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Thucydides on the Fate of the Democratic Empire
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- Authors
- Issue Date
- 2008-06
- Citation
- Journal of International and Area Studies, Vol.15 No.1, pp. 93-109
- Keywords
- Thucydides ; Peloponnesian War ; Athenian Empire ; Athenian Democracy ; Democratic Empire ; Pericles ; Mytilenean Debates ; Sicilian Expedition
- Abstract
- This paper investigates Thucydides instruction on the problematic concept of the democratic
empire. Although the term democratic empire, that is, the combination of democracy and empire, is
often justified in the modern context, it appeared to the ancient to be very problematic because of its
inherent contradiction. The paper examines how Thucydides dealt with the Athenian Empire as an
exemplary case of democratic empire. More specifically it examines how Thucydides related the rise
and fall of the Athenian Empire to its characteristics of democratic empire. Many scholars attributed
the collapse of the Empire to the excessive desire of the demos. I do not deny this traditional reading.
Yet I argue that the Athenian demos was fully aware of what it was doing: it preferred democracy to
empire when it had to choose either. By reading closely Thucydides I try to show how the Athenian
demos constantly maintained democracy even when its preference for democracy could endanger its
empire. Based on this reading of Thucydides, I conclude that Thucydides instructs both democratic
citizens and imperialist elites that they cannot maintain democratic empire in the long run: they should choose democracy or imperialism at a certain point.
- ISSN
- 1226-8550
- Language
- English
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