The Speech of Athenagoras in Thucydides 6.36–40: Demagoguery and Democracy in Syracuse

This paper discusses the speech of Athenagoras in Thucydides 6.36–40. Thucydides
sketches Athenagoras’ profile based on his knowledge of Athenian demagogues, his
(probably scanty) knowledge of the Syracusan opposition to Hermocrates, and his knowledge
of Syracusan democracy. I argue, first, that, despite freely composing Athenagoras’ speech,
Thucydides does follow the principle of τὰ δέοντα and ξύμπασα γνώμη τῶν ἀληθῶς
λεχθέντων that he introduces in his methodological chapter at 1.22.1. Second, that the picture
of Syracusan democracy that Athenagoras provides in his excursus on democracy is not
simply a mirror of Athenian democracy. The speech contains clues about a specific Syracusan
view of democracy, power and leadership, which might also explain why Aristotle defines
Syracuse in the period from 466/5 to 413 BC as a πολιτεία (i.e., a mixed constitution, halfway
between oligarchy and democracy) and not as a δημοκρατία.