Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal dates
- Bibliographical note
- Glossary
- Table of equivalents
- Part I Early poetry
- Part II Tragedy
- Part III History and folklore
- Part IV Philosophy and science
- Part V Sophists
- Protagoras
- Gorgias
- Prodicus
- Hippias
- Antiphon
- Thrasymachus
- Evenus
- Critias
- Lycophron
- Alcidamas
- Anonymus Iamblichi
- Dissoi Logoi
- From unknown authors
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Critias
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal dates
- Bibliographical note
- Glossary
- Table of equivalents
- Part I Early poetry
- Part II Tragedy
- Part III History and folklore
- Part IV Philosophy and science
- Part V Sophists
- Protagoras
- Gorgias
- Prodicus
- Hippias
- Antiphon
- Thrasymachus
- Evenus
- Critias
- Lycophron
- Alcidamas
- Anonymus Iamblichi
- Dissoi Logoi
- From unknown authors
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
Critias was a relative (probably cousin) of Plato's mother, from an old and wealthy Athenian family which, like most such families, traditionally favored close relations with Sparta; he seems to have been a vocal advocate of Spartan customs (see frs. 18–21). He is best known as one of the leaders of the Thirty, a group of oligarchs who with the support of Sparta staged a coup against the democratic government of Athens in 404–403. The Thirty had some reasonable goals but their regime soon turned brutal, and democrats regained power in 403. Critias was killed in the final battle at about the age of fifty. The moderate tone of his surviving fragments seems strangely incongruent with the cruelty and violence that characterized his last year. See the Bibliographical Note, § B.5, for details of the fragments in our selection.
Tragedies
Pirithus
Ancient sources ascribe Pirithus to Euripides, but most scholars accept Critias' authorship.
(DK 21, S 10)
Speaking with a well exercised mind, he was the first
to make his throw, and devised this logos:
“Fortune is an ally to those with good sense.”
(DK 22, S 11)
A good character (tropos) is more certain than a law,
for a speaker could never distort it,
whereas he often abuses a law,
shaking it up and down with arguments (logoi).
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- Information
- Early Greek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists , pp. 259 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995