ARISTOPHANES’ KNIGHTS

Ceremonies in the Theater   

Aeschines 3.153 - sons of war dead honored in the theater  

Please imagine yourselves for a moment not in the court but in the theater, and supose that you are seeing the herald come forward, the announcement in the decree about to be made, and ask yourselves whether the relatives of the dead will shed more tears over the tragedies and sufferings of the heroes which will be statues after this or at the city's foolishness. What Greek with a free man's education would not feel pain to recall the fact, if nothing else, that once on this day, when as now the tragedies are about to take place, at a time when the city was better governed and had better champions at its disposal, the herald would come forward and with the orphans whose fathers had died in war beside him, youths decked out in full armor, would make the proclamation, one which brought most honor and was most calculated to inspire courage, that the people reared to puberty these young men, whose fathers had died in war displaying their valor, and now having equipped them with this hoplite armor sends them off to their own affairs with its blessing and invites them to a seat of honor.  

Isocrates On the Peace 82 - tribute from the allies displayed  

They so precisely found the means by which men can best inspire enmity that they voted to divide the incoming public revenues into talents and bring them into the orchestra during the Dionysia when the theater was full.This they did and they brought the orphans of the men who died in the war, making a display at once both to the allies of the extent of their wealth that these mercenaries had carried off and to the other Greeks of the great number of orphans and the suffering caused by this lust for wealth.

Aristophanes Frogs 1030ff

Aeschylus:That is the kind of thing a poet should go in for.You see, form the very earliest times the really great poet has been the one who had a useful lesson to teach.Orpheus gave us the Mysteries and taught people it was wrong to kill; Musaeus showed us how to cure diseases and prophesied the future; Hesiod explained about agriculture and the seasons for ploughing and harvest.and why is Homer himself held i high esteem if not for the valuable military instruction embodied in his work?  

Choregoi

Aristotle Constitution of Athens 56.3 

As soon as he takes up office the eponymous archon first proclaims that everyone shall hold and retain till the end of his term of office all the property he owned at the beginning of his term of office.Next he appoints for tragedy three choregoi who are the richest of all Athenians.In former times he also appointed five choregoi for comedy, but now the tribes appoint them.Then he receives the choregoi put forward by the tribes for the men's and boys' dithyramb and the comedies at the Dionysia and for the men's and boy's dithyramb at the Thargelia - at the Dionysia the choregoi are appointed one to each tribe, but at the Thargelia one to a pair of tribes; in other words each tribe of a pair takes its turn.The archon looks after the exchanges of property (antidosis) and introduces the exemptions in cases where the candidate claims to have performed his liturgy in the past, to be exempt because the period of exemption following another liturgy he performed has not yet elapsed, or not to be of age, since the law requires the choregoi for boy's choruses to be over forty years of age.  

Lysias 20.1-5

Judges, enough has been said about my accusers; I think it is right that you learn the rest so that you will know what sort of man you are judging.I was enrolled as a citizen (i.e. reached the age of 18) in the archonship of Theopompos (411/10) and was appointed choregos (at the City Dionysia) for tragedy.I spent 30 mnas (3,000 drachmas) and two months later I won first prize as choregos of a men's dithyramb at the Thargelia at a cost of 2,000 drachmas.In the archonship of Glaukippos (410/9) I spent 800 drachmas on the pyrrhiche at the Panathenaea.Once again choregos for the men's dithyramb in the same year, I won first prize at the Dionysia and spent 5,000 drachmas, monument for the tripod included.Also in the archonship of Diokles (409/8) I spent 300 drachmas on a circular chorus (i.e. dithyramb) at the lesser Panathenaea.(...) When I returned from service in the archonship of Alexias (405/4) I immediately became gymnasiarch for the Prometheia and won first prize at a cost of 12 mnas (1,200 drachmas).Later I was made choregos for a boys' chorus and I spent more than 15 mnas (1,50 drachmas).In the archonship of Eucleides (403/2) I won first prize in comedy as choregos for Cephisodorus and spent 16 mnas (1,600) drachmas), including the dedication of the masks, and at the lesser Panathenaea I was choregos for the youth' pyrriche and spent 7 mnas 700 drachmas).  

Judges 

Plutarch Cimon 8.7-9 

When Sophocles, still a young man, entered his first production in the contest, Apsephion the archon did not choose the judges of the contest by lot because he saw great rivalry and partisanship in the audience, but after Cimon entered the theater with the other generals and made the customary libations to the gods, he would not allow them to leave but forced them to take oaths and sit as judges, being ten, one from each tribe.
 

Isocrates Trapeziticus 33-4  

Who of you does not know that Pythodoros, the fellow known as the 'bum' who does and says anything for Pasion, opened the water jars last year and took out the names of the judges that the Council had deposited?So why would anyone be surprised if a man who for small gain would risk his life and open these jars, which were marked by the Executive Officers of the council (prytaneis), sealed by the choregoi, guarded by the Treasurers, and stored in the Acropolis..  

Use of Oracles in Politics 

Herodotus 7.141-43 

Thereupon the Prophetess uttered a second prophecy, which ran as follows:

Not wholly can Pallas win the heart of Olympian Zeus,

Though she prays him with many prayers and all her subtlety,

Yet will I speak to you this other word, as firm as adamant,

Though all else shall be taken within the bound of Cecrops

And the fastness of the holy mountain of Cithaeron, 

Yet Zeus the all-seeing grants to Athene's prayer

That the wooden wall only shall not fall, but help you and your       children.

But await not the host of horse and foot coming from Asia,

Nor be still, but turn your back and withdraw from the foe.

Truly a day will come when you will meet him face to face.

Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons 

When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.

This second answer seemed to be, as indeed it was, less menacing than the first; so the envoys wrote it down and returned to Athens.When it was made public upon their arrival in the city, and the attempt to explain it began, amongst the various opinions which were expressed there were two mutually exclusive interpretations.Some of the older men supposed that the prophecy meant that the Acropolis would escape destruction, on the grounds that the Acropolis was fenced in the old days with a thorn-hedge, and that this was the 'wooden wall' of the oracles; but others thought that by this expression the god indicated the ships, and they urged in consequence that everything should be abandoned in favor of the immediate preparation of a fleet.  There was, however, for those who believed 'wooden wall' to mean ships, one disturbing thing - namely, the last two lines of the Priestess' prophecy:  

      Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons

      When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.

This was a very awkward statement and caused profound disturbance amongst all who took the wooden wall to signify ships, for the professional interpreters understood the lines to mean they they would be beaten at Salamis in a fight at sea.  There was, however, a man in Athens who had recently come into prominence, Themistocles called Neocles' son; he now came forward and declared that the professional interpreters were mistaken.If, he maintained, the disaster referred to wasto strike the Athenians, it would not have been expressed in such mild language. 'Hateful Salamis' would surely have been a more likely phrase than 'divine Salamis', if the inhabitants of the country were doomed to destruction there.On the contrary, the true interpretation was that the oracle referred not tot the Athenians but to their enemies.The 'wooden wall' did, indeed, mean the ships, so he advised his country me to prepare at once to meet the invader at sea.  

Thucydides 8.1

When the news (of the disastrous defeat in Sicily) was brought to Athens, for a long time they disbelieved even the most respectable of the soldiers whom had themselves escaped from the scene of action and clearly reported the matter, a destruction so complete not being thought credible.When the conviction was forced upon them, they were angry with the orators who had joined in promoting the expedition, just as if they had not themselves voted it, and were enraged also with the reciters of oracles and soothsayers, and all other omen-mongers of the time who had encouraged them to hope they should conquer Sicily. 
 

Courts Used to Confiscate Property of the Wealthy  

Lysias 27.1   

You should pay careful attention to what these men say whenever they want to ruin someone unjustly: they tell you that if you do not convict the defendants, you will not receive your wages for sitting on the court.  

Lysias 30.22  

The defendant knows that the Council does not make serious mistakes as long as there is enough money to pay for the govern-ment, but when there is a deficit, the Council is forced to listen to accusations and confiscate the property of citizens and to put its trust in unscrupulous politicians.   

Aristotle Politics 5.4.3.1304b35-1305a7 

The democracy at Megara was overthrown in a similar way: the leaders of the people drove many of the upper class into exile in order to confiscate their property and distribute it to the people. The number of exiles grew so great that they banded together, defeated the democracy and set up an oligarchy.   

Aristotle Politics 6.3.2.1320a8-12  

But the leaders of the people today try to gain popularity by using the lawcourts to confiscate property.Therefore those who wish to preserve stability must fight against this tactic by enacting that nothing belonging to those who are condemned in court should be confiscated and taken to the public treasury, but that it should be consecrated to the gods.This way criminals will be more careful since they will be punished just the same, but the mob will be less inclined to condemn defendants when they know they will gain nothing by a conviction. 

Distributing Public Funds to Gain Popularity   

Aristotle Politics 6.3.4.1320a30-40  

Where there are revenues, men must not do what the leaders of the people do nowadays, (for they distribute the surplus to the people and as soon as the people get this, they want more because this way of helping the poor is the legendary jar with a hole in it) but the truly democratic statesman must see to it that the masses do not fall into extreme poverty, for this is what causes democracy to become corrupt.Measures must therefore be taken that bring about lasting prosperity. And since this is advantageous also for the well-to-do, the proper course is to collect all the proceeds of the revenues into a fund and distribute this in lump sums to the needy, best of all, if one can, in sums large enough for acquiring a small estate, or, failing this, to serve as capital for trade or farming, ...  

Herodotus 7.144  

Once on a previous occasion Themistocles had succeeded in getting his views accepted, to the great benefit of his country.The Athenians had amassed a large sum of money from the produce of the mines at Laurium, which they proposed to share out amongst themselves at the rate of ten drachmas a man; Themistocles, however, persuaded them to give up this idea and instead of distributing the money, to spend it on the construction of two hundred warships for use in the war with Aegina.The outbreak of this war at that moment saved Greece by forcing Athens to become a maritime power.   

Ideal Leader  

Thucydides 2.68  

Pericles indeed by his rank, ability, and known integrity, was enabled to exercise an independent control over the multitude - in short, to lead them instead of being led by them; for as he was never compelled to flatter them, but on the contrary enjoyed so high an estimation that he could afford to anger them by contradiction. Whenever he saw them unseasonably and insolently elated, he would with a word reduce them to alarm; on the other hand, if they fell victims to a panic, he could at cone restore them to confidence. In short, what was nominally a democracy became in his hands government by the first citizen.With his successors it was different.More on a level with each other, and each grasping for supremacy, they ended by committing even the conduct of state affairs to the whims of the multitude.