Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

131

Aeschines, Letters, 3.178-3.182
nan If any one should ask you whether our city seems to you more glorious in our own time or in the time of our fathers, you would all agree, in the time of our fathers. And were there better men then than now? Then, eminent men; but now, far inferior. But rewards and crowns and proclamations, and maintenance in the Prytaneum—were these things more common then than now? Then, honors were rare among us, and the name of virtue was itself an honor. But now the custom is already completely faded out, and you do the crowning as a matter of habit, not deliberately.
nan Are you not therefore surprised, when you look at it in this light, that the rewards are now more numerous, but the city was then more prosperous? And that the men are now inferior, but were better then? I will try to explain this to you. Do you think, fellow citizens, that any man would ever have been willing to train for the pancratium or any other of the harder contests in the Olympic games, or any of the other games that confer a crown, if the crown were given, not to the best man, but to the man who had successfully intrigued for it? No man would ever have been willing.
nan But as it is, because the reward is rare, I believe, and because of the competition and the honor, and the undying fame that victory brings, men are willing to risk their bodies, and at the cost of the most severe discipline to carry the struggle to the end. Imagine, therefore, that you yourselves are the officials presiding over a contest in political virtue, and consider this, that if you give the prizes to few men and worthy, and in obedience to the laws, you will find many men to compete in virtue's struggle; but if your gifts are compliments to any man who seeks them and to those who intrigue for them, you will corrupt even honest minds.
nan How true this is, I wish to teach you a little more explicitly. Does it seem to you that Themistocles, who was general when you conquered the Persian in the battle of Salamis , was the better man, or Demosthenes, who the other day deserted his post? Miltiades, who won the battle of Marathon, or yonder man? Further—the men who brought back the exiled democracy from Phyle ? And Aristeides “the Just,” a title most unlike the name men give Demosthenes?
nan But, by the Olympian gods, I think one ought not to name those men on the same day with this monster! Now let Demosthenes show if anywhere stands written an order to crown any one of those men. Was the democracy, then, ungrateful? No, but noble-minded, and those men were worthy of their city. For they thought that their honor should be conferred, not in written words, but in the memory of those whom they had served; and from that time until this day it abides, immortal. But what rewards they did receive, it is well to recall.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

14 results
1. Aristophanes, Knights, 574-576, 573 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) 573. ἀλλὰ διεπάλαιον αὖθις. καὶ στρατηγὸς οὐδ' ἂν εἷς
2. Herodotus, Histories, 7.107 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE) 7.107. The only one of those who were driven out by the Greeks whom king Xerxes considered a valiant man was Boges, from whom they took Eion. He never ceased praising this man, and gave very great honor to his sons who were left alive in Persia; indeed Boges proved himself worthy of all praise. When he was besieged by the Athenians under Cimon son of Miltiades, he could have departed under treaty from Eion and returned to Asia, but he refused, lest the king think that he had saved his life out of cowardice; instead he resisted to the last. ,When there was no food left within his walls, he piled up a great pyre and slew his children and wife and concubines and servants and cast them into the fire; after that, he took all the gold and silver from the city and scattered it from the walls into the Strymon; after he had done this, he cast himself into the fire. Thus he is justly praised by the Persians to this day.
3. Isocrates, Orations, 18.59-18.60, 18.65-18.66 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
4. Thucydides, The History of The Peloponnesian War, 1.98 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
5. Xenophon, Hellenica, 1.33, 2.4.2 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) 2.4.2. Presently Thrasybulus set out from Thebes with about seventy companions and seized Phyle, a strong fortress. And the Thirty marched out from the city against him with the Three Thousand and the cavalry, the weather being very fine indeed. When they reached Phyle, some of the young men were so bold as to attack the fortress at once, but they accomplished nothing and suffered some wounds themselves before they retired.
6. Aeschines, Letters, 3.179-3.187 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
7. Dinarchus, Or., 1.14-1.15 (4th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
8. Plutarch, Alcibiades, 33.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 33.2. At this time, In the early summer of 408 B.C. therefore, the people had only to meet in assembly, and Alcibiades addressed them. He lamented and bewailed his own lot, but had only little and moderate blame to lay upon the people. The entire mischief he ascribed to a certain evil fortune and envious genius of his own. Then he descanted at great length upon the vain hopes which their enemies were cherishing, and wrought his hearers up to courage. At last they crowned him with crowns of gold, and elected him general with sole powers by land and sea.
9. Aeschines, Or., 3.178-3.187
10. Andocides, Orations, 1.45, 2.17-2.18
11. Andocides, Orations, 1.45, 2.17-2.18
12. Demosthenes, Orations, 13.21-13.23, 18.79, 18.83, 18.88, 18.102, 18.112-18.113, 18.117, 18.119, 18.257, 18.299, 18.303, 18.311-18.312, 18.316, 20.68, 20.70, 20.74-20.75, 20.81-20.82, 20.112, 20.114-20.117, 20.120-20.122, 23.196-23.206
13. Epigraphy, Ig I , 131
14. Epigraphy, Ig I , 131

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
aeschines	Castagnoli and Ceccarelli (2019), Greek Memories: Theories and Practices, 144; Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176, 242; Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 81
alcibiades	Castagnoli and Ceccarelli (2019), Greek Memories: Theories and Practices, 144; Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 82
athens	Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 81
benefactors,citizens as	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
cimon	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
cleon	Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 82
crowns	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
demos,in athens	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
demosthenes,orator	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
demosthenes	Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 81
ecclesia	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
eion	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
elite,ideological agency	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
herms	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
honors,controversy surrounding	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176, 242
honors,negotiation of	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
justice	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
lawcourt,character evidence	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
lawcourt,discursive parameters	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
lawcourt,historical allusions	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
leadership,as benefaction	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176, 242
leadership	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
mass,ideological agency	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
megistai timai	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
military commanders,honors for	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
orator,role in ideological practice	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
orator,use of the past	Barbato (2020), The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past, 68
peloponnesian war	Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 82
persia,persians	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
persian wars	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
plutarch	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
prytaneion	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242; Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 81, 82
rewards,collective	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
rich,the	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
sitêsis	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
stoa of the herms (athens)	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 176
theôrikon	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242
thirty tyrants	Gygax and Zuiderhoek (2021), Benefactors and the Polis: The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity, 82
walls'	Gygax (2016), Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, 242