Agesilaus's son

Chabrias - The Athenian naval mercenary who serves first under Tachys and then under Nectabanis in Egypt. 

Nectabanis or Nectanebo II - The Egyptian leader who revolts from Tachys and convinces Agesilaus to switch sides and join him. Agesilaus's tactical perspective allows Nectabanis to secure his claim to the throne. Nectabanis sends Agesilaus back to Sparta with 230 silver talents. 

Agamemnon and Menelaus - The two brothers who led the Bronze Age attack against Troy now immortalized in Homer's Iliad and whose homeward journeys are recounted in Homer's Odyssey. Because Agesilaus begins his reign by attacking Persia, Plutarch draws many comparisons with Agamemnon in this life (5.4; 6.4.; 6.5; 9.4). Since Agesilaus dies near where Menelaus was shipwrecked on his way home (cf. Odyssey Book 4), Agesilaus can be compared with both leaders of this legendary expedition. 

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This wily Spartan commander defeated Athens, and his authority even eclipses that of the Spartan kings. Did Lysander corrupt the Spartans with luxury?

Important People

Spartans

• Agesilaus
• Callicratidas
• Gylippus

Persians

• Cyrus
• Pharnabazus

Athenians

• Alcibiades

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Alcibiades fought and strategized for Athens, Sparta, Persia, Athens (again), and Thrace, proving that he fought the entire time only for himself. Was it vanity or pride? Enjoy the first truly negative portrayal Plutarch tries to give, though Plutarch in all his humanity can still defend Alcibiades from his most malicious detractors.

Parallel: Coriolanus

Important People

Spartans:

• Agis II - Spartan King at the time Alcibiades defects to the Spartans. Alcibiades advises Agis to occupy Deceleia, preventing the Athenians from accessing their farms for the remainder of the war. 
  • Timaea - Spartan Queen
  • Leotychides - son of Timaea and Alcibiades, disinherited from the throne.
• Lysander - Wily Spartan naval commander who finally manages to defeat the Athenians decisively at sea. He then besieges Athens and sets up a government of thirty tyrannical oligarchs backed up by a Spartan bodyguard. Alcibiades wisely never engages directly with Lysander, though one of his lietuenant does in Alcibiades's absence. 

Persians:

• Pharnabazus - One of two powerful Persian satraps in Western Asia Minor with which Alcibiades fights once while trying to keep access to the Black Sea open for Athens. The second time they meet, Alcibiades has abandoned Athens for the last time and seeks to become what Themistocles was, a resident and advisor of the Persian Empire. 
• Tissaphernes - A scheming satrap with a great deal in common with Alcibiades. He does and says what he needs to to get his own way. We'll see him again in the Life of Agesilaus.
• Cyrus - Younger son of the Persian King Darius II, Cyrus comes out to Asia Minor to deal with squabbling satraps and to crush Athens for good. He allies himself with Lysander and funds the navy that ultimately destroys Athens. 

Athenians:

• Nicias - Alcibiades's main political rival in Athens, famous for his superstition and his vacillation, Alcibiades's confidence and charisma attract a much larger following. 
• Antiochus - A vice-commander left in charge while Alcibiades away. He ignore Alc's direct command. notto engage with Lysander and in the ensuing battle loses and dies. 

Important Places

Deceleia (23.2) - A mountain citadel of Attica, about 14 miles from Athens towards Boeotia, commanding the Athenian plain and the shortest routes to Euboea and Boeotia, occupied by the Spartans in 413 B.C. at Alcibiades's advice!

Samos (25) - Island in the east-central Aegean originally conquered by Pericles but serving as a strategic base for the Athenian navy during the Peloponnesian Wars. When an oligarchic revolution occurs in Athens, Samos becomes the base-in-exile of the democratic faction, which Alcibiades leads triumphantly home. 

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Nicias helps us understand why losers are still worth studying. Like Cassandra, he prophesied for the Athenian people that they could not defeat Syracuse and then when selected as a leader for the expedition, he comes quite close to overturning his own prophecy.

See the full show notes here.

Parallel: Crassus

Important People

• Cleon - The first demagogue to exert influence after Pericles's death, he prosecuted the war against Sparta fairly succesfully, though at much greater loss of life than Pericles had, only to die about 10 years after the war had begun in a battle to regain a former Athenian conquest: Amphipolis. 
• Alcibiades - Brazen and unpredictable, this student of Socrates will get his fair treatment in the life right after this one. He makes an appearance here as a pro-war demagogue, talented general, and traitor to the Athenians. 
• Lamachus - One of the original three generals sent to Syracuse. He dies in a duel he initiated against a Syracusan commander. 
• Demosthenes - Not the orator of a couple generations later. A talented general during the Peloponnesian War that is sent to replace Alcibiades and Lamachus and bring fresh perspective and troops. 
• Gylippus - The Spartan general hired by the Syracusans to lead their troops and defeat Athens. With the help of the Corinthian naval commander Gongylus, he succeeds.

Important Places

Delos - An island in the middle of the Aegean Sea, sacred to Apollo, on which Nicias funds an elaborate choral festival. It used to be the site of the taxes collected for the Delian League, but under Pericles this money had been moved to Athens. Many historians take this move to signal the death of the League and the beginning of the Athenian Empire. 

Syracuse - Largest and wealthiest polis on the island of Sicily, Syracuse had made enough enemies who sought the help of Athens in freeing them from Syracuse's oversight. 

Egesta (Segesta) and Leontini - The smaller Sicilian poleis that ask Athens for help against Syracuse.

Plemmyrium (see map below) - The strategic promontory which Nicias controls for much of the battle against Syracuse. Control of this promontory allows him access to his supply lines back in Athens by means of the sea. When he loses access to this, his situation grows dire rather quickly as retreat is almost entirely cut off. 

Epipolae (see map below) - A triangular plateau rising above the city of Syracuse allowing a view inside the city. Since it is surrounded on all sides by cliffs, it's also an easily defensible position. While Nicias captures this strategically important landmass, he also uses its position to oversee the siege of Syracuse as he orders his soldier to build a wall around the entire polis, about the same size, according to Plutarch, as the wall around Athens. 

Thapsus - Nicias's chosen landing point, about 5 miles north of Syracuse (not on the map below). Fun fact: it happens to be the archaeological site in which archaeologists have found the oldest signs of an inhabited town on the island of Sicily. 

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Check out the full show notes here.

Pericles brought Athens to its peak, but ended his own life in a plague at the beginning of a long war with Sparta. 

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Obscure and under-rated, Cimon gives us a personal look at the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, also called the Pentecontaetia.

Important People

• Aristides - The Athenian politician and general famous for his integrity. Main political rival of the cunning Themistocles.
• Themistocles - Mastermind strategist behind the tactics of Salamis and the abandonment of Athens 
• Pericles - Athenian politician who will lead Athens into the Peloponnesian War and then die of the plague only a few years later. 

Important Places

• River Strymon - Thrace (7.1)
• Scyros (8.3) (Dolopians? Thessalians?)
• Pamphylia (12.2) Chelidonian Islands; Cnidus and Triopium
• Phaselis (12.3) Chians (Chios)
• Ithome (17.2)
• Tanagra (17.3)
• Citium (18.1, 5)

Check out the full show notes here. 

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Themistocles saved Athens in its darkest hour, yet he dies in the Persian empire, the inveterate enemy of Athens. Is Themistocles a patriot or a traitor?

Important People

• Aristides - Themistocles's main political rival and a man he has to recall from exile to help him fight Salamis. Plutarch considers Aristides to be one of the noblest Athenians who ever lived, and so their lives give us two different perspectives on almost the same time period. 
• Eurybiades - The Spartan general in charge of the combined Greek forces at Artemisium and Salamis. 

Important Places

• Marathon
• Artemisium 
• Thermopylae
• Salamis

Show Notes and Outline of the Life

Helpful External Links

Battle of Salamis Podcast by Barry Strauss (Classics Professor at Cornell University)

Themistocles in Paintings

Plutarch's Life of Themistocles - Bernadotte Perrin translation

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We're wrapping season 2 with a bonus episode looking back at Plutarch's Parallels. We discuss the six biographies of the men who laids the foundations for Greek and Roman greatness. We'll also answer a couple questions that come up, like "Why are the comparison essays so much shorter than the biographies?" and "Why compare the Greek and Roman life at all?" 

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