Civic Rites: Democracy and Religion in Ancient Athens

Five Alcibiades: Politics, Religion, and the Cult of Personality

thucydides’ last reported speech of Pericles in book 2 depicts the dynamic Athenian leader encouraging the people of Athens to be patient and maintain their naval empire. Above all Pericles warned against expanding the empire while at war. This plan might well have worked, had the Athenians stuck to it. But Thucydides’ narrative clearly states that after Pericles’ death the Athenians did just the opposite: eventually private ambition and the desire for honor and wealth won out over the interests of the city. When Alcibiades, a member of Pericles’ extended family, took a leading role in Athenian affairs, his regard for ancestral religious customs brought him both blame and praise. Civic rites—both the rituals of democracy celebrated in the open and the more secretive traditions surrounding Demeter, goddess of grain—continued to be celebrated in the polis, and under Alcibiades their observance had a decisive impact on the lives of all Athenians. maintaining the empire after the plague The loss of so many civilian lives within the city of Athens at the start of the war was something nobody could have predicted, not even Pericles. Athenian allies, subjects, and rivals all took note. Several attempted revolts from the empire in poleis to the north followed the outbreak of the plague, 1 3 1 five Alcibiades Politics, Religion, and the Cult of Personality and in 428 a major rebellion arose in the eastern Aegean. The large island of Lesbos off the coast of Ionia contained several poleis that had long desired to combine forces and free themselves from the Athenian arche. Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos and leader of the uprising, was negotiating for aid from Sparta and Boeotia. The revolt that unfolded shows just how relentless the Athenians’ response could be, and it anticipated some of the uglier chapters of the war soon to come. Thucydides’ narrative of the Mytilene episode reveals how poleis other than Athens also worked within civic calendars of religious festivals to support residents and plan for a city’s defense. The Athenians realized that Mytilene was determined to revolt, and so they sent forty ships. When the citizens of Mytilene realized that they were not fully prepared for a revolt they canceled their annual festival to Apollo in the Apple Country (Apollo Malea) so that they could complete repairs to the city’s fortifications (Thucydides 3.3). Soon afterward the Mytileneans were invited to send ambassadors along with athletes to the Olympic games in the Peloponnese. The renowned panhellenic festival that celebrated the physical strength and skill of young athletes also set aside time for the leaders of Hellenic poleis to consider political affairs. During this festival of Zeus in 428, Sparta and its allies heard the Mytileneans’ case for war—ironically, while they met together under a truce. The negotiations between Lesbos and Sparta at the festival of Zeus were initially successful: the Spartans agreed to gather their allies and invade Attica directly by land and sea. This action would force the Athenians to fight major campaigns on two fronts: both at home in Attica and on Lesbos. As hard-pressed as the Athenians were after the plague, they still put together a firm response to the Spartan plans and manned 100 additional ships by calling on available citizens and metics. These ships and men sailed south to the Peloponnese and plundered the countryside near Sparta while the navy handled the situation on Lesbos as it did most revolts: it laid siege to Mytilene. This unexpected show of Athenian strength surprised the Spartans, who then abandoned their campaign in Attica to defend the Peloponnese. They did send a few token ships to Lesbos in belated support of the uprising. Meanwhile the heavy expenditures of the war’s first years and the cost of besieging Mytilene forced Athens to levy a stiff new property tax on its own citizens. It was the first time the previously tribute-rich Athenians had been compelled to take such measures. With Mytilene blockaded and with the promised Spartan aid arriving too late, the revolt on Lesbos soon faltered. Now the demos back in Athens disa l c i b i a d e s 1 3 2 cussed how best to respond to the revolt. Many Athenians grew alarmed to see once-trusted allies turning to Sparta for aid, and their thoughts turned to punishment. Though the course of the war had pushed Greeks...