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                                       Author's Note

In his history, Thucydides does not name any of the participants in the dialogue. I have invented the names of the characters to create a version of his account in play format

The Melian Dialogue
                                         
                                     by Thucydides

                                                                       Adapted by John Donald O'Shea


Synopsis

Does might make right?

Is it morally permissible for a stronger State to use its power to subjugate a weaker state?

To enslave that weaker state?

To destroy that weaker State when it fails to surender? 

Those are the questions the Greek historian Thucydides raise in 
The Melian Dialogue, a chapter in his classic history of The Peloponnesian War.

In the Summer of 416 B. C. — the Sixteenth Year of the War of the Peloponnesian War — the Athenians invaded the Island of Melos. Melos was the sole remaining Peloponnesian Island that was neither a part of the 
Delian League dominated by Athens, nor a part of the Peloponnesian 
League lead by Sparta.

In his history of The Peloponnesian War, the Historian Thucydides, describes a conference on the Island of Melos that occurred before the Athenians actively commenced hostilities. That conference was held between the envoys of Athens, who demanded the Island's surrender and the payment of tribute, and the magistrates of Melos. What Thucydides believed transpired at that conference has come to be known as The Melian Dialogue.

This short play is an ada;ptation of that history. 

               The Melian Dialogue

                                   Persons of the Drama

Narrator
Thucydides


Athenian Envoys
Charon
Deimos
Phobos


Melian Magistrates
Anaxagorus
Damocles
Leonidas
Polydoros
Agis

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