Athens Is More Powerful Than Power Essay

Our history has been based on a strong democratic sense of characterization. As a people, our forefathers have worshiped the great Athena; the goddess of justice and wisdom in hopes that she would lend her grace to the state. This grace has allowed for the prosperity and affluence Athens now has. Pride in our polis’s history has developed a unique collective identity, ideals were placed in the system that allowed the advances of its citizens. To protect these ideals, it is with great lengths that Athens has gone to prevent the influence of outside persons dominating the decision making process. No man, even with the divinity of a god by his side, can be in power without the consent of the people. In consequence, knowledge has become our
economy, and speeches our currency.
We follow democracy, we follow wisdom and justice. After our great victory in the Persian war, we have amassed power. Power allows for the success of the state and the consequent success of the people. It is with great pride that we began to offer protection to our sister states, and our prestige grew with this pride. These allies were quick to take up our hand, as they knew of Athens and its convictions. However, there is one state that has rivaled Athens, not in freedom or democracy, but in power. This polis is the mother of those who oppose our democratic reforms, those who oppose our control of the Delian League. Those who oppose of our power. Our vast naval alliance proved a threat to this power even with a peace treaty in place. It is due to them, that the struggles of war have commenced. Recently we have dispatched envoys to the island of Melos with the supposed intentions of negotiations. These citizens of Athenian convictions have reported to us the intentions of the Melians. I quote the segment of their speech that detailed their reasoning of the negotiations with the Melians concerning power “of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can. And it is not as if we
were the first to make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist forever after us; all we do is to make use of it, knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have, would do the same as we do.”1 The majority of this popular assembly agrees with this stance, as it is shown to be the most advantageous to us currently. However, we disregard justice and wisdom in favor of power. It is shown to be true that the Melians are a peaceful people, they have taken a neutral stance in the war thus far. They had no desire to take up the calculations of war or be subjected as citizens themselves. Yet because we have power over these people, we believe we can subject them to our laws. It isn’t just to take away the freedom of men who posed no threat to our mother land. Our impartiality of this injustice strays from our convictions.
The Melians told the people of Athens that they would not support either side of the war, even though they have connections to the Spartans as a spartan colony. We, however, look at the conquering of Melos as a strategic battle against Sparta, instead of anti democratic subjection of free people. This is an abuse of power and a slight to Athenian morals.
The envoys spoke of the Melians appealment of justice and human emotions.It is true that it would have been easier for both parties if the the Melians were willing to be under our rule. I would not have to stand before you as a Athenian guided by his convictions, and you would not have to be here hopefully taking heed of my words. It is no secret that the spartan colony is oligarchic. Our envoys, the represents of the many were brought before the Melian few and consented to an open debate. Our people refrained from seeking out the public opinion of the Melian citizens and ultimately pointed to a great inefficiency of our government.Alas, here we are with the dilemma of Justice vs Expediency. It would be assumed as a justice loving people that we would sympathize with those who seek this factor out. However, it seems that we only act on justice when it is the most beneficial to us. Most of you have spoken not of justice but on expediency even going as far as mentioning the differences in the scale of power between the two polis’s. We have reasoned our position with the nature of the Spartans, their preferred expediency. How can we save face when we start to mimic the methods of our enemies? Our history has been based on a strong democratic sense of characterization. As a people, our forefathers have worshiped the great Athena; the goddess of justice and wisdom in hopes that she would lend her grace to the state. This grace has allowed for the prosperity and affluence Athens now has. Pride in our polis’s history has developed a unique collective identity, ideals were placed in the system that allowed the advances of its citizens. To protect these ideals, it is with great lengths that Athens has gone to prevent the influence of outside persons dominating the decision making process. Yet we invade the foreign lands of free men and expect them to accept our influence in their decision making processes. No man, we say, even with the divinity of a god on his back, can be in power without the consent of the people. Concurrently, we invade these lands with the consent of none but our own and expect the grace of our goddess. In consequence, knowledge has become our economy, and speeches our currency. We follow power, we follow expediency. We follow injustice.