Lessons from the Past: The Moral Use of History in Fourth-century Prose (review)

Reviewed by: Lessons from the Past: The Moral Use of History in Fourth-century Prose Noreen Humble Frances Pownall . Lessons from the Past: The Moral Use of History in Fourth-century Prose. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2004. Pp. x + 204. US$60 ISBN 0-472-11327-5 Pownall's monograph stems from her doctoral dissertation of 1993 in which she examined "the tendency of certain Greek historians of the fourth century B.C. to sacrifice accuracy, relevance, and impartiality to the presentation of moral exempla" (v), with the focus being on Xenophon, Theopompus and Ephorus. The aim of the monograph is broader: to show how "the interpretation of the past as a series of moral paradigms" (1) evolved in terms of the development of Greek historiography. To this end the monograph is structured thus. The first chapter examines the intellectual trends in the late fifth century in order to look for the origins of this change. Particular emphasis is placed on the influence of Socrates and Isocrates who were both, in their own ways, particularly concerned with morality in public life. Pownall then divides the rest of the book into four chapters dealing with particular works of pupils of these two prominent intellects: Plato's Menexenus and Xenophon's Hellenica on the Socratic side and Ephorus' History and Theopompus' Philippica on the Isocratean side. The argument develops as follows. In Chapter 1, "The Intellectual Context," Pownall sets out to show that "the reasons for the prominence of the moral element in fourth-century historical writing are to be found in the reverberations in the intellectual milieu from decades of political, social and economic upheaval" (9). The rise of the sophistic movement in particular is highlighted as important though the evidence is scanty and biased. Concepts like atheism and moral relativity were topics of intellectual discussion; persuasion and making the weaker argument the stronger were typical goals of the movement. Standing somewhat apart and linked by their concern for morality as a basis for public life were Socrates, so the works of his pupils Plato and Xenophon suggest both in how they present him and in how they develop their own ideas, and Isocrates, whose own extant speeches reveal this. The latter's coupling of rhetoric with moral instruction is evident in the two historians who are sometimes assigned to his school: Ephorus and Theopompus. A discussion of what moral virtues [End Page 76] were important to the elite at the beginning of the fourth century (29–37) concludes the chapter. Here the virtues praised in Isocrates' Evagoras, Xenophon's Agesilaos and Cyropaedia and [Plato's] Alcibiades are set forth as representative. Chapter 2, "The Menexenus: Plato's Critique of Political Rhetoric," discusses how in the Menexenus Plato criticises contemporary oratorical practice and its pandering to the masses without any moral end. Plato "parodies the conventional distortions of the funeral oration in order to subvert the sanitized versions of the past presented by the orators in Athens as a means of promoting democratic ideology" (48). By contrast, Plato is all for distorting history when it promotes a moral end, as seen elsewhere in his use of the noble lie. When the aim is to make people better, distortion is acceptable (63). Chapter 3, "Xenophon's Hellenica," argues first that Xenophon's apparent blatant omissions of contemporary events such as the foundation of the second Athenian league, the foundation of Megalopolis and the re-foundation of Messene are not to be put down to pro-Spartan, anti Theban bias—as they often are—but can be explained by his "desire to use lessons from the past for the moral instruction of his fellow aristocrats" (66). That is, he leaves these events out in favour of others which provide strong moral exempla. Programmatic statements are then discussed, particularly how Xenophon intrudes sometimes in the narrative to almost apologise for harping on about what some might consider insignificant (such as Teleutias' devotion to his men, HG 5.1.4) but which he considers important (80–2). Then ways in which Xenophon instills the moral lessons in his readers are examined: a) explicit praise or blame, b) by example, c) use of...

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