The Mytilene Debate

Thucydides 3.36-49

Bibliographic Data

ID3938424
AuthorsA Andrewes (corresponding author)
Year1962
Volume16
Issue2
Pages64
Publication date1962-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhoenix (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1086942
OpenAlexW2314608007
LanguageEN
Citations received37

THE REVOLT OF MYTILENE in 428 was felt the more keenly at Athens because it was the very deliberate revolt of a specially favoured ally. When the news arrived that the city had surrendered to Paches, a decree was passed in anger that the adult males should be executed and the women and children enslaved. The order was sent off at once, but a revulsion of feeling the next day caused a second debate to be held, for which Thucydides has given us two speeches, one in which Kleon upholds the original decision, one in which Diodotos advises that the prisoners sent home by Paches be tried but the other Mytileneans let off. Both contain some unexpected material: they raise, as others do, the general question what relation Thucydides' speeches bear to anything actually said by real speakers; and also the particular questions, what function this debate performs in his work, and whether he judged Kleon fairly

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