CLAS1110-Summer2017-GiniBklynColl

In thinking about this I would have to first come to grips with the arguments that the laws presented. 1. I happen to have been born in New York City at a time when it was very nearly the largest and most important and powerful city in the world. 2. I did in fact enjoy the medical and educational facilities demanded by, and paid for by, the State and City of New York. I went to public schools all the way through college. 3. I knew that I had the freedom to travel out of New York and resettle anywhere with my 'property' (whatever that was!) and from age 19 to age 32 I was not a legal resident of New York. 4. I don't believe that the city failed me in any way, right up to the point that I was of full age. The subway, after all, was a quarter all day Sunday. 5. There were times when I didn't exactly follow the Law (nothing major) - but it never really occurred to me to go into politics in order to 'persuade the city and the men of the city' to change the laws...

1. remember to read my essay on the Crito question. 2. before we begin the discussion, I'll point out two scenes, from (a) the Phaedo and (b) the Seventh Letter: a)  The dead body which remains is not the true Socrates. [ edit ] In any way that you like; but you must get hold of me, and take care that I do not run away from you. Then he turned to us, and added with a smile:—I cannot make Crito believe that I am the same Socrates who have been talking and conducting the argument; he fancies that I am the other Socrates whom he will soon see, a dead body—and he asks, How shall he bury me? And though I have spoken many words in the endeavour to show that when I have drunk the poison I shall leave you and go to the joys of the blessed,—these words of mine, with which I was comforting you and myself, have had, as I perceive, no effect upon Crito. And therefore I want you to be surety for me to him now, as at the trial he was surety to the judges for me: but let the promise...

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_Peloponnesian_War/Book_6 Nicias demands a strong force: 22 "I think, therefore, that we ought to take great numbers of heavy infantry, both from Athens and from our allies, and not merely from our subjects, but also any we may be able to get for love or for money in Peloponnese, and great numbers also of archers and slingers, to make head against the Sicilian horse. Meanwhile we must have an overwhelming superiority at sea, to enable us the more easily to carry in what we want; and we must take our own corn in merchant vessels, that is to say, wheat and parched barley, and bakers from the mills compelled to serve for pay in the proper proportion; in order that in case of our being weather-bound the armament may not want provisions, as it is not every city that will be able to entertain numbers like ours. We must also provide ourselves with everything else as far as we can, so as not to be dependent upon others; and above all we mus...

My own attempt: Alcibiades Essay (Gini) 6/28/17 (Thuc 6.16 ff) Alcibiades ends his argument for being the leader of the Sicilian expedition by reflecting on the Athenian national charatcer: “In short, my conviction is that a city not inactive by nature could not choose a quicker way to ruin itself than by suddenly adopting such a policy, and that the safest rule of life is to take one's character and institutions for better and for worse, and to live up to them as closely as one can." (6.18) This tone very much reflects Archidamus, the Spartan king, in Book 1, where he sets the Athenian character against the Spartan. For Alcibiades, Athens is of its very nature reckless and impulsive -- that’s how they won their empire to begin with. Athens is a state in constant motion (kinetic) and never idle and set against itself in civil war (static). Nicias for him represents tradition, the wisdom of age, and conservatism; while Alcibiades values these characteristics as a balanc...

http://people.duke.edu/~jds15/clst-283/thuc.outline.html Thuc 1.25 -- Epidamnus in conflcit with Corcyra 25 When the Epidamnians found that no help could be expected from Corcyra, they were in a strait what to do next. So they sent to Delphi and inquired of the God whether they should deliver their city to the Corinthians and endeavour to obtain some assistance from their founders. The answer he gave them was to deliver the city and place themselves under Corinthian protection. So the Epidamnians went to Corinth and delivered over the colony in obedience to the commands of the oracle. They showed that their founder came from Corinth, and revealed the answer of the god; and they begged them not to allow them to perish, but to assist them. This the Corinthians consented to do. Believing the colony to belong as much to themselves as to the Corcyraeans, they felt it to be a kind of duty to undertake their protection. Besides, they hated the Corcyraeans for their contempt of the moth...