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| | Classics Corner |
 | | Diodotus enters history in 427 B.C., just long enough to rescue the Mytilenians, a people who rebelled from the Athenian empire and lost, from genocidal massacre. |
 | | Classicists have spilt barrel upon barrel of pedantic ink on the Mytilene debate, and the usual interpretation is that Cleon, arguing from justice, demands slaughter, while Diodotus, arguing from necessity, calls for leniency. |
 | | The irony is that Diodotus, in rejecting revenge and embracing self-interest, arrives at the more just alternative. |
| www.classicscorner.org /Diodotus.html (488 words) |
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