In The Histories of Polybius, Polybius suggests to the audience that it is absolutely necessary for a city to have a well-respected leader in power in order to make progress within the city. In asserting this idea, Polybius specifically refers to the city of Athens. His defense consists of a well fitting metaphor comparing Athens to “a ship without a commander” in which “fear . . . or danger . . . induces the mariners to be sensible and attend to the orders of the skipper,” but when there is no danger or fear, the mariners are likely to, instead, disrespect their superiors and fight with one another (Polybius 6.44). For a city to have no true or consistent leader is to encourage this type of behavior among its citizens, and it would be believable to conclude that in times during a respected leader's rule, the city is more prosperous and successful than in times during which there is no real leader.
Polybius gives the reader the example of “the excellent administration of Themistocles” and the “[rapid] . . . reverse of fortune” that Athens experienced after Themistocles' ostracism (Polybius 6.44). Polybius is not the only figure that has given praise to this administration. Additional positive accounts of Themistocles are written by Herodotus in his Histories and also by Thucydides in The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides describes Themistocles as one of the “most famous people of [his] day” and a “man . . . of unmistakable natural genius . . . [who] beyond all other [leaders] deserves admiration” (Thucydides 1.138). Herodotus commends Themistocles for his practical thought process on occasions such as the way that he persuaded the Athenians to use the money from the Laurium mines to build two hundred war ships, which...
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...ements essential to the growth and development of Athens, but when the good leader was lost, the search for another good leader proved to be difficult. Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles all thrived to be the best leaders that they could be, but those who came after them only cared for gains that they could achieve on a personal level only and these later rulers did care about protecting the city the ways that Themistocles, Cimon, or Pericles did.
Works Cited
Aeschylus. The Persians.
Herodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003. Print.
Plutarch. Lives of the Grecians and Romans. eBooks, 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009.
Polybius. The Histories of Polybius. Loeb Classical Library Edition, 2008. Web. 02 Dec. 2009.
Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. Trans. Rex Warner. New York: Penguin
Classics, 1974. Print.
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