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This chapter tests (and largely confirms) Nicole Loraux’s intriguing hypotheses concerning the au... more This chapter tests (and largely confirms) Nicole Loraux’s intriguing hypotheses concerning the authenticity of Pericles’ famous funeral oration and Thucydides’ ambivalent attitude towards this genre. It argues that Thucydides’ epitaphios logos of Pericles (2.35-46) owes much to the actual speech that the historical Pericles delivered in 431/0 BC to calm the widespread dissatisfaction with his policy of restraint vis-à-vis the Peloponnesian invaders. To achieve this end, Pericles focused on one of the epitaphic topoi, namely the Athenians’ democracy and way of life as one of the reasons for their exceptional aretē. Considering that Thucydides is highly critical of the epitaphic orators’ distorted version of the Athenian past (1.21.1), the inclusion of this epitaphios logos in his history may seem surprising, but it allowed Thucydides to explore the institutional/cultural reasons for the Athenians’ remarkable war-making ability, which his Corinthians had attributed earlier to the Athenians’ nature (1.70). Thucydides is not uncritical of Pericles’ idealization of Athens, though. By creating deliberate verbal echoes of Pericles’s eulogy in earlier and later passages of his work, Thucydides used the epitaphios logos of Pericles as a crucial point of comparison to illustrate the destructive impact of the war on the Athenians and the growing distance between the Periclean ideal of Athens and the brutal historical reality.
Transactions of the American Philological Association, 2013
The Herodotus Encyclopedia, 2021
Encyclopedia Entries in Christopher Baron (ed.) The Herodotus Encyclopedia. 3 Vol. (Malden, MA: W... more Encyclopedia Entries in Christopher Baron (ed.) The Herodotus Encyclopedia. 3 Vol. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2021)
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118689585
The first part of this chapter provides a general introduction to the concept of war-induced trau... more The first part of this chapter provides a general introduction to the concept of war-induced trauma and discusses three challenges that the application of this modern concept to the ancient Greek world poses, i.e. the problem of retrospective diagnoses of PTSD, the absence of a theoretical concept of combat trauma in ancient Greece, and the question whether combat trauma is a universal or historically and culturally specific phenomenon.
The second part uses Thucydides’ account of the Athenian retreat from Syracuse in 413 BC as a case study to argue that the Athenians and their allies were exposed to extreme war experiences that by far exceeded the hardships of normal military campaigns and therefore likely resulted in psychological trauma for at least some of the survivors.
Drawing on known causes of contemporary war-induced trauma, Ι make the case that the Athenian value system and the particular social, tactical and technological environments during the Sicilian campaign rendered the Athenian soldiers especially susceptible to developing post-traumatic symptoms. In addition to this circumstantial evidence, Thucydides’ vivid depiction of the Athenian soldiers’ anxiety, self-blame and despair (7.75) indicates that the survivors he spoke to in his attempt to record the events of the war as accurately as possible (1.22.2) still suffered greatly under the weight of their traumatic experience in Sicily.
In Louise Pratt and C. Michael Sampson (eds.), Engaging Classical Texts in the Contemporary World: From Narratology to Reception (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018), pp. 9-28, 2018
ABSTRACT: This paper argues that the memory of Nicias was contested in Athenian public discourse ... more ABSTRACT: This paper argues that the memory of Nicias was contested in Athenian public discourse after the failure of the Sicilian expedition. Defending the reliability of Pausanias’ testimony (1.29.11-12), it makes the case that the conspicuous absence of Nicias’ name on the public funeral monument of 412 BC prompted Pausanias to report the story he had read in Philistus (FGrHist 556 F 53). Thucydides’ silence concerning this damnatio memoriae of Nicias stems from the historian’s disapproval of the Athenians’ action; his eulogy of Nicias (7.86.5) is a deliberate correction of the exclusion of Nicias’ name from the Athenian casualty list. By the middle of the 4th century, Nicias played again a positive role in Athenian social memory, as Demosthenes’ positive reference to him in one of his assembly speeches shows (D. 3.21). This restoration of Nicias’ reputation is largely due to the Athenians’ memorial practices: the annual public funeral orations downplayed defeats and integrated them into the idealized version of Athenian history which celebrated all the fallen as manifestations of timeless Athenian excellence. Over the decades, the details of particular campaigns and the failings of individual generals faded from common historical consciousness. This process facilitated the rehabilitation of Nicias’ reputation in the eyes of later generations of Athenians.
KEYWORDS: Social memory; Sicilian expedition; Nicias; logos epitaphios; Pausanias
In their analysis of the Athenians' shared image of their past as an essential element of Athenia... more In their analysis of the Athenians' shared image of their past as an essential element of Athenian collective identity, scholars have largely focused on polis-wide commemorative activities such as the Athenian public funeral oration for the war dead. Taking the inherent multipolarity of social memory into account, this paper examines the collective memories of two types of Athenian subgroups , namely demes and tribes, and explores how their shared memories and the 'official' Athenian polis tradition mutually influenced and sustained each other in th-and th-century Athenian public discourse. Im Zentrum der Analyse des Geschichtsbilds der Athener als integralem Element ihrer kol-lektiven Identität standen bisher vornehmlich die polisweiten Formen des öffentlichen Ge-denkens, wie z. B. die öffentliche Leichenrede für die gefallenen Athener. Ausgehend von der dem kollektiven Gedächtnis inhärenten Multipolarität widmet sich dieser Beitrag den in den Demen und Phylen gepflegten Erinnerungen und untersucht, wie diese und die ‚offizielle' athenische Polistradition sich im öffentlichen Diskurs der Athener im. und. Jahrhundert v. Chr. gegenseitig beeinflussten und stützten.
This contribution argues for the use of coin types as a sophisticated means of communication by t... more This contribution argues for the use of coin types
as a sophisticated means of communication by the
imperial court of Diocletian’s colleague Maximian.
The coin types issued by the imperial mint in Lyon
from AD 286 to 292 (as catalogued by Bastien
1972) are compared with the two Latin Panegyrics
(Pan. 10 [2] and Pan. 11 [3]) delivered at Maximian’s
court in Trier in AD 289 and 291, respectively.
The comparison between Pan. 10 [2] and the
contemporary coinage from Lyon reveals close
correspondences, representing the early stage of
Dyarchic ideology. Both media emphasize the qualitative
difference between the rector caeli Jupiter/
Diocletian and the pacator terrarum Hercules/
Maximian. As a result of Maximian’s naval disaster
in the fight against the usurper Carausius in the
summer of 289, the Herculian imagery is noticeably
reduced in Pan. 11 [3] and the corresponding
coinage. Both media propagate the res publica restituta
and emphasize the concordia and pietas of
the two rulers, which enables the weakened Maximian
to participate in the undamaged prestige of
his colleague Diocletian.
Transactions of the American Philological Association
Against tendencies of viewing the orators’ historical allusions as empty rhetorical phrases or ma... more Against tendencies of viewing the orators’ historical allusions as empty rhetorical phrases or manipulative cover-ups for Realpolitik this study of historical paradigms in the debate over the Peace of Philocrates argues that the past constituted political capital in its own right. Using theories of social memory, it contextualizes Aeschines’ and his opponents’ historical examples within the Athenian memorial framework and thus tries to gauge their ideological and emotive weight. Drawing on family memories, Aeschines effectively challenged the Athenian master narrative by linking the rejection of a reasonable Spartan peace offer to the traumatic memories of total defeat and the terror regime of the Thirty.
Classical Antiquity 30.2 (2011) 279-317, Oct 1, 2011
This paper seeks to contextualize Lycurgus’ use of the historical example of King Codrus’ self-sa... more This paper seeks to contextualize Lycurgus’ use of the historical example of King Codrus’ self-sacrifice within Athenian social memory and public discourse. In doing so, it offers a solution to the puzzle of Lycurgus’ calling Codrus one of the ἐπώνυμοι τῆς χώρας (Lycurg. 88). I make the case that Codrus was one of the forty-two eponymous age-set heroes (Ath. Pol. 53.4-7) who played an important role in the Athenian military and socio-political system. I contend that devotion to the city’s gods and heroes and knowledge of their mythology were essential parts of the religious and ideological instruction of Athenian ephebes. Consequently, Lycurgus’ citation of the Ephebic Oath, the self-sacrifices of King Codrus and the daughters of Erechtheus, as well as his repeated invocation of the city’s gods and shrines, must be seen as integral elements of his indictment of Leocrates for cowardice and treason, behavior that is diametrically opposed to the hoplite ethos and religious devotion that were instilled into young ephebes. Lycurgus thus brings the jurors’ memories of their own ephebate into the courtroom and taps into emotions and values that lie at the heart of Athenian collective identity.
Books by Bernd Steinbock
"Prompted by the abundant historical allusions in Athenian political and diplomatic discourse, Be... more "Prompted by the abundant historical allusions in Athenian political and diplomatic discourse, Bernd Steinbock analyzes the uses and meanings of the past in fourth-century Athens, using Thebes' role in Athenian memory as a case study. This examination is based upon the premise that Athenian social memory, that is, the shared and often idealized and distorted image of the past, should not be viewed as an unreliable counterpart of history but as an invaluable key to the Athenians' mentality. Against the tendency to view the orators' references to the past as empty rhetorical phrases or propagandistic cover-ups for Realpolitik, it argues that the past constituted important political capital in its own right. Drawing upon theories of social memory, it contextualizes the orators' historical allusions within the complex net of remembrances and beliefs held by the audience and thus tries to gauge their ideological and emotive power.
Integrating literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence with recent scholarship on memory, identity, rhetoric, and international relations, Social Memory in Athenian Public Discourse: Uses and Meanings of the Past enhances our understanding of both the function of memory in Athenian public discourse and the history of Athenian-Theban relations. It should be of interest not only to students of Greek history and oratory but to everybody interested in memory studies, Athenian democracy, and political decision making."
Reviews:
http://www.sehepunkte.de/2013/09/22009.html
Talks by Bernd Steinbock
École des hautes études en sciences sociales / École normale supérieure de Lyon
This chapter tests (and largely confirms) Nicole Loraux’s intriguing hypotheses concerning the au... more This chapter tests (and largely confirms) Nicole Loraux’s intriguing hypotheses concerning the authenticity of Pericles’ famous funeral oration and Thucydides’ ambivalent attitude towards this genre. It argues that Thucydides’ epitaphios logos of Pericles (2.35-46) owes much to the actual speech that the historical Pericles delivered in 431/0 BC to calm the widespread dissatisfaction with his policy of restraint vis-à-vis the Peloponnesian invaders. To achieve this end, Pericles focused on one of the epitaphic topoi, namely the Athenians’ democracy and way of life as one of the reasons for their exceptional aretē. Considering that Thucydides is highly critical of the epitaphic orators’ distorted version of the Athenian past (1.21.1), the inclusion of this epitaphios logos in his history may seem surprising, but it allowed Thucydides to explore the institutional/cultural reasons for the Athenians’ remarkable war-making ability, which his Corinthians had attributed earlier to the Athenians’ nature (1.70). Thucydides is not uncritical of Pericles’ idealization of Athens, though. By creating deliberate verbal echoes of Pericles’s eulogy in earlier and later passages of his work, Thucydides used the epitaphios logos of Pericles as a crucial point of comparison to illustrate the destructive impact of the war on the Athenians and the growing distance between the Periclean ideal of Athens and the brutal historical reality.
Transactions of the American Philological Association, 2013
The Herodotus Encyclopedia, 2021
Encyclopedia Entries in Christopher Baron (ed.) The Herodotus Encyclopedia. 3 Vol. (Malden, MA: W... more Encyclopedia Entries in Christopher Baron (ed.) The Herodotus Encyclopedia. 3 Vol. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2021)
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118689585
The first part of this chapter provides a general introduction to the concept of war-induced trau... more The first part of this chapter provides a general introduction to the concept of war-induced trauma and discusses three challenges that the application of this modern concept to the ancient Greek world poses, i.e. the problem of retrospective diagnoses of PTSD, the absence of a theoretical concept of combat trauma in ancient Greece, and the question whether combat trauma is a universal or historically and culturally specific phenomenon.
The second part uses Thucydides’ account of the Athenian retreat from Syracuse in 413 BC as a case study to argue that the Athenians and their allies were exposed to extreme war experiences that by far exceeded the hardships of normal military campaigns and therefore likely resulted in psychological trauma for at least some of the survivors.
Drawing on known causes of contemporary war-induced trauma, Ι make the case that the Athenian value system and the particular social, tactical and technological environments during the Sicilian campaign rendered the Athenian soldiers especially susceptible to developing post-traumatic symptoms. In addition to this circumstantial evidence, Thucydides’ vivid depiction of the Athenian soldiers’ anxiety, self-blame and despair (7.75) indicates that the survivors he spoke to in his attempt to record the events of the war as accurately as possible (1.22.2) still suffered greatly under the weight of their traumatic experience in Sicily.
In Louise Pratt and C. Michael Sampson (eds.), Engaging Classical Texts in the Contemporary World: From Narratology to Reception (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018), pp. 9-28, 2018
ABSTRACT: This paper argues that the memory of Nicias was contested in Athenian public discourse ... more ABSTRACT: This paper argues that the memory of Nicias was contested in Athenian public discourse after the failure of the Sicilian expedition. Defending the reliability of Pausanias’ testimony (1.29.11-12), it makes the case that the conspicuous absence of Nicias’ name on the public funeral monument of 412 BC prompted Pausanias to report the story he had read in Philistus (FGrHist 556 F 53). Thucydides’ silence concerning this damnatio memoriae of Nicias stems from the historian’s disapproval of the Athenians’ action; his eulogy of Nicias (7.86.5) is a deliberate correction of the exclusion of Nicias’ name from the Athenian casualty list. By the middle of the 4th century, Nicias played again a positive role in Athenian social memory, as Demosthenes’ positive reference to him in one of his assembly speeches shows (D. 3.21). This restoration of Nicias’ reputation is largely due to the Athenians’ memorial practices: the annual public funeral orations downplayed defeats and integrated them into the idealized version of Athenian history which celebrated all the fallen as manifestations of timeless Athenian excellence. Over the decades, the details of particular campaigns and the failings of individual generals faded from common historical consciousness. This process facilitated the rehabilitation of Nicias’ reputation in the eyes of later generations of Athenians.
KEYWORDS: Social memory; Sicilian expedition; Nicias; logos epitaphios; Pausanias
In their analysis of the Athenians' shared image of their past as an essential element of Athenia... more In their analysis of the Athenians' shared image of their past as an essential element of Athenian collective identity, scholars have largely focused on polis-wide commemorative activities such as the Athenian public funeral oration for the war dead. Taking the inherent multipolarity of social memory into account, this paper examines the collective memories of two types of Athenian subgroups , namely demes and tribes, and explores how their shared memories and the 'official' Athenian polis tradition mutually influenced and sustained each other in th-and th-century Athenian public discourse. Im Zentrum der Analyse des Geschichtsbilds der Athener als integralem Element ihrer kol-lektiven Identität standen bisher vornehmlich die polisweiten Formen des öffentlichen Ge-denkens, wie z. B. die öffentliche Leichenrede für die gefallenen Athener. Ausgehend von der dem kollektiven Gedächtnis inhärenten Multipolarität widmet sich dieser Beitrag den in den Demen und Phylen gepflegten Erinnerungen und untersucht, wie diese und die ‚offizielle' athenische Polistradition sich im öffentlichen Diskurs der Athener im. und. Jahrhundert v. Chr. gegenseitig beeinflussten und stützten.
This contribution argues for the use of coin types as a sophisticated means of communication by t... more This contribution argues for the use of coin types
as a sophisticated means of communication by the
imperial court of Diocletian’s colleague Maximian.
The coin types issued by the imperial mint in Lyon
from AD 286 to 292 (as catalogued by Bastien
1972) are compared with the two Latin Panegyrics
(Pan. 10 [2] and Pan. 11 [3]) delivered at Maximian’s
court in Trier in AD 289 and 291, respectively.
The comparison between Pan. 10 [2] and the
contemporary coinage from Lyon reveals close
correspondences, representing the early stage of
Dyarchic ideology. Both media emphasize the qualitative
difference between the rector caeli Jupiter/
Diocletian and the pacator terrarum Hercules/
Maximian. As a result of Maximian’s naval disaster
in the fight against the usurper Carausius in the
summer of 289, the Herculian imagery is noticeably
reduced in Pan. 11 [3] and the corresponding
coinage. Both media propagate the res publica restituta
and emphasize the concordia and pietas of
the two rulers, which enables the weakened Maximian
to participate in the undamaged prestige of
his colleague Diocletian.
Transactions of the American Philological Association
Against tendencies of viewing the orators’ historical allusions as empty rhetorical phrases or ma... more Against tendencies of viewing the orators’ historical allusions as empty rhetorical phrases or manipulative cover-ups for Realpolitik this study of historical paradigms in the debate over the Peace of Philocrates argues that the past constituted political capital in its own right. Using theories of social memory, it contextualizes Aeschines’ and his opponents’ historical examples within the Athenian memorial framework and thus tries to gauge their ideological and emotive weight. Drawing on family memories, Aeschines effectively challenged the Athenian master narrative by linking the rejection of a reasonable Spartan peace offer to the traumatic memories of total defeat and the terror regime of the Thirty.
Classical Antiquity 30.2 (2011) 279-317, Oct 1, 2011
This paper seeks to contextualize Lycurgus’ use of the historical example of King Codrus’ self-sa... more This paper seeks to contextualize Lycurgus’ use of the historical example of King Codrus’ self-sacrifice within Athenian social memory and public discourse. In doing so, it offers a solution to the puzzle of Lycurgus’ calling Codrus one of the ἐπώνυμοι τῆς χώρας (Lycurg. 88). I make the case that Codrus was one of the forty-two eponymous age-set heroes (Ath. Pol. 53.4-7) who played an important role in the Athenian military and socio-political system. I contend that devotion to the city’s gods and heroes and knowledge of their mythology were essential parts of the religious and ideological instruction of Athenian ephebes. Consequently, Lycurgus’ citation of the Ephebic Oath, the self-sacrifices of King Codrus and the daughters of Erechtheus, as well as his repeated invocation of the city’s gods and shrines, must be seen as integral elements of his indictment of Leocrates for cowardice and treason, behavior that is diametrically opposed to the hoplite ethos and religious devotion that were instilled into young ephebes. Lycurgus thus brings the jurors’ memories of their own ephebate into the courtroom and taps into emotions and values that lie at the heart of Athenian collective identity.
"Prompted by the abundant historical allusions in Athenian political and diplomatic discourse, Be... more "Prompted by the abundant historical allusions in Athenian political and diplomatic discourse, Bernd Steinbock analyzes the uses and meanings of the past in fourth-century Athens, using Thebes' role in Athenian memory as a case study. This examination is based upon the premise that Athenian social memory, that is, the shared and often idealized and distorted image of the past, should not be viewed as an unreliable counterpart of history but as an invaluable key to the Athenians' mentality. Against the tendency to view the orators' references to the past as empty rhetorical phrases or propagandistic cover-ups for Realpolitik, it argues that the past constituted important political capital in its own right. Drawing upon theories of social memory, it contextualizes the orators' historical allusions within the complex net of remembrances and beliefs held by the audience and thus tries to gauge their ideological and emotive power.
Integrating literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence with recent scholarship on memory, identity, rhetoric, and international relations, Social Memory in Athenian Public Discourse: Uses and Meanings of the Past enhances our understanding of both the function of memory in Athenian public discourse and the history of Athenian-Theban relations. It should be of interest not only to students of Greek history and oratory but to everybody interested in memory studies, Athenian democracy, and political decision making."
Reviews:
http://www.sehepunkte.de/2013/09/22009.html
École des hautes études en sciences sociales / École normale supérieure de Lyon
In 323, Dinarchus contrasted Demosthenes' alleged betrayal of Thebes in 335 to the Theban support... more In 323, Dinarchus contrasted Demosthenes' alleged betrayal of Thebes in 335 to the Theban support for Thrasybulus in 404, corroborating his historical paradigm by pointing to the elders (__ __ π__________ _______) and the Theban decree in favor of the Athenian exiles, "so often read out before [the Athenians]" (Dinarch. 1.25). Presupposing that the orators drew their information from the historians, scholars have often treated such corroborations as mere rhetoric, used by the orator to make his knowledge of the past acceptable to his ignorant audience (Pearson, CP 1941, 215-219). Proposing an alternative model for the orators' historical paradigms, this paper takes Dinarchus' corroborations seriously and seeks to contextualize his allusion within the complex net of remembrances and beliefs held by his audience. In Athens, the memorialization of the return of the exiled democrats functioned as a fixed point for the memory of Theban aid. On several occasions (395, 383-79, 335) Thebans utilized this event to garner Athenian support, thus repeatedly reviving this memory in Athenian public discourse.
