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The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens

in Comparative Perspective

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 Dmitri Panchenko, The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens in Comparative Perspective.

Estratto da/Excerpt from:

Il quinto secolo. Studi di filosofia antica in onore di Livio Rossetti
a c. di Flavia Marcacci e Stefania Giombini. Aguaplano—Officina del libro, Passignano s.T. 2010, pp. 215-228
[isbn/ean: 978-88-904213-4-1]

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 Dmitri Panchenko

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 The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens
in Comparative Perspective

Aguaplano

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 Dmitri Panchenko, The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens in Comparative Perspective.

Estratto da/Excerpt from:

Il quinto secolo. Studi di filosofia antica in onore di Livio Rossetti
a c. di Flavia Marcacci e Stefania Giombini. Aguaplano—Officina del libro, Passignano s.T. 2010, pp. 215-228
[isbn/ean: 978-88-904213-4-1].

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copyright © 2010 by Aguaplano—Officina del libro. www.aguaplano.eu / info@aguaplano.eu

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gress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, d.c.

Videoimpaginazione/graphic layout by: Raffaele Marciano.

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 1.

C ultural florescence in fifth-century Athens was already a sub-

ject of marvel in antiquity. One finds, for instance, a characteris-
tic remark in Velleius Paterculus: “A single city of Attica blossomed
with more masterpieces of every kind of eloquence than all the rest of
Greece together—to such a degree, in fact, that one would think that
although the bodies of the Greek race were distributed among the other
states, their intellects were confined within the walls of Athens alone”
(1. 18, F.W. Shipley’s transl.). Modern scholars have expressed vari-
ous thoughts concerning the phenomenon. They have emphasized the
benefits of both democracy (for rhetoric, in particular) and empire (es-
pecially for the arts because of the influx of money). They have taken
into account “intelligent patronage, educated audiences, the spirit of
competition”,1 and also pointed to the rapid transformation of histori-
cal situation of Athens and the corresponding need for a re-orientation
in new circumstances.2 These indications (the list of which could be
augmented) seem relevant and important.3 They are, however, either

1. Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster, Athenian Culture and Society, London 1973,
p. 265.
2. Christian Meier, Kultur als Absicherung der Attischen Demokratie, in M. Sakel-
lariou (ed.), Colloque international. Démocratie athénienne et culture, Αthenai 1996,
pp. 199-222.
3. For a valuable critical review of opinions see Deborah Boedeker-Kurt A. Raaflaub,
Reflections and Conclusions: Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens,
in Deborah Boedeker-Kurt A. Raaflaub (Eds.), Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-
Century Athens, Cambridge (MA)-London 1998, pp. 319-344. While references to the
beneficial role of democratic government for rhetoric (with a frequent subsequent leap

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 216 Dmitri Panchenko

not specific enough (like references to patronage or competition) or

somewhat vague (what is the link between the need for re-orientation
and exemplary accomplishment in arts and literature?). They certainly
throw some light on the phenomenon of a roughly simultaneous burst
of extraordinary creativity in fifth-century Athens (as manifested in
sculpture, painting, architecture, tragedy, comedy, the philosophy of
Socrates and historical work by Thucydides), but do not really offer
consistent and more or less comprehensive explanation of it.
The task of providing such an explanation would appear unrealistic
if not for the fact that cultural florescence in fifth-century Athens can
be seen as a particular manifestation of a recurrent phenomenon. It
has long been observed that works of genius in literature, philosophy,
science, arts and music are unevenly distributed in time and space, and
since 1944 we have elaborate empirical data assembled by Alfred Louis
Kroeber in his Configurations of Culture Growth. Kroeber described
the occurrence, throughout world history, of geniuses in various fields.
He has shown that genius tends to emerge in clusters, that cultural flo-
rescence is typically experienced several times during a civilization, yet
such peaks are rare and they are of unequal duration. Kroeber’s main
findings were confirmed in Charles Edward Gray’s measurement of
creativity in Western civilization. Gray also provided more detailed
data, though only for Graeco-Roman and Western civilizations.4
This material does not itself present a clear interpretation. Kroeber
rejected any genetic explanation of cultural growth and decline, but did
not suggest any other hypothesis. He found that the problem was very
old and drew from this fact the conclusion that it is probably insoluble.
Gray ventured a kind of empirical law, but offered no explanation of
how it works.5

to assuming the beneficial role of democracy for arts and literature in general) are very
common and go back to antiquity (for instance, On the Sublime), the emphasis on the
stimulating role of the empire is largely the merit of Boedeker and Raaflaub.
4. Charles Edward Gray, “An Analysis of Graeco-Roman Development,” American
Anthropologist 60, 1958, pp. 13-21; Id., “An Epicyclical Model for Western Civilization,”
American Anthropologist, 63, 1961, pp. 1014-1037; Id., “A Measurement of Creativity in
Western Civilization,” American Anthropologist 68, 1966, pp. 1384-1417.
5. Gray 1958, p. 19: “When economic or social or political development reached their
zeniths there was cultural development, and especially when those zeniths coincided at
truly high points there were bursts of creativity in the arts and sciences. Conversely, when
the curves of economic-social-politic devolution resulted in depressions, creativity was

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 The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens… 217

Neither Kroeber nor Gray specifically addressed the florescence of

arts and literature in Athens. They dealt with larger entities such as the
Greek or Graeco-Roman civilizations.6 A different approach was taken
by Hans Graeve, in whose book fifth-century Athens occupies a promi-
nent place.7
According to Graeve, cultural florescence is a byproduct of a socie-
ty’s restructuring in the face of a military threat. Trying to adapt itself to
a menacing situation, the society undergoes a systemic transformation
of social standards and values aimed, in particular, at growing social
integration. After the menace has passed, the integration is relaxed and
the moral energy of the society accumulated to confront the threat is
freed, which triggers the subsequent cultural florescence. It unfolds in
three phases. In the period of equilibrium between the society and the
individual the cultural florescence reaches its apogee. This coincides
with the first phase of the growth which is characterized in particular
by a proliferation of arts and poetry. The advancing social disharmony,
caused by the internal conflicts of the society, leads to the second phase
of cultural florescence when philosophy and ideologically significant
literature predominate. This period is marked by a transition from clas-
sicism to mannerism in art (the terms are used in a broad sense). Before
the cultural florescence reaches the point of exhaustion, a third phase
takes place. It is marked by the flourishing of sciences. Graeve selects
four basic cases to illustrate his theory: fifth-century Athens, T’ang Chi-
na, Florence under the Medici, and France under Louis XIV.
Grave’s book offers many valuable observations and suggestions.
Moreover, his theory seems to fit well with the historical situation of
fifth-century Athens. Nevertheless his theory invites several reserva-
tions and objections. First, there are instances of anticipation, so to
speak, of a future cultural florescence before the threat appears on the
horizon. So there was no threat to France a century before Louis XIV,
but this time shows a remarkable simultaneous development in poetry

inhibited and diminished”. Gray offers no hint as to why it is that when some people are
getting richer or more powerful, others produce outstanding works of literature or art.
The other problem is that his interpretation of particular economic, political and social
cycles is sometimes problematic. His work is nevertheless of great value.
6. The same is true for Alexander Zaicev, Das griechische Wunder, Konstanz 1993.
7. Hans Graeve, Gesellschaft und Kreativität: Entstehung, Aufbau und Gestalt von
Kulturblüten, München-Wien 1977.

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 218 Dmitri Panchenko

(the poets of the Pléiade), prose (Rabelais, and Montaigne in the next
generation), sculpture (Goujon) and architecture (château de Cham-
bord). Late sixth-century Athens had leading vase painting, remarkable
sculpture and created a new genre, the tragedy. Second, some cases
of cultural florescence can be possibly connected with the absence of
a military threat, but not in the way Graeve puts it. I mean historical
situations when such a threat was not overcome, but simply did not
exist and presented no problem. Such were the situations of Spain in
the late sixteenth-early half of the seventeenth centuries, with its bril-
liant literature, drama and painting, or of Europe as a whole in about
1815-1870 or of the United States after the World War I. Third, one of
Graeve’s basic cases seems to destroy rather than support his theory.
His account of cultural blossoming in Florence does not include Dante
(1265-1321), Petrarca (1304-1374), Boccaccio (1313-1375) and Giotto
(c. 1267-1337), the founding fathers of Italian literature, Renaissance
humanism and Renaissance painting respectively. A critical remark of
a different kind pertains to the fact that Graeve does not really venture
an explanation of how the circumstances he points to bring about mas-
terpieces of art and literature. His language is purely metaphorical. He
speaks of energy condensed or freed, and the like.
Yet I tend to believe that Graeve was right to look for a common
pattern or mechanism for various cases of cultural florescence. Nor do
I think that he looked in entirely the wrong direction. Graeve points
in fact to military success and social change that come more or less
simultaneously. He also refers to a certain balance between the society
and individual, to growing or loosening social integration. All these
motifs, I agree, are relevant, but they are to be put together in a dif-
ferent way.
It seems nearer to the truth to say that cultural florescence occurs
when a community that includes at least one large social group con-
sisting of individuals who enjoy a variety of social roles and modes of
income and experiencing an improvement in group social status finds
itself in the situation of becoming a leading power within the world
around it. It should be specified that status of a leading power can be
shared (as, for instance, it was among leading European nations in
the nineteenth century) or, in a sense, attained through participation
(which is the case for minor European nations in the same century or,
to lesser degree, for a body of Greek poleis in the fifth), or it can be in a

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 The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens… 219

way doubled: after the Persian Wars Athens became a leading power, of
a nation that emerged as strong as the Persian empire.
One can see that the proposed empirical rule covers those cases
of cultural florescence which do not fit with Graeve’s theory, such as
seventeenth-century Spain, sixteenth-century France, fourteenth-cen-
tury Florence (which emerged as one of the leading Italian powers)
or the US after the World War I. It is also in good accord with Gray’s
findings that strongly point to an association of cultural florescence
with political, economic and social growth, and with their simultaneous
growth in particular.8
But if the proposed empirical rule is close to the truth, there remains
the question of why this is so.

2.
Creating masterpieces of art and literature is a kind of self-expres-
sion in communication. Every masterpiece is created with the prospect
that somebody will see or hear it, and what we know as masterpieces in
arts and literature belong to the realm of what has achieved social rec-
ognition. Self-expression in communication implies thus a two-sided
relationship between author and audience. Along with the freedom of
self-expression the prospect of having an audience is also necessary,
that is, the presence of people connected by a certain solidarity per-
taining to the aesthetic and ethical aspects of a given work, people with
more or less common worldview.9

8. Above, nn. 4-5. The Italian Renaissance may seem to essentially deviate from the
common pattern. But in the later half of the fifteenth century there was no really promi-
nent power in Europe, while Italy enjoyed relative prosperity and the authority of hosting
popes. Although the Italian Wars began in 1494, Tuscany was not seriously affected until
1512, Rome until fifteen years later, while Venice had been an active participant rather
than victim of the events. The absolute majority of great Renaissance artists grew up in
the atmosphere of long-lasting peace and security, beneficial, as other historical facts also
suggest, to the blossoming of painting. Further, the majority of Renaissance artists and
writers came from the leading Italian powers—of 600 studied by Burke, 26 per cent came
from Tuscany, 23 per cent from the Veneto, and 18 per cent from the States of the Church:
Peter Burke, Culture and Society in Renaissance Italy, 1420-1540, London 1972, p. 35.
Finally, the Italian Renaissance, though a cultural revolution, is a rather atypical cultural
florescence since its achievement in literature does not match that in visual arts.
9. It is obvious that not all forms of arts and literature can be equally interpreted in
terms of self-expression in communication. While a dramatic work written for theatre,
Athenian in particular, fits perfectly well with the pattern, this is not quite the case with

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 220 Dmitri Panchenko

The self-expression in communication which results in masterpiec-

es of art and literature is not content with a momentary realization, but
implies intensive labor resulting in the creation of a work that will enjoy
a long, perhaps indefinitely long, life. It is constructive self-expression,
the readiness for which requires a degree of ontological confidence. An
author’s vision of an audience can be vague and not at all concrete, but
he or she needs to feel that the audience addressed has a future (be it
“nation”, or “people of good taste”, or “all civilized mankind”, etc.).
The communication in question is about an artificial reality created
by a writer or artist, which, however, is intrinsically connected with
the reality of experience. In order to be interesting for an audience, an
author’s experience must be both individualized and, to a significant
degree, common with that of the audience. It must be neither exceed-
ingly exotic nor trivial and routine. Non-routine experience shared by
a group comes from historical change. A basically dynamic society, like
the Western since the sixteenth century or the Greek in the Archaic and
Classical periods, maintains a sufficient level of cultural activity over
a long time since it ever finds itself in new situations, yet to different
extents and of different kinds in particular times. Significant histori-
cal change not only provides new social experience, but, in accordance
with human psychology, also invites an interpretation of a new situa-
tion, which means, in the presence of a corresponding cultural tradi-
tion, producing works of literature, philosophy and, perhaps, of art. It
is positive historical change, marked by improvement of the position
of a given group or/and society in general, that will induce ontologi-
cal confidence. Positive change will also promote social integration and
solidarity because people like to belong to and identify themselves with
a strong and respectable group rather than weak or declining one. The
ascendance of a society to political leadership is, on the one hand, a par-
ticular case of positive change, but, on the other hand, it is of special im-
portance since saying a new word about fundamental, universal issues
of human conditions is a privilege of self-determining communities.10

traditional art based on canons or with illustrative art, or with anonymous genres of folk-
lore. Yet the highest achievements within the classical and Western cultures are usually
associated with the type of creativity which can be designated as self-expression in com-
munication. Eastern civilizations are not included in the scope of this paper.
10. It is characteristic that also Milesian founders of the new weltanschauung, Thales
and Anaximander, came from the then leading centre of a prosperous and powerful

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 The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens… 221

3.
It is easy to see that fifth-century Athens meets all the specified con-
ditions. Individuals enjoying a variety of social roles and modes of in-
come were largely present in Athens already in the sixth century. The
empire enhanced individual opportunities of the Athenians and opened
to them new perspectives. An individualized way of life got social recog-
nition in Athens (Thuc. 2. 37. 2; 41. 1). Overcoming the Persian military
threat provided Athens with a unique opportunity of rapid ascent to
political leadership. Positive change that came in that way was shared
by nearly the whole body of citizens, and it secured a particularly high
degree of solidarity. The rise of the common people proved concomi-
tant with the rise of Athenian aristocrats who found themselves above
their peers in a panhellenic context. It is characteristic that after assas-
sination of Ephialtes in 461 there was no outbreak of political violence
for many decades and that the oligarchic coup of 411 took place only
after the Sicilian catastrophe, in the atmosphere of a widespread belief
that the collapse of Athenian power would come soon. In the course
of a few generations the Athenians experienced a significant transfor-
mation of their social and political life,11 which invited cultural com-
munication over the change and over the new situation. Although the
political history of Athens in the fifth century was not marching from
triumph to triumph, it was sufficient to induce ontological confidence,
attested in Pericles’ building program no less than in his speech in Thu-
cydides (2. 36. 2-3; 41. 4). Because the victory in the Persian Wars was
achieved by a large alliance of Greek poleis, the rise of Athens coincided
with the rise of the Hellenic nation. Positive change was more or less
widespread, as also a relative economic prosperity and several trends in
social development. Therefore the cultural florescence of the fifth cen-
tury was to a certain degree a panhellenic phenomenon. Athens was es-
sentially in concert with the Greek world as the whole, so it could attract
talents, borrow traditions and gain wide acceptance for its cultural ac-
complishments. Thus Polygnotus of Thasos and Parrhasius of Ephesus
became Athenian citizens, just as Ionian philosophy with Anaxagoras

nation.—Dmitri Panchenko, “Social Context of Early Greek Science,” in Liah Greenfeld-

Marcel Herbst (Eds.), The Institution of Science and the Science of Institutions: Joseph
Ben-David’s University (forthcoming).
11. See Kurt A. Raaflaub, “The Transformation of Athens in the Fifth Century”, in
Boedeker-Raaflaub 1998, pp. 15-42.

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and Ionian science with Hippocrates of Chios found their new home in
Athens, while Attic dramatic poets quickly attained the status of classics
common to all Greeks.
It can also be shown (what this paper has merely hinted at) how the
specified conditions are reflected in particular cultural achievements of
fifth-century Athens.
Tragedy is essentially connected with a heroic outlook. It was ac-
quired through expulsion of the tyrants, the subsequent successful de-
fense of democracy against the Spartans and their allies and, especially,
through the victory over the Persians and it was maintained through
ever challenged political leadership. A heroic or tragic outlook comes
to the foreground only in a strong society.12 It does not arise from trau-
matic experience or from the idea of an essentially hostile world. There
is no tragedy if miserable conditions are a matter of course. Tragedy is
not about suffering as such, but rather about a crash and loss, which
implies a relatively high level of expectation of what can be achieved
in one’s life. The problem of ethical choice, frequent in Attic tragedy, is
not likely to be raised within a community that has to obey commands.
To people who know all too well the right of the might the Prometh-
eus of Aeschylus would seem an extravagant man and Antigone of So-
phocles an inadequate woman. During the performance of a tragedy a
crowd of people is seized by common emotions. As opposed to simple
feelings, our emotions involve ideas, and in particular ideas about right
and wrong. There is not much room for tragedy where agreement about
right and wrong is lost. When the coming collapse of the Athenian em-
pire came into view and the Athenian aristocracy no longer had rea-
son to make common cause with the demos, and, thus, social solidarity
crashed down, the old tragedy died. Euripides’ Orestes (408) is witness
to that.13 It is true, Euripides wrote a couple of powerful plays even after
Orestes, but he did so in emigration.

12. Flourishing tragedy is a rare phenomenon of invariably short duration, and it is al-
ways found in association with growing confidence of a given society, as in Shakespeare’s
England, seventeenth-century Spain and France, and Germany of the late eighteenth—
early nineteenth centuries.
13. Walter Burkert, “Die Absurdität der Gewalt und Ende der Tragödie: Euripides
Orestes,” in Id., Kleine Schriften, VII, 2007, pp. 97-110 (= Antike und Abendland, 20,
1974, pp. 97-109).

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It is obvious that Attic political comedy required democratic free-

dom of speech and basic equality of all citizens. But it also required
the community’s self-confidence, resulting from Athens being a su-
perpower, and a high degree of civic solidarity. Otherwise the kind
of political criticism we find in comic poets would have been taken
as too narrowly aimed at particular persons and as threatening the
peace within the community. The significance of civic solidarity for
old comedy14 can be seen from the fact that Aristophanes’ plays from
the latest period of the Peloponnesian war onward are, though bril-
liant, no longer political.
What made Socrates appear in Athens? Presocratic science re-
vealed the power of argumentation as opposed to conclusions based
on just what we see with our eyes: it had been, for instance, convinc-
ingly shown that the sun and moon are huge bodies rotating with un-
believable speed. The experience of political change within the Greek
world and accumulated information concerning the significant variety
of customs among different peoples revealed the relativity of social
norms. Both revelations combined provided the foundation for what is
known as Sophistic movement, though, on the one hand, it was much
larger than described and, on the other hand, the practice of criticism
and denial of traditional norms through argumentation was certainly
not confined to the Sophists in the proper sense. Critics of traditional
norms appealed to the allegedly self-evident egocentrism of human na-
ture. Socrates’ protest included a general examination of whether our
knowledge is sufficient enough to draw far-reaching practical conse-
quences and a close examination of what appeared to be self-evident
knowledge expressed in words like justice or virtue or happiness. His
other objection was his own way of life, incompatible with the alleged
self-evident truths of those who saw everybody’s natural goal as being
rich and powerful. Now it was the democratic empire that opened all
imaginable paths, in both private and public life, to ambitious individu-
als, and for acquisition of wealth and power in particular. Ambitions
of major scale entertained by people in a minor Greek city could have
been taken as unrealistic and so objecting them would have not had
great impact. The case of Athens was different. Responding to the ap-

14. Cf. Markus Asper, “Group Laughter and Comic Affirmation. Aristophanes’ Birds
and the Political Function of Old Comedy,” Hyperboreus, 11, 2005, 1, pp. 5-29.

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peal of “self-evident” truths in an imperial city meant resisting major

temptations. The emergence of Socrates, the philosopher, in Athens is,
thus, perfectly logical.
The emergence of the best historian in fifth-century Athens is also
not quite a chance phenomenon. The work of Thucydides is marked by
extraordinary intelligence, devotion to truth and an ability to produce
a huge body of critically selected evidence. To be sure his wealth was
helpful in technical aspects of his work and his participation in politics
and military actions enhanced his competence, but his objectivity has
something to do with a relatively high degree of solidarity between the
aristocracy and demos in the time of his intellectual formation, just as
his recognition of the scale of events and corresponding devotion to re-
cording them are to be linked with his coming from the centre of the
Athenian league. His intelligence was trained through communication
with the intellectuals present in Athens and with the politicians who
were to take responsible decisions in most complicated situations, re-
sulting from enormous variety of Athenian relations to dependant cit-
ies, allies and enemies (so a plausible explanation of Pericles’ politics in
respect to Megara had to wait for a modern historian such as Eduard
Meyer). His interest and deep insights into social psychology also came
from practical problems involved in the versatile Athenian politics. The
refined cultural milieu, as found in Athens, made him follow Herodotus
in writing history as a sophisticated narrative rather than a plain fixa-
tion of events. But the same milieu had a better knowledge than Hero-
dotus concerning the mechanisms of political decisions and politics in
general, and could not be satisfied with a historical account in which
events are triggered by paroxysms of a mighty individual’s passions and
regulated by the envy of the gods. Behind the combination of scrutiny
and brilliance in the work of Thucydides, one can thus discern the high
standards in aesthetic sensibility and critical thinking characteristic of
his milieu. Fifth-century Athens’ ontological confidence is reflected in
Thucydides’ characterization of his work as a “possession for all time”
(1. 22. 4).
Attic drama was a purely Athenian phenomenon, the philosophy of
Socrates was uniquely Athenian, though with an important panhellenic
background, but the historical work by Thucydides rather crowned a
cultural tradition that had originated outside of Attica. Even less spe-
cifically Attic was Athenian art of the fifth century. Yet fifth-century

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 The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens… 225

Athens’ characteristic openness to innovations,15 responding to the con-

fidence and ontological optimism which came with the victory over the
Persians and the growth of Athenian power, manifested itself in Athe-
nian prominence in avant-garde techniques, like the use of perspective
by Agatharchus of Samos for scenery in Athenian theater or shading by
Apollodorus of Athens. On the sculptural decoration of Parthenon, the
body of Athenian citizens was represented by knights; neither hoplites,
nor naval equipment were shown. Heroic disguise instead of elevating
the majority points to an idea of civic solidarity. Here as elsewhere
cooperation between the aristocracy and the demos contributed to
the effect of universalism.16 The magnificent architecture of Athenian
acropolis is about glory and shared pride, but not about triumph and
domination. It is the art of reasonable and confident people who need
not exalt themselves to suppress their fears and to frighten visitors, and
it is adequate to a society with equality of all citizens before the law and
to a superpower that theoretically just heads the allies. Such a combina-
tion offered, again, a universal appeal and therefore had the potential of
inspiring a work that would forever be a classic.
The combination of a democratic form of government with Athens’
ascending to the role of a superpower seems to have also affected the
achievement of Athenian culture in quite a peculiar way—through the
tension between fundamental principles of democracy and those of em-
pire. Democracy was based on the principle of equality, isonomia. But
there was no room for isonomia within the empire.17 The collision be-
tween the profitable and the just or noble was central for Socrates as well
as for Sophocles in a series of his plays. The relations between Athens
and the so-called allies presented the same collision. The idea of noble,
unselfish politics was known, as indicated by Athenian help to the re-
volt of the Ionians, but it was difficult to follow. Thucydides puts in the
mouth of Pericles addressing Athenians a striking remark: “the empire

15. See Eric Csapo-Margaret Miller, “Democracy, Empire, and Art: Toward a Politics
of Time and Narrative”, in Boedeker-Raaflaub 1998, p. 101 f. with notes; Webster 1973,
p. 261.
16. The presence of the still influential aristocracy along with ascending new group(s)
is typical for situations of cultural florescence. The particular contribution of aristocracy
pertains to promotion of non-utilitarian values.
17. It is because of this connection, I suppose, that the previously common term iso-
nomia was largely replaced in the second half of the fifth century by dēmokratia.

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 226 Dmitri Panchenko

you hold is a tyranny, which it may seem wrong to have assumed, but
which certainly it is dangerous to let go” (2. 63. 2, C. F. Smith’s transl.).
This remark gives us a glimpse into the kind of stimulus for intellectual
and ethical quest that could provide the rise of democratic Athens to the
position of a superpower.
To the question of what was more important for cultural florescence
in Athens, democracy or empire, my answer is that both were indis-
pensable, though both factors are to be somewhat qualified. Athenian
power counts more than its particular organization. It is also important
that it was recently acquired (the emergence of a new situation invited
reflection that found expression in the works of drama, philosophy and
historiography) and that it was neither ephemeral, nor guaranteed.
Again, ontological confidence and a high level of social solidarity were
promoted not so much by a particular form of government, but by the
real involvement of a very large section of Athenian citizens in mak-
ing common decisions, in determining a common fate and the current
state of affairs and by the presence of common interests, based on com-
mon successes, shared by the aristocracy and the demos. Yet, though
the Athenian empire was impossible without democracy, without mo-
bilization of masses, I am prone to attach more weight to empire than
to democracy. For what happens to Attic drama after the dissolution
of the empire and under the democracy of the fourth century? While
the interest in fifth-century classics was growing, and new production
was also conspicuous, no real masterpiece seems to have been created.18
Prosaic writing was flourishing, but the personal formation of all the
greatest masters, Plato, Xenophon, Isocrates, took place before the end
of the Peloponnesian war. To be sure the Platonic world of ideas more
‘real’ than the actual world, and his disappointment with all existing
forms of government reflect the experience of negative (as he saw it)
and not positive change, yet they do so in a very creative way. But his
disappointment is to be judged against the background of expectations
derived from the atmosphere of the fifth century. More specifically, as
Plato, on the one hand, got inspiration from fifth-century Socrates, so,
on the other hand, his radicalism (as well as that of Isocrates’ idea of

18. See Bernd Seidensticker, “Dichtung und Gesellschaft im 4. Jahrhundert. Versuch

eines Überblicks”, in Walter Eder (Hg.), Die athenische Demokratie im 4. Jahrhundert
v. Chr., Stuttgart 1995, pp. 175-198.

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 The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens… 227

conquering Asia) seems to derive from the radicalism of post-Periclean

politics, expressed in the resoluteness of Alcibiades to crush the enemy
completely, either through an anti-Spartan coalition with the Pelopon-
nesians or through the acquisition of Sicily, and in the resoluteness of
Critias to reorganize Athens as something like a new edition of Spar-
ta.19 It is true, rhetoric reached its apogee in the fourth century (though
again, Demosthenes’ most renowned speech deals with foreign affairs
and appeals to the glorious deeds of the fifth century), there was devel-
opment in the art of sculpture (Praxiteles), and in general the level of
creativity was still high. But that is because outstanding works cause
admiration, emulation and therefore certain momentum; and also
because the Greeks still retained much of the place in the world they
had gained in the course of the Persian Wars, while Athens was still a
wealthy and influential Greek polis.20

19. Dmitri Panchenko, Plato and Atlantis, Leningrad 1990, p. 140 ff. (in Russian).
On the basis of his historiometric inquiry, Dean Keith Simonton, Genius, Creativity, and
Leadership, Cambridge (MA)-London, 1984, p. 157, ventures a generalization: “The most
notable thinkers are products of the previous generation’s zeitgeist, the zeitgeist of their
youth.”
20. General ideas in this paper are essentially based on my study conducted in 1991-
1992 at the Harvard University Department of Sociology, which was possible due to the
generosity of the Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Fund. I am grateful to David Konstan and
Kurt Raaflaub for comments on a draft of this paper.

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 Il quinto secolo. Studi di filosofia antica in onore di Livio Rossetti

Introduzione di Stefania Giombini e Flavia Marcacci 11

Bibliografia degli scritti di Livio Rossetti 29

PHYSIS

Beatriz Bossi, Parménides, DK 28 B 16: ¿el eslabón perdido?, p. 45; Omar D. Álvarez
Salas, Intelletto e pensiero nel naturalismo presocratico, p. 63; Miriam Campolina Di-
niz Peixoto, Physis et didachê chez Démocrite, p. 83; Antonietta D’Alessandro, Dem-
ocrito: visione e formazione dei colori nel De sensu et sensibilis, p. 101; Carlo Santini,
Democrito, Lucrezio e la poesia delle cose impercettibili (De r.n. 3,370-395), p. 113;
Daniela De Cecco, Anassagora B4 DK (B4a; B4b): esame delle fonti, p. 123; Serge
Mouraviev, L’Exorde du livre d’Héraclite. Reconstruction et Commentaire, p. 135;
Dario Zucchello, Parmenide e la tradizione del pensiero greco arcaico (ovvero, della
sua eccentricità), p. 165; M. Laura Gemelli Marciano, Il ruolo della “meteorologia” e
dei “discorsi sulla natura” negli scritti ippocratici. Alla ricerca di un “canone” per
lo scritto medico?, p. 179; Daniel W. Graham, Theory, Observation, and Discovery in
Early Greek Philosophy, p. 199.

LOGOS

Dmitri Panchenko, The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Ath-

ens in Comparative Perspective, p. 215; Gianfranco Maddoli, L’immagine
dell’Umbria nel V secolo a.C., p. 229; Emidio Spinelli, Presocratici scettici? Assun-
ti genealogici nel Varro di Cicerone, p. 235; Maria Michela Sassi, Senofane critico
dell’antropomorfismo, p. 247; Giuseppe Mazzara, Aspetti gorgiani e pitagorici nel
socratico Antistene, p. 257; Ksenija Maricki Gadjanski, δισσοι λογοι and Modern
Linguistics, p. 269; Stefania Giombini, Flavia Marcacci, Dell’antilogia, p. 277; Rafael
Ferber, Zeno’s Metrical Paradox of Extension and Descartes’ Mind-Body Problem,
p. 295, Marcella G. Lorenzi, Mauro Francaviglia, Continuo o discreto? Dai paradossi
di Zenone alla meccanica quantistica, p. 311; Diskin Clay, The Art of Platonic Quota-
tion, p. 327; Tomás Calvo-Martínez, Las hipótesis del Fedón y la dialéctica como arte
del diálogo, p. 339; Franco Ferrari, Equiparazionismo ontologico e deduttivismo:
l’eredità di Parmenide nella gymnasia del Parmenide, p. 357; Michel Narcy, Calliclès
est-il un bon interprète du Gorgias?, p. 369; Graciela E. Marcos de Pinotti, Ser y
aparecer en Protágoras, p. 379; Thomas M. Robinson, Socrates on Soul and Immor-
tality, p. 389.

panchenko_abstract.indd 229 20/11/2010 11.51.06

 ETHOS

Delfim F. Leão, The Seven Sages and Plato, p. 403; Gabriele Cornelli, Sulla vita
filosofica in comune: koinonía e philía pitagoriche, p. 415; Mario Vegetti, Il medico
antico fra nomadismo e stanzialità (dal V secolo a.C. al II secolo d.C.), p. 437; Fran-
cesco De Martino, Aspasia e la scuola delle mogli, p. 449; Francisco Bravo, Entre
la euthymía de Democrito a la eudaimonía de Aristóteles, p. 467; Chiara Robbiano,
L’immutabilità come valore morale: da Parmenide (B8, 26-33) a Platone (Rep.
380d1-383a5), p. 483; Renzo Vitali, Stasis come rivoluzione, p. 493; Walter O. Ko-
han, Sócrates en el último curso de Foucault, p. 503; Giovanni Cerri, Tesi di Platone
sulla ragion politica del processo a Socrate e sulla natura della sua attività propa-
gandistica, p. 519; Christopher Rowe, Boys, Kingship, and Board-games: A Note on
Plato, Politicus 292E-293A, p. 529; Gerardo Ramírez Vidal, Los sofistas maestros de
política en el siglo V, p. 535; Rachel Gazolla, Intorno alla Paideia di Socrate e dei
Cinici, p. 547; Gilbert Romeyer Dherbey, Socrate educateur, p. 563; Giovanni Caser-
tano, La regina, l’anello e la necessità, p. 587.

PATHOS

Maria de Fátima Silva, Euripides and the Profile of an Ideal City, p. 603; Patrizia Livi-
abella Furiani, Il V secolo, tra fiction e realtà, nel romanzo di Caritone, p. 617; Maria
do Céu Fialho, The Rhetoric of Suffering in Sophocles’ Philoctetes and Coloneus: A
Comparative Approach, p. 645; Noburu Notomi, Prodicus in Aristophanes, p. 655;
Enrique Hülsz Piccone, Huellas de Heráclito en tres fragmentos ‘filosóficos’ de Epi-
carmo, p. 665; Alessandro Stavru, Il potere dell’apparenza: nota a Gorgia, Hel. 8-14,
p. 677; Lidia Palumbo, Scenografie verbali di V secolo. Appunti sulla natura visiva
del linguaggio tragico, p. 689; Nestor L. Cordero, Les fondements philosophiques de
la ‘thérapie’ d’Antiphon. Les vertus thérapeutiques du logos sophistique, p. 701.

***

Per l’amico Livio

Massimo Capponi, L’originalità e il valore dell’ipertesto dialogico-interattivo tra cre-

atività e simulazione, p. 715; Chiara Chiapperini, L’incontro con Livio Rossetti, la nas-
cita di Amica Sofia… e alcune osservazioni sull’arte della “maieutica”, p. 725; Nestor
L. Cordero, D’un citoyen d’Élée à l’autre, p. 735; Gerardo Ramírez Vidal, Omar D.
Álvarez Salas, Livio Rossetti y la UNAM, 25 años de cooperación y amistad, p. 737;
Thomas M. Robinson, Livio Rossetti and the International Plato Society, p. 743; Mar-
ian Wesoły, I Owe so much to Professor and my Friend Livio Rossetti…, p. 745.

***

Tabula gratulatoria 749

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panchenko_abstract.indd 231 20/11/2010 11.51.06
aguaplano.eu Dmitri Panchenko

The Cultural Florescence of Fifth-Century Athens

in Comparative Perspective

aguaplano