Athenagoras of Syracuse

"If a man does not strike first, he will be the first struck."

"When dealing with an enemy it is not only his actions but his intentions that have to be watched, since if one does not act first, one will suffer first."

"Athenagoras [was] the leader of the people [Syracusans] and very powerful at that time with the masses."

"It may be observed that when Thucydides reports the speech of the Syracusan demagogue Athenagoras, he marks his manner by a certain violence of expression.E.g. vi. 40, ἀλλ' ἔτι καὶ νῦν, ὦ πάντων ἀξυνετώτατοι, εἰ μὴ μανθάνετε κακὰ σπεύδοντες, ἢ ἀμαθέστατοί ἐστε ὧν ἐγὼ οἶδα Ἑλλήνων, ἢ ἀδικώτατοι, εἰ εἰδότες τολμᾶτε.In a Mémoire sur Thucydide, by M. Meierotto (in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy for 1790–91, p. 530), the writer observes, with reference to the discrimination of character in the speeches: "Cléon et Athénagore parlent ordinairement d'un ton dur, offensant et grossier, dont pourtant ils s'écartent quelquefois." We have only one speech of Cleon and one of Athenagoras; so far as these go, however, the striking thing, it seems to me, is not the resemblance, but the contrast."

"As if to leave no doubt about the iron of Athenagoras’ fraudulent democratic rhetoric, Thucydides reports that following the debate the Syracusan assembly was prevented from making any decision at all."

"In the case of Athenagoras we are shown a politician who virtually succeeds in turning a deliberation assembly into a mob."

"Athenagoras dismisses the invasion issue and seeks to inflame passions by gratuitously raising the spectre of an oligarchic revolt."