@BretDevereaux You write that "Thucydides [was an] aristocratic Athenian[]… frustrated that democracy – in [his] view – let the fickle, uneducated and poor ‘masses’ make decisions that ought to have been left to their ‘betters.’"
What in his History do you infer that from?
Er - more correctly, he flatly states that the hoplite government of the 5,000 (an oligarchy), "the Athenians appear to have enjoyed the best government that they ever did, at least in my time."
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Not that they *thought* they were winning the war, but that flatly a moderately oligarchic hoplite government was itself the best form. Again, to be clear here, the 5,000 probably represented only something like 10% of the citizen class - that's an oligarchy there.
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Just not so severe as the Four Hundred or the later 30.
Keskustelun loppu
Uusi keskustelu -
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I'll have to look at that passage again. Of course, that this one instance seemed to be working out doesn't necessarily mean he thought that was the best form of government. But let me look at that statement in context, I hadn't noted it.
Kiitos. Käytämme tätä aikajanasi parantamiseen. KumoaKumoa
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