Papers by Vasileios Liotsakis
The thematic and compositional divergences between the Anabasis and the Indikē show that Arrian d... more The thematic and compositional divergences between the Anabasis and the Indikē show that Arrian differentiated in his mind the generic physiognomy of the one work from that of the other and, exactly for this reason, in the Indikē he had no qualms about deviating from the limitations of the Anabasis’ march narrative and about creating its generic alter ego with a clearly more concentrated presence of paradoxical, supernatural and marvelous elements. His choice to present Dionysus as the ultimate ancestor of some Indian monarchs belongs to these passages of the Indikē where the supernatural and human history cross paths in a way unknown to the Anabasis. Within the framework of his effort to associate the Indians’ prehistory with Dionysus, Arrian seems to have felt more confident to share with the readers his certainty about the myths of Dionysus and India and to avoid addressing speculations we find in the Anabasis which would elicit the readers’ doubts about what they read.
Little attention has been paid to the >Symposium<’s close linkages with the ‘manifesto’ about the... more Little attention has been paid to the >Symposium<’s close linkages with the ‘manifesto’ about the proper organization of banquets we find in the >Laws<. In this paper, I endeavor to demonstrate that the similarities between the >Symposium< and the Athenian’s normative agenda about banquets in the >Laws< should not merely be seen as sporadic thematic affinities; these connections are so close and so many that it can justifiably be argued that in the >Symposium< Plato follows a system of values which we also find in its entirety in the >Laws<. This training, I will argue, is inextricably related in Plato’s mind to the virtue of courage, the other part of which entails practicing keeping in check one’s fears in battle. Consequently, Socrates, although not the most appropriate candidate for the position of a banquet’s head, undoubtedly resists more than anyone else in the Symposium the “enemies” he confronts at the party and thereby emerges as not only the most moderate but also as the most courageous of all.
This study examines three patterns of religious content in Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander: (a) ri... more This study examines three patterns of religious content in Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander: (a) ritual reports, (b) religious material culture, and (c) omens. Although ritual reports and omens mainly mark turning points of the expedition and certain qualities of Alexander’s character, the passages pertaining to religious material culture also transfer our focal point of interest to the author’s religious beliefs and his literary and cultural tastes. Most importantly, Arrian uses ritual reports and omens in compliance with (a) the dynamic portrait he wished to delineate for Alexander and (b) his opinion about Alexander’s relationship with religion on three different levels (alleged divine origins, stories about the divine favor Alexander enjoyed, and his rivalry with Dionysus and Heracles). A comparative reading of these three religious patterns reveals how Arrian, as a narrator, achieved a creative compromise between his own assessment of Alexander and the historical material he drew from his sources.
Scholars tend to regard the citations of the Anabasis of Alexander as an expression of Arrian‟s u... more Scholars tend to regard the citations of the Anabasis of Alexander as an expression of Arrian‟s uncertainty or of the fact that he was drawing his information from sources other than Ptolemy and Aristobulus, while no efforts have been made to explore the functions of source citations and indirect speech in the work which move beyond the criteria of uncertainty and detachment. In this paper, I argue that Arrian took advantage of the traditional multifunctional potential of source citations and indirect speech in his Anabasis of Alexander, and in this way I reconsider the issue of how Arrian used his sources. My main argument is that in the Anabasis source citations, mostly the impersonal but occasionally the named ones too, are frequently aimed at emphasizing the following four aspects: (a) a shift in the author‟s interest towards biographical details about Alexander (his characterization and a focus on his interpersonal relationships); (b) the author‟s intention to digress from his linear historical narrative; (c) pivotal points of the enterprise; and (d) introducing or transitioning to a new event of the campaign.
This paper focuses on two key functions of digressions in Arrian’s
Anabasis of Alexander. First, ... more This paper focuses on two key functions of digressions in Arrian’s
Anabasis of Alexander. First, Liotsakis notes that the very few sizable excursuses of the Anabasis participate in its narrative arrangement in an energetic fashion, marking pivotal points both in the Macedonian enterprise in Asia and in the development of Alexander’s character. He examines the compositional techniques through which Arrian used the few digressions in his work as narrative milestones. Second, Liotsakis elaborates on the intense meta-generic concerns of these central digressions. In particular, he argues that, through a number of self-referential statements, Arrian invites the reader to compare the Anabasis with works of several literary genres and thereby to define its own generic physiognomy.
In his ArsR hetorica,Aristotle warns the aspiringspeakers of his aget hat ar hetor is always invi... more In his ArsR hetorica,Aristotle warns the aspiringspeakers of his aget hat ar hetor is always invited to convince manyd ifferent categories of listeners through the same words. The philosopher refers to the differences between three kinds of audiencesthe young,the old, and the middle-aged-with regard to their character and mentality (Rh. 1388b-1390b). Although Aristotle focuses in this passageonthe ageofthe listeners,t herea re of course several other criteria for differentiating an ancient audience, such as social and financial status, personal interests, sympathies or aversions, education, or even the place of residence. When Pericles exhorted the Athenians to relyontheir LongW alls and not to spare theirland about to be devastated by the Peloponnesians (Th. 1.143.3-5; 2.60-64), his advice must have sounded altogether more reasonable to an Athenian merchant than, say, to an Acharnian who based the prosperity of his oikos on this land itself. Aristotle'sthoughts are suggestiveofthe highimportance allocated to the heterogeneity of the audience in the eyes of ancient rhetors,and this far the ArsRhetorica is indeed useful for as tudent of ancient rhetoric. How relevant,t hough, can such speculations be to another literary genre of antiquity,c lassicalh istoriography?I s there anygain from asking whether an ancient historiographer took into consideration the diversity of his readership to the same degreea sapublic speaker did with his audience? Most importantly, did such speculations determine the historian's choices in content and style, at the level of both narrative arrangement and vocabulary?Inthis paper,byelaborating on Arrian and his Anabasis of Alexander,Iwill answer these questions in the affirmative,byarguingthat Arrian has aclose eyeonthe various preconceptions and expectations of ah eterogeneous audience. In trying to apprehend how readerlydiversity impacted upon Greek historiographyofthe Imperial Era, Flavius Arrian's Anabasis of Alexander can servefor us as a highlyi lluminatings tarting point.A rrian, just like all Greek authorso ft he Second Sophistic, was particularlyc oncerned about the impression his writingsw ould make for manydifferent kinds of readers. In his case, the Bithynian intellectual wished for his work to impress both his literate compatriots and his Romanr eaders(includingt he emperor himself), enablingh im to develop his political career in the Roman world. In this respect,t he Anabasis had to meet the stylistic, ideological, and political specifications of its intellectual environment and to present Arrian as ag ifted writera nd avid connoisseur of the Attic literature of the glorious Greek OpenAccess. ©2 021M ario Baumann, Vasileios Liotsakis, publiziertv on De Gruyter. Dieses Werk ist lizenziertunter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung-4.0 International Lizenz.
Οι απόψεις που εκφράζονται στα κείμενα του περιοδικού Πέλοπας/Pelopas αντιπροσωπεύουν αποκλειστικ... more Οι απόψεις που εκφράζονται στα κείμενα του περιοδικού Πέλοπας/Pelopas αντιπροσωπεύουν αποκλειστικά τους συγγραφείς που τα υπογράφουν και δεν δεσμεύουν κατ' ουδέναν τρόπο τα μέλη της Επιστημονικής, Συντακτικής και Συντονιστικής επιτροπής ή κάποιο άλλο συλλογικό ακαδημαϊκό ή διοικητικό όργανο του Πανεπιστημίου Πελοποννήσου. © Τα πνευματικά δικαιώματα των δημοσιευμένων άρθρων ανήκουν στο περιοδικό. Η ακαδημαϊκή χρήση τους είναι ελεύθερη, υπό την προϋπόθεση να αναφέρεται η πηγή προέλευσης. Απαγορεύεται η μερική ή/και ολική αναδημοσίευση κειμένων που δημοσιεύονται στο περιοδικό, χωρίς τη συγκατάθεση των Επιμελητών ή της Συντακτικής Επιτροπής και επιβάλλεται αναφορά στην πρώτη δημοσίευσή τους στο περιοδικό. http://library.uop.gr/magazine Με τη συγχρηματοδότηση της Ελλάδας και της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης ΠΙΝΑΚΑΣ ΠΕΡΙΕΧΟΜΕΝΩΝ
This chapter examines the ways in which three authors of Alexander the Great (Plutarch, Arrian an... more This chapter examines the ways in which three authors of Alexander the Great (Plutarch, Arrian and Curtius Rufus) incorporate in their accounts the following aspects of Alexander’s rhetoric of religion: (a) his claims that he was descended from Ammon Zeus; (b) stories and anecdotes which promoted the idea that the king enjoyed divine favour; and (c) Alexander’s rivalry with gods and demi-gods, such as Dionysus and Heracles. The present comparative analysis focuses on the narrative means by which each of these writers leads the reader to specific verdicts about the aforementioned three aspects of Alexander’s relationship with religion, and endeavours to shed light on the levels on which each author differentiated himself from the others in this respect.
This chapter examines Thucydides’ digression about the tyrannicides, with which the historian que... more This chapter examines Thucydides’ digression about the tyrannicides, with which the historian questions the Athenians’ memory of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, and explains the truth about the tyrannicides and the Peisistratids. The point that is put forward is that Thucydides, in interrupting with this digression his account about Alcibiades’ involvement in the case of the Herms, not only to criticizes the flaws of his compatriots’ collective memory about the tyrannicides, but he also conveys the message that the story of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton was intentionally distorted by politicians and demagogues in their speeches against Alcibiades in the Assembly and in court. Thucydides’ emphasis on the institutional and rhetorical context within which the tyrannicides were evoked as democratic symbols at the expense of Alcibiades’ alleged plan to overthrow democracy emerges from specific verbal choices. The surviving works of 4th-century oratory which refer to the tyrannicides prove that in the Assembly and court the Athenians referred to Harmodius and Aristogeiton in an
idealizing fashion, which leads to the conclusion that Thucydides, by offering an account which belied the established idealized image of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton, thus wishes, inter alia, to highlight historiography’s superiority over oratory in terms of the degree of validity with which each genre contributed to the preservation of historical truth.
In his paper “The Thucydidean Question, Structuralism, and ‘Neo-Unitarianism’: Near Misses and Su... more In his paper “The Thucydidean Question, Structuralism, and ‘Neo-Unitarianism’: Near Misses and Suspense in the History” Vasileios Liotsakis argues that a particular shift is discernible from the first four books to the last four books of the History in the way Thucydides uses near miss episodes. Up to the Spartan failure on Sphacteria the near misses are dissociated from one another with regard to the outcome which each of them leads us to anticipate; by contrast, after the account of Sphacteria and until the end of the History, they are organized in two suspenseful narrative threads, which concern respectively the state of the Spartan army after the defeat at Sphacteria and the state of the Athenian navy after the destruction of Athenian forces in Sicily. The Thucydidean narrative thus evolves from a phase in which it elicits suspense of a local range to a phase in which it raises intense speculation about issues of Panhellenic gravity. Liotsakis thereby seeks the roots of this narrative development in Thucydides’ intellectual evolution, an issue closely related to the so-called Thucydidean Question
The meagreness of the scholarly 'acquis communautaire' of that era becomes evident, inter alia, b... more The meagreness of the scholarly 'acquis communautaire' of that era becomes evident, inter alia, by the proneness of many interpreters to introduce their pioneering treatises with nothing but vague dictionary definitions, thereby underlining the superficiality and thus the inadequacy of those definitions. In 1980, in his monograph Spannung in Text und Film: Spannung und Suspense als Textverarbeitungskategorien, the pedagogue Heinz-Lothar Borringo opens his analysis with the definition of Larousse Dictionnaire Encyclopédique: Suspense n.m. moment d'un film, passage d'une oeuvre radiophonique ou littéraire, où l'action tient le spectateur, l'auditeur ou le lecteur dans l'attente angoissée de ce qui va se produire. 3 3 . This structuralist focus had an immense impact on subsequent suspense theories: Bruce
BY UNDERTAKING to narrate the navigation of the Indian coastline
by the Macedonian fleet, Arrian ... more BY UNDERTAKING to narrate the navigation of the Indian coastline
by the Macedonian fleet, Arrian aspired to compose a work which,
along with the Anabasis of Alexander, would serve as an integral part of
his prosopography of Alexander. On the other hand, Arrian was also
fully aware of the fact that, in writing the Indian account, he was also
invited to follow a long tradition of exotic literature on the mirabilia of
India. As a result, in the Indikē the reader is offered the opportunity to
meet with passages that serve both the author’s need to amuse and his
intention to focus on the characters of Alexander and Nearchus.
Although modern scholarship has repeatedly noted the twofold nature of the work, little attention has been paid to if and how these two
goals intermingle on a narrative level. The present study constitutes the
first narratological analysis of Arrian’s Indikē and elaborates exactly on
this question: How did Arrian manage to reach a compromise in his narrative between these two goals of the work, the amusement of the reader and the delineation of Alexander’s and Nearchus’ literary portraits? By drawing from recent outcomes of psychology, theory of literature, and narratology, I examine the narrative techniques through which Arrian exploits exotic stories about the Macedonian navy’s voyage in the Indian Sea in his effort not only to entertain his readers but also to shape a favorable image for the protagonists. The main point of argument of this essay is that the exotic and amusing elements of the Indikē should not be seen cut off from the literary representation of Alexander’s and Nearchus’ intellectual and moral qualities but as a part of this representation. The basic narrative technique, through which Arrian combines elements of exotic content and characterization, is the creation of suspense.
Abandoning the traditional tendency to focus on the exotic
character of Arrian’s Indikē, this pap... more Abandoning the traditional tendency to focus on the exotic
character of Arrian’s Indikē, this paper explores how Arrian’s work
contributes to the delineation of Alexander’s character. By drawing
from modern theories of suspense, this study argues that Arrian’s aim
in relating the Macedonian fleet’s adventurous voyage in the Indian Sea
was to invite his readers through a suspenseful narrative to sympathize
with Nearchus’s and Alexander’s concern about the fate of the troops.
The Indikē can thus partly be seen as Arrian’s defense of Alexander
against those who accused him of neglecting his troops’ safety on his
return from India to Babylon in 325 B.C.E.
Following up Donelli'sa nd Konstantakos' papers concerning Herodotus' narrativeso nN ear-Eastern ... more Following up Donelli'sa nd Konstantakos' papers concerning Herodotus' narrativeso nN ear-Eastern rulers, this studye laborates first the wayi n which Thucydidesa dopts and adapts his predecessor'sn arrative method.T he two test cases are the digression on Sitalces' expedition against Macedonia in book 2a nd the account of the Athenians' lust in books 4a nd 5. Second, this paper examines Thucydides' innovation of shaping stereotypical episodes on international relationships,a nd through this observation explains some of the well-known peculiarities of book 8. The conclusion of this examination is that although these threen arrative samples appear to be unusual and inconsistent with their context,they mayalso be very enlighteningwith regardtoThucydides' effort to develop anew method of historical writing that would supercede traditional narrative models of his age.
Abstract: In this paper I elaborate on the very issue of ‘Thucydides and religion’ from the ancie... more Abstract: In this paper I elaborate on the very issue of ‘Thucydides and religion’ from the ancient reader’s perspective. Stepping on the concept of the ‘implied reader’, introduced by the reader-response criticism, I am trying to explain that the ancients grasped the supernatural dimension of Thucydides’ History more than we nowadays do. Specifically, I focus on three test cases, the plague excursus (2, 47-54), the siege of
Plataea (2, 71-78) and the narrative in 3, 104-5, 32, 1 concerning the Athenian greed. I am trying to construct the implied ancient reader on the basis of ancient – literary or not – sources.
Chapters 121f. of the second book of Herodotus' Ἱστορίη are dedicated to king Rampsinitus. In the... more Chapters 121f. of the second book of Herodotus' Ἱστορίη are dedicated to king Rampsinitus. In the first one, 121, Herodotus narrates the famous novella of the king and the cunning thief of the royal treasure. Much has already been written about this novella and its connections to Egyptian and non-Egyptian folktales have been satisfactorily examined 1 . On the other hand, the second story, that of Rampsinitus' journey in the Underworld (II 122), presents a number of aspects that are worth investigating, such as: a) the probable form and structure of the original tale, as heard by Herodotus; b) some folktale motifs which have not so far been noticed 2 ; and c) the sources of the tale in both historical and narrative terms.
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Papers by Vasileios Liotsakis
Anabasis of Alexander. First, Liotsakis notes that the very few sizable excursuses of the Anabasis participate in its narrative arrangement in an energetic fashion, marking pivotal points both in the Macedonian enterprise in Asia and in the development of Alexander’s character. He examines the compositional techniques through which Arrian used the few digressions in his work as narrative milestones. Second, Liotsakis elaborates on the intense meta-generic concerns of these central digressions. In particular, he argues that, through a number of self-referential statements, Arrian invites the reader to compare the Anabasis with works of several literary genres and thereby to define its own generic physiognomy.
Aristogeiton was intentionally distorted by politicians and demagogues in their speeches against Alcibiades in the Assembly and in court. Thucydides’ emphasis on the institutional and rhetorical context within which the tyrannicides were evoked as democratic symbols at the expense of Alcibiades’ alleged plan to overthrow democracy emerges from specific verbal choices. The surviving works of 4th-century oratory which refer to the tyrannicides prove that in the Assembly and court the Athenians referred to Harmodius and Aristogeiton in an
idealizing fashion, which leads to the conclusion that Thucydides, by offering an account which belied the established idealized image of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton, thus wishes, inter alia, to highlight historiography’s superiority over oratory in terms of the degree of validity with which each genre contributed to the preservation of historical truth.
by the Macedonian fleet, Arrian aspired to compose a work which,
along with the Anabasis of Alexander, would serve as an integral part of
his prosopography of Alexander. On the other hand, Arrian was also
fully aware of the fact that, in writing the Indian account, he was also
invited to follow a long tradition of exotic literature on the mirabilia of
India. As a result, in the Indikē the reader is offered the opportunity to
meet with passages that serve both the author’s need to amuse and his
intention to focus on the characters of Alexander and Nearchus.
Although modern scholarship has repeatedly noted the twofold nature of the work, little attention has been paid to if and how these two
goals intermingle on a narrative level. The present study constitutes the
first narratological analysis of Arrian’s Indikē and elaborates exactly on
this question: How did Arrian manage to reach a compromise in his narrative between these two goals of the work, the amusement of the reader and the delineation of Alexander’s and Nearchus’ literary portraits? By drawing from recent outcomes of psychology, theory of literature, and narratology, I examine the narrative techniques through which Arrian exploits exotic stories about the Macedonian navy’s voyage in the Indian Sea in his effort not only to entertain his readers but also to shape a favorable image for the protagonists. The main point of argument of this essay is that the exotic and amusing elements of the Indikē should not be seen cut off from the literary representation of Alexander’s and Nearchus’ intellectual and moral qualities but as a part of this representation. The basic narrative technique, through which Arrian combines elements of exotic content and characterization, is the creation of suspense.
character of Arrian’s Indikē, this paper explores how Arrian’s work
contributes to the delineation of Alexander’s character. By drawing
from modern theories of suspense, this study argues that Arrian’s aim
in relating the Macedonian fleet’s adventurous voyage in the Indian Sea
was to invite his readers through a suspenseful narrative to sympathize
with Nearchus’s and Alexander’s concern about the fate of the troops.
The Indikē can thus partly be seen as Arrian’s defense of Alexander
against those who accused him of neglecting his troops’ safety on his
return from India to Babylon in 325 B.C.E.
Plataea (2, 71-78) and the narrative in 3, 104-5, 32, 1 concerning the Athenian greed. I am trying to construct the implied ancient reader on the basis of ancient – literary or not – sources.
Anabasis of Alexander. First, Liotsakis notes that the very few sizable excursuses of the Anabasis participate in its narrative arrangement in an energetic fashion, marking pivotal points both in the Macedonian enterprise in Asia and in the development of Alexander’s character. He examines the compositional techniques through which Arrian used the few digressions in his work as narrative milestones. Second, Liotsakis elaborates on the intense meta-generic concerns of these central digressions. In particular, he argues that, through a number of self-referential statements, Arrian invites the reader to compare the Anabasis with works of several literary genres and thereby to define its own generic physiognomy.
Aristogeiton was intentionally distorted by politicians and demagogues in their speeches against Alcibiades in the Assembly and in court. Thucydides’ emphasis on the institutional and rhetorical context within which the tyrannicides were evoked as democratic symbols at the expense of Alcibiades’ alleged plan to overthrow democracy emerges from specific verbal choices. The surviving works of 4th-century oratory which refer to the tyrannicides prove that in the Assembly and court the Athenians referred to Harmodius and Aristogeiton in an
idealizing fashion, which leads to the conclusion that Thucydides, by offering an account which belied the established idealized image of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton, thus wishes, inter alia, to highlight historiography’s superiority over oratory in terms of the degree of validity with which each genre contributed to the preservation of historical truth.
by the Macedonian fleet, Arrian aspired to compose a work which,
along with the Anabasis of Alexander, would serve as an integral part of
his prosopography of Alexander. On the other hand, Arrian was also
fully aware of the fact that, in writing the Indian account, he was also
invited to follow a long tradition of exotic literature on the mirabilia of
India. As a result, in the Indikē the reader is offered the opportunity to
meet with passages that serve both the author’s need to amuse and his
intention to focus on the characters of Alexander and Nearchus.
Although modern scholarship has repeatedly noted the twofold nature of the work, little attention has been paid to if and how these two
goals intermingle on a narrative level. The present study constitutes the
first narratological analysis of Arrian’s Indikē and elaborates exactly on
this question: How did Arrian manage to reach a compromise in his narrative between these two goals of the work, the amusement of the reader and the delineation of Alexander’s and Nearchus’ literary portraits? By drawing from recent outcomes of psychology, theory of literature, and narratology, I examine the narrative techniques through which Arrian exploits exotic stories about the Macedonian navy’s voyage in the Indian Sea in his effort not only to entertain his readers but also to shape a favorable image for the protagonists. The main point of argument of this essay is that the exotic and amusing elements of the Indikē should not be seen cut off from the literary representation of Alexander’s and Nearchus’ intellectual and moral qualities but as a part of this representation. The basic narrative technique, through which Arrian combines elements of exotic content and characterization, is the creation of suspense.
character of Arrian’s Indikē, this paper explores how Arrian’s work
contributes to the delineation of Alexander’s character. By drawing
from modern theories of suspense, this study argues that Arrian’s aim
in relating the Macedonian fleet’s adventurous voyage in the Indian Sea
was to invite his readers through a suspenseful narrative to sympathize
with Nearchus’s and Alexander’s concern about the fate of the troops.
The Indikē can thus partly be seen as Arrian’s defense of Alexander
against those who accused him of neglecting his troops’ safety on his
return from India to Babylon in 325 B.C.E.
Plataea (2, 71-78) and the narrative in 3, 104-5, 32, 1 concerning the Athenian greed. I am trying to construct the implied ancient reader on the basis of ancient – literary or not – sources.
In his sturdy book, A Rhetoric of Motives, Kenneth Burke argues that a fundamental purpose of rhetoric is identification: a speaker gives signs to the audience, mainly through language, indicating that his “properties” are the same or similar to those of the audience, thereby affirming a community with the audience and forging proximity. This is what Burke calls “consubstantiality” – the sharing of substance between two individuals – a process that ends in persuasion. Rhetoric also has the capacity to generate division or prolong hostility, persuading the audience by setting up people, matters or ideas as antithetical to the listeners. Rhetoric, in other words, creates a community: a conscious, psychological attachment to a group and the belief that this group has shared interests that are, in turn, at odds with those of other groups that may be constructed or implied by the speaker. Psychological and social studies indicate that the activation of group attitudes and identities and inter-group relations – in-group solidarity and out-group hostility – have a huge effect on the behaviours and attitudes in target audiences (e.g. Miller et al. 1981; Conover 1984; Lau 1989; Huddy 2003).
The techniques of unity and division in respect to rhetoric have been widely studied in classical scholarship, but only in a fragmentary way: there is no single, systematic and comprehensive study of these techniques. This gives scope for further research since there are several open questions: what forms does the rhetoric of identification take in Greek and Roman prose and poetry? What do these forms tell us about the speaker’s purpose, and how does he exploit them to the best rhetorical effect? What sources do we have about the reaction of the audience? How much difference does the nature of the speeches – forensic, deliberative and epideictic – make in the exploitation of the rhetoric of community and division?
Topics may include, but are not limited to considerations of:
a. language;
b. emotions;
c. performance;
d. memory;
e. humour theory;
f. gender-based approaches;
g. religion;
h. narrative, argumentation, ēthopoiia and other techniques that reinforce affiliation/ disaffiliation to groups.
Approaching Thucydides’ portrait of Alcibiades from a literary point of view, this paper supports that the contradictoriness of the Thucydidean narrative constitutes the author’s deliberate effort to reflect the contradictory nature of Alcibiades. Both of Alcibiades’ speeches (VI 16-18 and 89-92) intensify the atmosphere of suspicion against him, with the indisputability of his arguments being overshadowed by his real motives as delineated in the narrative itself or in authorial comments, while his arrogance, as depicted by his words, is both counterweighted as well as excused by his deeds. As for Thucydides’ comments (V 43, 2-3; VI 15; VIII 17, 2; 86, 4), they also shape an artful net of inconsistencies not only with opinions of others but also with the account itself. Even on a symbolic level, the narration mirrors the intense debate on Alcibiades: the latter, being the main point of interest in the two most celebrated digressions of the work (VI 53, 3 -59; VIII 45-54), emerges as the disturber of the narrative stability, a deliberate authorial choice that resembles the negative role of this man in the political stability of Athens as well as the difficulties his contemporaries faced in evaluating him.
The participants, a group of distinguished scholars from the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, addressed the issues of war narrative, military themes, and the philosophy of history in a wide range of ancient authors, from Herodotus and Thucydides to Josephus, Appian, and Cassius Dio, from Sallust and Livy to Quintus Curtius and Ammianus Marcellinus. The Greek academic community was represented (valiantly enough, we hope) by Professors Vasileios Liotsakis, Eleni Volonaki, and myself.
It is hoped that this will be the beginning of a series of annual conferences on ancient historiography, which will take place at the University of the Peloponnese, as an offshoot (or should we say a "spin-off"?) of the renowned "Trends in Classics" conferences which are being held for many years, to great international acclaim, at the University of Thessaloniki. Future themes may include, among other things, such fascinating domains as the histories of Alexander the Great and humour in ancient historical narrative.