🟡 Two Gods, Persuasion, Compulsion, Themistocles c. 528–462 B.C.E.⁣
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Sounds complicated, but it’s really not!

Using Themistocles as an example, I’m breaking down this clever rhetorical figure. Short, simple, and with a touch of humor. Check it out! 😊

#funfacts #rhetoric #Themistocles #anadiplosis

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 26/

They say that the [Persian] King, on learning the cause and the manner of his death, admired the man yet more, and continued to treat his friends and kindred with kindness.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 25/

.. he made a sacrifice to the gods, then called his friends together, gave them a farewell clasp of his hand, and, as the current story goes, drank bull's blood,​ or as some say, took a quick poison, and so died in Magnesia, in the sixty-fifth year of his life,​ most of which had been spent in political leader­ship.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 24/

... yet most of all out of regard for the reputation of his own achievements and the trophies of those early days; having decided that his best course was to put a fitting end to his life, ...

\cont'd

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 23/

... neither embittered by anything like anger against his former fellow-citizens, nor lifted up by the great honour and power he was to have in the war, but possibly thinking his task not even approachable, both because Hellas had other great generals at the time, and especially because Cimon was so marvellously success­ful in his campaigns; ...

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 22/

... ; and when at last forces began to be moved, and generals were despatched hither and thither, and messages came down to Themistocles saying that the King commanded him to make good his promises by applying himself to the Hellenic problem, then, ...

\cont'd

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 21/

[Here Plutarch gives us one long breathless sentence describing the end of Themistocles. It is too long for a single 500-character toot, so I split it into many.]

But when Egypt revolted with Athenian aid,​ and Hellenic triremes sailed up as far as Cyprus and Cilicia, and Cimon's mastery of the sea forced the [Persian] King to resist the efforts of the Hellenes and to hinder their hostile growth; ...

\cont'd

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 20/

For he did not wander about over Asia, as Theopompus says, but had a house in Magnesia, and gathered in large gifts, and was honoured like the noblest Persians, and so lived on for a long time without concern, because the King paid no heed at all to Hellenic affairs, owing to his occupation with the state of the interior.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 19/

The King at once showed his pleasure at this comparison by bidding him take time, and so Themistocles asked for a year, and in that time he learned the Persian language sufficiently to have interviews with the King by himself without interpreters.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 19/

But Themistocles made answer that the speech of man was like embroidered tapestries, since like them this too had to be extended in order to display its patterns, but when it was rolled up it concealed and distorted them. Wherefore he had need of time.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 18/

When he had come into the King's presence, and had once more paid him obeisance, the King welcomed him and spake him kindly, and said he already owed him two hundred talents, for since he had delivered himself up it was only just that he himself should receive the reward proclaimed for his captor. And he bade him take heart, and gave him leave to say whatever he wished concerning the affairs of Hellas, with all frankness of speech.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 17/

[The exiled Themistocles to the Persian King]

"I come prepared to receive the favour of one who benevolently offers reconciliation, or to deprecate the anger of one who cherishes the remembrance of injuries.

For it is a suppliant of thine whom thou wilt save, but an enemy of the Hellenes whom thou wilt destroy."

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 16/

Themistocles, [in exile] as he lay in bed, thought he saw in a dream that a serpent wound itself along over his body and crept up to his neck, then became an eagle as soon as it touched his face, enveloped him with its wings and lifted him on high and bore him a long distance, when there appeared as it were a golden herald's wand, on which it set him securely down, freed from helpless terror and distress.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 15/

But in the desperate fortune of that time, Themistocles was more afraid of kindred and recent jealousie than of an anger that was long standing and royal, and promptly cast himself upon the king's mercy.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 14/

Ostracism was not a penalty, but a way of pacifying and alleviating that jealousy which delights to humble the eminent, breathing out its malice into this disfranchisement.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 13/

Themistocles used to say of the Athenians that they did not really honour and admire him for himself, but treated him for all the world like a plane-tree, running under his branches for shelter when it stormed, but when they had fair weather all about them, plucking and docking him.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 12/

With a courage born of necessity the Hellenes set out to confront the danger.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 11/

"Yes we have left behind us our houses and city walls, not accepting to be in subjection for the sake of such lifeless things; but we still have a city, the greatest in Hellas, our 200 ships, which are ready to aid you if you choose to be saved by them."

"But if you betray us for the second time, many a Hellene will learn that the Athenians have won for themselves a city that is free and a territory that is far better than the one they cast aside."

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 10/

When the entire city was thus putting out to sea, the sight provoked pity in some, and in others astonishment at the hardihood of the step; for they were sending off their families in one direction, while they themselves, unmoved by the lamentations and tears and embraces of their loved ones, were crossing over to the island where the enemy was to be fought.