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= Pericles =
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Introduction
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Pericles (; ; -429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the
Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient
Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the
Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed by Thucydides, a contemporary
historian, as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the
Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during
the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which
he led Athens as its preeminent orator and statesman, roughly from 461
to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles", but the period
thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars or as late
as the following century.
Pericles promoted the arts and literature, and it was principally
through his efforts that Athens acquired the reputation of being the
educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started
an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures
on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon. This project beautified and
protected the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to its people.
Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that
critics called him a populist. Pericles was descended, through his
mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid
family. He, along with several members of his family, succumbed to the
Plague of Athens in 429 BC, which weakened the city-state during a
protracted conflict with Sparta.
Early years
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Pericles was born , in Athens, Greece. He was the son of the
politician Xanthippus, who, though ostracized in 485-484 BC, returned
to Athens to command the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at
Mycale just five years later. Pericles's mother, Agariste, was a
member of the powerful and controversial noble family of the
Alcmaeonidae, and her familial connections played a crucial role in
helping start his political career. Agariste was the
great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, and the
niece of the Athenian reformer Cleisthenes. Pericles belonged to the
Attic 'phyle' (clan) of Acamantis. His early years were quiet; the
introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead
preferring to devote his time to his studies.
According to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed, a few nights
before Pericles's birth, that she had borne a lion. Legends say that
Philip II of Macedon had a similar dream before the birth of his son,
Alexander the Great. One interpretation of the dream treats the lion
as a traditional symbol of greatness, but the story may also allude to
the unusually large size of Pericles's skull, which became a popular
target of contemporary comedians (who called him "Squill-head", after
the squill or sea-onion). Although Plutarch claims that this deformity
was the reason that Pericles was always depicted wearing a helmet,
this is not the case; the helmet was actually the symbol of his
official rank as strategos (general).
His family's nobility and wealth allowed him to fully pursue his
inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the
time (Damon or Pythocleides could have been his teacher) and he is
considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance
to philosophy. He enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras,
Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras, in particular, became a
close friend and influenced him greatly.
Pericles's manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have possibly
been in part products of Anaxagoras's emphasis on emotional calm in
the face of trouble, and skepticism about divine phenomena. His
proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as
products of Anaxagoras's influence.
Entering politics
===================
In the spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented 'The Persians' of
Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy, demonstrating that he
was one of the wealthier men of Athens. Simon Hornblower has argued
that Pericles's selection of this play, which presents a nostalgic
picture of Themistocles's famous victory at Salamis, shows that the
young politician was supporting Themistocles against his political
opponent Cimon, whose faction succeeded in having Themistocles
ostracized shortly afterward.
Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty
years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of
leadership by the early 460s BC, which would be in his early or
mid-thirties. Throughout these years he endeavored to protect his
privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For
example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal.
In 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of
the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens's vital
interests in Macedon. Although Cimon was acquitted, this confrontation
proved that Pericles's major political opponent was vulnerable.
Ostracizing Cimon
===================
Around 461 BC, the leadership of the democratic party decided it was
time to take aim at the Areopagus, a traditional council controlled by
the Athenian aristocracy, which had once been the most powerful body
in the state. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles,
Ephialtes, proposed a reduction of the Areopagus's powers. The
Ecclesia (the Athenian Assembly) adopted Ephialtes's proposal without
opposition. This reform signaled the beginning of a new era of
"radical democracy".
The democratic party gradually became dominant in Athenian politics,
and Pericles seemed willing to follow a populist policy to cajole the
public. According to Aristotle, Pericles's stance can be explained by
the fact that his principal political opponent, Cimon, was both rich
and generous, and was able to gain public favor by lavishly handing
out portions of his sizable personal fortune. The historian Loren J.
Samons II argues, however, that Pericles had enough resources to make
a political mark by private means, had he so chosen.
In 461 BC, Pericles achieved the political elimination of this
opponent using ostracism. The accusation was that Cimon betrayed his
city by aiding Sparta.
After Cimon's ostracism, Pericles continued to promote a populist
social policy. He first proposed a decree that permitted the poor to
watch theatrical plays without paying, with the state covering the
cost of their admission. With other decrees he lowered the property
requirement for the archonship in 458-457 BC and bestowed generous
wages on all citizens who served as jurymen in the Heliaia (the
supreme court of Athens) some time just after 454 BC. His most
controversial measure, however, was a law of 451 BC limiting Athenian
citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides.
Such measures impelled Pericles's critics to hold him responsible for
the gradual degeneration of the Athenian democracy. The 19th century
Greek historian Constantine Paparrigopoulos, argued that Pericles
sought for the expansion and stabilization of all democratic
institutions. Accordingly, he enacted legislation granting the lower
classes access to the political system and the public offices, from
which they had previously been barred.
According to Samons, Pericles believed that it was necessary to raise
the 'demos', in which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and
the crucial element of Athenian military dominance. (The fleet,
backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned
almost entirely by members of the lower classes).
Cimon, in contrast, apparently believed that no further free space for
democratic evolution existed. He was certain that democracy had
reached its peak and Pericles's reforms were leading to the stalemate
of populism. According to Paparrigopoulos, history vindicated Cimon,
because Athens, after Pericles's death, sank into the abyss of
political turmoil and demagogy. Paparrigopoulos maintained that an
unprecedented regression descended upon the city, whose glory perished
as a result of Pericles's populist policies.
According to another historian, Justin Daniel King, radical democracy
benefited people individually, but harmed the state. In contrast,
Donald Kagan asserted that the democratic measures Pericles put into
effect provided the basis for an unassailable political strength.
After all, Cimon finally accepted the new democracy and did not oppose
the citizenship law, after he returned from exile in 451 BC.
Leading Athens
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Ephialtes's murder in 461 BC paved the way for Pericles to consolidate
his authority. Without opposition after the expulsion of Cimon, the
unchallengeable leader of the democratic party became the
unchallengeable ruler of Athens. He remained in power until his death
in 429 BC.
First Peloponnesian War
=========================
Pericles made his first military excursions during the First
Peloponnesian War, which was caused in part by Athens's alliance with
Megara and Argos and the subsequent reaction of Sparta. In 454 BC he
attacked Sicyon and Acarnania. He then unsuccessfully tried to conquer
Oeniadea on the Corinthian gulf, before returning to Athens. In 451
BC, Cimon returned from exile and negotiated a five years' truce with
Sparta after a proposal of Pericles, an event which indicates a shift
in Pericles's political strategy. Pericles may have realized the
importance of Cimon's contribution during the ongoing conflicts
against the Peloponnesians and the Persians. Anthony Podlecki argues,
however, that Pericles's alleged change of position was invented by
ancient writers to support "a tendentious view of Pericles'
shiftiness".
Plutarch states that Cimon struck a power-sharing deal with his
opponents, according to which Pericles would carry through the
interior affairs and Cimon would be the leader of the Athenian army,
campaigning abroad. If it were actually made, this bargain would
constitute a concession on Pericles's part that he was not a great
strategist. Kagan's view is that Cimon adapted himself to the new
conditions and promoted a political marriage between Periclean
liberals and Cimonian conservatives.
In the mid-450s the Athenians launched an unsuccessful attempt to aid
an Egyptian revolt against Persia, which led to a prolonged siege of a
Persian fortress in the Nile Delta. The campaign culminated in
disaster; the besieging force was defeated and destroyed. In 451-450
BC the Athenians sent troops to Cyprus. Cimon defeated the Persians in
the Battle of Salamis-in-Cyprus, but died of disease in 449 BC.
Pericles is said to have initiated both expeditions in Egypt and
Cyprus, although some researchers, such as Karl Julius Beloch, argue
that the dispatch of such a great fleet conforms with the spirit of
Cimon's policy.
Complicating the account of this period is the issue of the Peace of
Callias, which allegedly ended hostilities between the Greeks and the
Persians. The very existence of the treaty is hotly disputed, and its
particulars and negotiation are ambiguous. Ernst Badian believes that
a peace between Athens and Persia was first ratified in 463 BC (making
the Athenian interventions in Egypt and Cyprus violations of the
peace), and renegotiated at the conclusion of the campaign in Cyprus,
taking force again by 449-448 BC.
John Fine, in contrast, suggests that the first peace between Athens
and Persia was concluded in 450-449 BC, due to Pericles's calculation
that ongoing conflict with Persia was undermining Athens's ability to
spread its influence in Greece and the Aegean. Kagan believes that
Pericles used Callias, a brother-in-law of Cimon, as a symbol of unity
and employed him several times to negotiate important agreements.
In the spring of 449 BC, Pericles proposed the Congress Decree, which
led to a meeting ("Congress") of all Greek states to consider the
question of rebuilding the temples destroyed by the Persians. The
Congress failed because of Sparta's stance, but Pericles's intentions
remain unclear. Some historians think that he wanted to prompt a
confederation with the participation of all the Greek cities; others
think he wanted to assert Athenian pre-eminence. According to the
historian Terry Buckley the objective of the Congress Decree was a new
mandate for the Delian League and for the collection of "phoros"
(taxes).
During the Second Sacred War Pericles led the Athenian army against
Delphi and reinstated Phocis in its sovereign rights on the oracle. In
447 BC Pericles engaged in his most admired excursion, the expulsion
of barbarians from the Thracian peninsula of Gallipoli, to establish
Athenian colonists in the region. At this time, however, Athens was
seriously challenged by a number of revolts among its subjects. In 447
BC the oligarchs of Thebes conspired against the democratic faction.
The Athenians demanded their immediate surrender, but after the Battle
of Coronea, Pericles was forced to concede the loss of Boeotia to
recover the prisoners taken in that battle. With Boeotia in hostile
hands, Phocis and Locris became untenable and quickly fell under the
control of hostile oligarchs.
In 446 BC, a more dangerous uprising erupted. Euboea and Megara
revolted. Pericles crossed over to Euboea with his troops, but was
forced to return when the Spartan army invaded Attica. Through bribery
and negotiations, Pericles defused the imminent threat, and the
Spartans returned home. When Pericles was later audited for the
handling of public money, an expenditure of 10 talents was not
sufficiently justified, since the official documents just referred
that the money was spent for a "very serious purpose". Nonetheless,
the "serious purpose" (namely the bribery) was so obvious to the
auditors that they approved the expenditure without official meddling
and without even investigating the mystery.
After the Spartan threat had been removed, Pericles crossed back to
Euboea to crush the revolt there. He then punished the landowners of
Chalcis, who lost their properties. The residents of Histiaea,
meanwhile, who had butchered the crew of an Athenian trireme, were
uprooted and replaced by 2,000 Athenian settlers. The crisis was
brought to an official end by the Thirty Years' Peace (winter of
446-445 BC), in which Athens relinquished most of the possessions and
interests on the Greek mainland which it had acquired since 460 BC,
and both Athens and Sparta agreed not to attempt to win over the other
state's allies.
Final battle with the conservatives
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In 444 BC, the conservative and the democratic factions confronted
each other in a fierce struggle. The ambitious new leader of the
conservatives, Thucydides (not to be confused with the historian of
the same name), accused Pericles of profligacy, criticizing the way he
spent the money for the ongoing building plan. Thucydides initially
managed to incite the passions of the ecclesia regarding these charges
in his favor. However, when Pericles took the floor, his resolute
arguments put Thucydides and the conservatives firmly on the
defensive. Finally, Pericles proposed to reimburse the city for all
questionable expenses from his private property, with the proviso that
he would make the inscriptions of dedication in his own name. His
stance was greeted with applause, and Thucydides was soundly, if
unexpectedly, defeated. In 442 BC, the Athenian public voted to
ostracize Thucydides from the city for 10 years and Pericles was once
again the unchallenged ruler of the Athenian political arena.
Athens's rule over its alliance
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Pericles wanted to stabilize Athens's dominance over its alliance and
to enforce its pre-eminence in Greece. The process by which the Delian
League transformed into an Athenian empire is generally considered to
have begun well before Pericles's time, as various allies in the
league chose to pay tribute to Athens instead of manning ships for the
league's fleet, but the transformation was speeded and brought to its
conclusion by Pericles.
The final steps in the shift to empire may have been triggered by
Athens's defeat in Egypt, which challenged the city's dominance in the
Aegean and led to the revolt of several allies, such as Miletus and
Erythrae. Either because of a genuine fear for its safety after the
defeat in Egypt and the revolts of the allies, or as a pretext to gain
control of the League's finances, Athens transferred the treasury of
the alliance from Delos to Athens in 454-453 BC.
By 450-449 BC the revolts in Miletus and Erythrae were quelled and
Athens restored its rule over its allies. Around 447 BC Clearchus
proposed the Coinage Decree, which imposed Athenian silver coinage,
weights and measures on all of the allies. According to one of the
decree's most stringent provisions, surplus from a minting operation
was to go into a special fund, and anyone proposing to use it
otherwise was subject to the death penalty.
It was from the alliance's treasury that Pericles drew the funds
necessary to enable his ambitious building plan, centered on the
"Periclean Acropolis", which included the Propylaea, the Parthenon and
the golden statue of Athena, sculpted by Pericles's friend, Phidias.
In 449 BC Pericles proposed a decree allowing the use of 9,000 talents
to finance the major rebuilding program of Athenian temples. Angelos
Vlachos, a Greek Academician, points out the use of the alliance's
treasury, initiated and executed by Pericles, as one of the largest
embezzlements in human history; this misappropriation financed,
however, some of the most marvellous artistic creations of the ancient
world.
Samian War
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The Samian War was one of the last significant military events before
the Peloponnesian War. After Thucydides's ostracism, Pericles was
re-elected yearly to the generalship, the only office he ever
officially occupied, although his influence was so great as to make
him the 'de facto' ruler of the state. In 440 BC Samos went to war
against Miletus over control of Priene, an ancient city of Ionia on
the foot-hills of Mycale. Worsted in the war, the Milesians came to
Athens to plead their case against the Samians.
When the Athenians ordered the two sides to stop fighting and submit
the case to arbitration in Athens, the Samians refused. In response,
Pericles passed a decree dispatching an expedition to Samos, "alleging
against its people that, although they were ordered to break off their
war against the Milesians, they were not complying".
In a naval battle the Athenians led by Pericles and nine other
generals defeated the forces of Samos and imposed on the island an
Athenian administration. When the Samians revolted against Athenian
rule, Pericles compelled the rebels to capitulate after a tough siege
of eight months, which resulted in substantial discontent among the
Athenian sailors. Pericles then quelled a revolt in Byzantium and,
when he returned to Athens, gave a funeral oration to honor the
soldiers who died in the expedition.
Between 438 and 436 BC Pericles led Athens's fleet in Pontus and
established friendly relations with the Greek cities of the region.
Pericles focused also on internal projects, such as the fortification
of Athens (the building of the "middle wall" about 440 BC), and on the
creation of new cleruchies, such as Andros, Naxos and Thurii (444 BC)
as well as Amphipolis (437-436 BC).
Personal attacks
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Pericles and his friends were never immune from attack, as preeminence
in democratic Athens was not equivalent to absolute rule. Just before
the eruption of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles and two of his closest
associates, Phidias and his companion, Aspasia, faced a series of
personal and judicial attacks.
Phidias, who had been in charge of all building projects, was first
accused of embezzling gold meant for the statue of Athena and then of
impiety, because, when he wrought the battle of the Amazons on the
shield of Athena, he carved out a figure that suggested himself as a
bald old man, and also inserted a very fine likeness of Pericles
fighting with an Amazon.
Aspasia, who was noted for her ability as a conversationalist and
adviser, was accused of corrupting the women of Athens to satisfy
Pericles's perversions. The accusations against her were probably
nothing more than unproven slanders, but the whole experience was very
bitter for Pericles. Although Aspasia was acquitted thanks to a rare
emotional outburst of Pericles, his friend Phidias died in prison
according to Plutarch; however, he is also credited with the later
statue of Zeus at Olympia, therefore this is debated, and another
friend of his, Anaxagoras, was attacked by the ecclesia for his
religious beliefs.
Beyond these initial prosecutions, the ecclesia attacked Pericles
himself by asking him to justify his ostensible profligacy with, and
maladministration of, public money. According to Plutarch, Pericles
was so afraid of the oncoming trial that he did not let the Athenians
yield to the Lacedaemonians. Beloch also believes that Pericles
deliberately brought on the war to protect his political position at
home. Thus, at the start of the Peloponnesian War, Athens found itself
in the awkward position of entrusting its future to a leader whose
pre-eminence had just been seriously shaken for the first time in over
a decade.
Peloponnesian War
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The causes of the Peloponnesian War have been much debated, but many
ancient historians lay the blame on Pericles and Athens. Plutarch
seems to believe that Pericles and the Athenians incited the war,
scrambling to implement their belligerent tactics "with a sort of
arrogance and a love of strife". Thucydides hints at the same thing,
believing the reason for the war was Sparta's fear of Athenian power
and growth. However, as he is generally regarded as an admirer of
Pericles, Thucydides has been criticized for bias against Sparta.
Prelude to the war
====================
Pericles was convinced that the war against Sparta, which could not
conceal its envy of Athens's pre-eminence, was inevitable if
unfortunate. Therefore, he did not hesitate to send troops to Corcyra
to reinforce the Corcyraean fleet, which was fighting against Corinth.
In 433 BC the enemy fleets confronted each other at the Battle of
Sybota and a year later the Athenians fought Corinthian colonists at
the Battle of Potidaea; these two events contributed greatly to
Corinth's lasting hatred of Athens. During the same period, Pericles
proposed the Megarian decree, which resembled a modern trade embargo.
According to the provisions of the decree, Megarian merchants were
excluded from the market of Athens and the ports in its empire. This
ban strangled the Megarian economy and strained the fragile peace
between Athens and Sparta, which was allied with Megara. According to
George Cawkwell, a praelector in ancient history, with this decree
Pericles breached the Thirty Years' Peace "but, perhaps, not without
the semblance of an excuse". The Athenians' justification was that the
Megarians had cultivated the sacred land consecrated to Demeter and
had given refuge to runaway slaves, a behavior which the Athenians
considered to be impious.
After consultations with its allies, Sparta sent a deputation to
Athens demanding certain concessions, such as the immediate expulsion
of the Alcmaeonidae family including Pericles and the retraction of
the Megarian Decree, threatening war if the demands were not met. The
obvious purpose of these proposals was the instigation of a
confrontation between Pericles and the people; this event, indeed,
would come about a few years later. At that time, the Athenians
unhesitatingly followed Pericles's instructions. In the first
legendary oration Thucydides puts in his mouth, Pericles advised the
Athenians not to yield to their opponents' demands, since they were
militarily stronger. Pericles was not prepared to make unilateral
concessions, believing that "if Athens conceded on that issue, then
Sparta was sure to come up with further demands". Consequently,
Pericles asked the Spartans to offer a 'quid pro quo'. In exchange for
retracting the Megarian Decree, the Athenians demanded from Sparta to
abandon their practice of periodic expulsion of foreigners from their
territory (xenelasia) and to recognize the autonomy of its allied
cities, a request implying that Sparta's hegemony was also ruthless.
The terms were rejected by the Spartans, and with neither side willing
to back down, the two cities prepared for war. According to Athanasios
G. Platias and Constantinos Koliopoulos, professors of strategic
studies and international politics, "rather than to submit to coercive
demands, Pericles chose war". Another consideration that may well have
influenced Pericles's stance was the concern that revolts in the
empire might spread if Athens showed itself weak.
First year of the war (431 BC)
================================
In 431 BC, while peace already was precarious, Archidamus II, Sparta's
king, sent a new delegation to Athens, demanding that the Athenians
submit to Sparta's demands. This deputation was not allowed to enter
Athens, as Pericles had already passed a resolution according to which
no Spartan deputation would be welcomed if the Spartans had previously
initiated any hostile military actions. The Spartan army was at this
time gathered at Corinth, and, citing this as a hostile action, the
Athenians refused to admit their emissaries. With his last attempt at
negotiation thus declined, Archidamus invaded Attica, but found no
Athenians there; Pericles, aware that Sparta's strategy would be to
invade and ravage Athenian territory, had previously arranged to
evacuate the entire population of the region to within the walls of
Athens.
No definite record exists of how exactly Pericles managed to convince
the residents of Attica to agree to move into the crowded urban areas.
For most, the move meant abandoning their land and ancestral shrines
and completely changing their lifestyle. Therefore, although they
agreed to leave, many rural residents were far from happy with
Pericles's decision. Pericles also gave his compatriots some advice on
their present affairs and reassured them that, if the enemy did not
plunder his farms, he would offer his property to the city. This
promise was prompted by his concern that Archidamus, who was a friend
of his, might pass by his estate without ravaging it, either as a
gesture of friendship or as a calculated political move aimed to
alienate Pericles from his constituents.
In any case, seeing the pillage of their farms, the Athenians were
outraged, and they soon began to indirectly express their discontent
towards their leader, who many of them considered to have drawn them
into the war. Even when in the face of mounting pressure, Pericles did
not give in to the demands for immediate action against the enemy or
revise his initial strategy. He also avoided convening the ecclesia,
fearing that the populace, outraged by the unopposed ravaging of their
farms, might rashly decide to challenge the vaunted Spartan army in
the field. As meetings of the assembly were called at the discretion
of its rotating presidents, the "prytani" (singular, "prytaneis"),
Pericles had no formal control over their scheduling; rather, the
respect in which Pericles was held by the prytanies was apparently
sufficient to persuade them to do as he wished. While the Spartan army
remained in Attica, Pericles sent a fleet of 100 ships to loot the
coasts of the Peloponnese and charged the cavalry to guard the ravaged
farms close to the walls of the city. When the enemy retired and the
pillaging came to an end, Pericles proposed a decree according to
which the authorities of the city should put aside 1,000 talents and
100 ships, in case Athens was attacked by naval forces. According to
the most stringent provision of the decree, even proposing a different
use of the money or ships would entail the penalty of death. During
the autumn of 431 BC, Pericles led the Athenian forces that invaded
Megara and a few months later (winter of 431-430 BC) he delivered his
monumental and emotional Funeral Oration, honoring the Athenians who
died for their city.
Last military operations and death
====================================
In 430 BC, the army of Sparta looted Attica for a second time, but
Pericles was not daunted and refused to revise his initial strategy.
Unwilling to engage the Spartan army in battle, he again led a naval
expedition to plunder the coasts of the Peloponnese, this time taking
100 Athenian ships with him. According to Plutarch, just before the
sailing of the ships an eclipse of the sun frightened the crews, but
Pericles used the astronomical knowledge he had acquired from
Anaxagoras to calm them. In the summer of the same year an epidemic
broke out and devastated the Athenians. The exact identity of the
disease is uncertain; typhus or typhoid fever are suspected, but this
has been the source of much debate. In any case, the city's plight,
caused by the epidemic, triggered a new wave of public uproar, and
Pericles was forced to defend himself in an emotional final speech, a
rendition of which is presented by Thucydides. This is considered to
be a monumental oration, revealing Pericles's virtues but also his
bitterness towards his compatriots' ingratitude. Temporarily, he
managed to tame the people's resentment and to ride out the storm, but
his internal enemies' final bid to undermine him came off; they
managed to deprive him of the generalship and to fine him at an amount
estimated between 15 and 50 talents. Ancient sources mention Cleon, a
rising and dynamic protagonist of the Athenian political scene during
the war, as the public prosecutor in Pericles's trial.
Nevertheless, within just a year, in 429 BC, the Athenians not only
forgave Pericles but also re-elected him as strategos. He was
reinstated in command of the Athenian army and led all its military
operations during 429 BC, having once again under his control the
levers of power. In that year, however, Pericles witnessed in the
epidemic the death of both Paralus and Xanthippus, his legitimate sons
from his first wife. According to Plutarch, Pericles was overwhelmed
with grief and wept copiously for his loss. He himself died of the
plague later in the year.
Just before his death, Pericles's friends were concentrated around his
bed, enumerating his virtues during peace and underscoring his nine
war trophies. Pericles, though moribund, heard them and interrupted
them, pointing out that they forgot to mention his fairest and
greatest title to their admiration; "for", said he, "no living
Athenian ever put on mourning because of me". Pericles lived during
the first two and a half years of the Peloponnesian War and, according
to Thucydides, his death was a disaster for Athens, since his
successors were inferior to him; they preferred to incite all the bad
habits of the rabble and followed an unstable policy, endeavoring to
be popular rather than useful. With these bitter comments, Thucydides
not only laments the loss of a man he admired, but he also heralds the
flickering of Athens's unique glory and grandeur.
Pausanias (c. 150 AD) records (I.29) seeing the tomb of Pericles along
a road near the Academy.
Personal life
======================================================================
Pericles, following Athenian custom, was first married to one of his
closest relatives, with whom he had two sons, Paralus and Xanthippus,
but around 445 BC, Pericles divorced his wife. He offered her to
another husband, with the agreement of her male relatives. The name of
his first wife is not known; the only information about her is that
she was the wife of Hipponicus, before being married to Pericles, and
the mother of Callias from this first marriage.
After Pericles divorced his wife, he had a long-term relationship with
Aspasia of Miletus, with whom he had a son, Pericles the Younger.
While Aspasia was held in high regard by many of Athens's socialites,
her status as a non-Athenian led many to attack their relationship.
Even Pericles's son, Xanthippus, who had political ambitions, did not
hesitate to slander his father. Nonetheless, such objections did not
greatly undermine the popularity of the couple and Pericles readily
fought back against accusations that his relationship with Aspasia was
corrupting of Athenian society.
His sister and both his legitimate sons, Xanthippus and Paralus, died
during the Plague of Athens. Just before his death, the Athenians
allowed a change in the law of 451 BC that made his half-Athenian son
with Aspasia, Pericles the Younger, a citizen, and legitimate heir, a
striking decision considering that Pericles himself had proposed the
law confining citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both
sides.
Assessments
======================================================================
Pericles marked a whole era and inspired conflicting judgments about
his significant decisions. The fact that he was at the same time a
vigorous statesman, general and orator only tends to make an objective
assessment of his actions more difficult.
Political leadership
======================
Some contemporary scholars call Pericles a populist, a demagogue and a
hawk, while other scholars admire his charismatic leadership.
According to Plutarch, after assuming the leadership of Athens, "he
was no longer the same man as before, nor alike submissive to the
people and ready to yield and give in to the desires of the multitude
as a steersman to the breezes". It is told that when his political
opponent, Thucydides, was asked by Sparta's king, Archidamus, whether
he or Pericles was the better fighter, Thucydides answered without any
hesitation that Pericles was better, because even when he was
defeated, he managed to convince the audience that he had won. In
matters of character, Pericles was above reproach in the eyes of the
ancient historians, since "he kept himself untainted by corruption,
although he was not altogether indifferent to money-making".
Thucydides (the historian), an admirer of Pericles, maintains that
Athens was "in name a democracy but, in fact, governed by its first
citizen". Through this comment, the historian illustrates what he
perceives as Pericles's charisma to lead, convince and, sometimes, to
manipulate. Although Thucydides mentions the fining of Pericles, he
does not mention the accusations against Pericles but instead focuses
on Pericles's integrity. On the other hand, in one of his dialogues,
Plato rejects the glorification of Pericles and declares: "as I know,
Pericles made the Athenians slothful, garrulous and avaricious, by
starting the system of public fees".
Plutarch mentions other criticism of Pericles's leadership: "many
others say that the people were first led on by him into allotments of
public lands, festival-grants, and distributions of fees for public
services, thereby falling into bad habits, and becoming luxurious and
wanton under the influence of his public measures, instead of frugal
and self-sufficing".
Thucydides argues that Pericles "was not carried away by the people,
but he was the one guiding the people". His judgement is not
unquestioned; some 20th-century critics, such as Malcolm F. McGregor
and John S. Morrison, proposed that he may have been a charismatic
public face acting as an advocate on the proposals of advisors, or the
people themselves. According to King, by increasing the power of the
people, the Athenians left themselves with no authoritative leader.
During the Peloponnesian War, Pericles's dependence on popular support
to govern was obvious.
Military achievements
=======================
For more than 20 years Pericles led many expeditions, mainly naval
ones. Being always cautious, he never undertook of his own accord a
battle involving much uncertainty and peril and he did not accede to
the "vain impulses of the citizens". He based his military policy on
Themistocles's principle that Athens's predominance depends on its
superior naval power and believed that the Peloponnesians were
near-invincible on land. Pericles also tried to minimize the
advantages of Sparta by rebuilding the walls of Athens, which, it has
been suggested, radically altered the use of force in Greek
international relations.
During the Peloponnesian War, Pericles initiated a defensive "grand
strategy" whose aim was the exhaustion of the enemy and the
preservation of the 'status quo'. According to Platias and
Koliopoulos, Athens as the strongest party did not have to beat Sparta
in military terms and "chose to foil the Spartan plan for victory".
The two basic principles of the "Periclean Grand Strategy" were the
rejection of appeasement (in accordance with which he urged the
Athenians not to revoke the Megarian Decree) and the avoidance of
overextension. According to Kagan, Pericles's vehement insistence that
there should be no diversionary expeditions may well have resulted
from the bitter memory of the Egyptian campaign, which he had
allegedly supported. His strategy is said to have been "inherently
unpopular", but Pericles managed to persuade the Athenian public to
follow it. It is for that reason that Hans Delbrück called him one of
the greatest statesmen and military leaders in history. Although his
countrymen engaged in several aggressive actions soon after his death,
Platias and Koliopoulos argue that the Athenians remained true to the
larger Periclean strategy of seeking to preserve, not expand, the
empire, and did not depart from it until the Sicilian Expedition. For
his part, Ben X. de Wet concludes his strategy would have succeeded
had he lived longer.
Critics of Pericles's strategy, however, have been just as numerous as
its supporters. A common criticism is that Pericles was always a
better politician and orator than strategist. Donald Kagan called the
Periclean strategy "a form of wishful thinking that failed", Barry S.
Strauss and Josiah Ober have stated that "as strategist he was a
failure and deserves a share of the blame for Athens' great defeat",
and Victor Davis Hanson believes that Pericles had not worked out a
clear strategy for an effective offensive action that could possibly
force Thebes or Sparta to stop the war. Kagan criticizes the Periclean
strategy on four counts: first that by rejecting minor concessions it
brought about war; second, that it was unforeseen by the enemy and
hence lacked credibility; third, that it was too feeble to exploit any
opportunities; and fourth, that it depended on Pericles for its
execution and thus was bound to be abandoned after his death. Kagan
estimates Pericles's expenditure on his military strategy in the
Peloponnesian War to be about 2,000 talents annually, and based on
this figure concludes that he would have only enough money to keep the
war going for three years. He asserts that since Pericles must have
known about these limitations he probably planned for a much shorter
war. Others, such as Donald W. Knight, conclude that the strategy was
too defensive and would not succeed.
In contrast, Platias and Koliopoulos reject these criticisms and state
that "the Athenians lost the war only when they dramatically reversed
the Periclean grand strategy that explicitly disdained further
conquests". Hanson stresses that the Periclean strategy was not
innovative, but could lead to a stagnancy in favor of Athens. It is a
popular conclusion that those succeeding him lacked his abilities and
character.
Oratorical skill
==================
A painting by Hector Leroux (1682-1740), which portrays Pericles and
Aspasia, admiring the gigantic statue of Athena in Phidias's studio
Modern commentators of Thucydides, with other modern historians and
writers, take varying stances on the issue of how much of the speeches
of Pericles, as given by this historian, do actually represent
Pericles's own words and how much of them is free literary creation or
paraphrase by Thucydides. Since Pericles never wrote down or
distributed his orations, no historians are able to answer this with
certainty; Thucydides recreated three of them from memory and,
thereby, it cannot be ascertained that he did not add his own notions
and thoughts.
Although Pericles was a main source of his inspiration, some
historians have noted that the passionate and idealistic literary
style of the speeches Thucydides attributes to Pericles is completely
at odds with Thucydides's own cold and analytical writing style. This
might, however, be the result of the incorporation of the genre of
rhetoric into the genre of historiography. That is to say, Thucydides
could simply have used two different writing styles for two different
purposes.
Ioannis Kakridis and Arnold Gomme were two scholars who debated the
originality of Pericles's oratory and last speech. Kakridis believes
that Thucydides altered Pericles words. Some of his strongest
arguments included in the Introduction of the speech, (Thuc.11.35).
Kakridis proposes that it is impossible to imagine Pericles deviating
away from the expected funeral orator addressing the mourning audience
of 430 after the Peloponnesian war. The two groups addressed were the
ones who were prepared to believe him when he praised the dead, and
the ones who did not. Gomme rejects Kakridis's position, defending the
fact that "Nobody of men has ever been so conscious of envy and its
workings as the Greeks, and that the Greeks and Thucydides in
particular had a passion for covering all ground in their
generalizations, not always relevantly."
Kagan states that Pericles adopted "an elevated mode of speech, free
from the vulgar and knavish tricks of mob-orators" and, according to
Diodorus Siculus, he "excelled all his fellow citizens in skill of
oratory". According to Plutarch, he avoided using gimmicks in his
speeches, unlike the passionate Demosthenes, and always spoke in a
calm and tranquil manner. The biographer points out, however, that the
poet Ion reported that Pericles's speaking style was "a presumptuous
and somewhat arrogant manner of address, and that into his haughtiness
there entered a good deal of disdain and contempt for others".
Gorgias, in Plato's homonymous dialogue, uses Pericles as an example
of powerful oratory. In Menexenus, however, Socrates (through Plato)
casts aspersions on Pericles's rhetorical fame, claiming ironically
that, since Pericles was educated by Aspasia, a trainer of many
orators, he would be superior in rhetoric to someone educated by
Antiphon. He also attributes authorship of the Funeral Oration to
Aspasia and attacks his contemporaries' veneration of Pericles.
Sir Richard C. Jebb concludes that "unique as an Athenian statesman,
Pericles must have been in two respects unique also as an Athenian
orator; first, because he occupied such a position of personal
ascendancy as no man before or after him attained; secondly, because
his thoughts and his moral force won him such renown for eloquence as
no one else ever got from Athenians".
Ancient Greek writers call Pericles "Olympian" and extol his talents;
referring to him "thundering and lightning and exciting Greece" and
carrying the weapons of Zeus when orating. According to Quintilian,
Pericles would always prepare assiduously for his orations and, before
going on the rostrum, he would always pray to the gods, so as not to
utter any improper word.
Pericles and the city gods
============================
Nothing was more alien to the Greeks than the notion of a Separation
between church and state. In Athens, the community provided a tight
framework for religious manifestations while, symmetrically, religion
was deeply embedded in civic life. Within this context, participation
in the rituals was an action highly political in the broadest sense of
the term.
To analyze Pericles's relations with gods, one has to position oneself
at the intersection of the general and the particular, where what was
personal and what was shared by the whole community came together. On
the one hand, the career of the 'strategos' will illuminate the
Athenians' collective relationship to all that was divine. As a
reelected 'strategos' and a persuasive orator, Pericles was the
spokesman of a civic religion that was undergoing a mutation. He was
implicated in a policy of making constant offerings and of launching
huge architectural religious works not only on the Acropolis but also
throughout Attica; and, furthermore, he was engaged in such activities
at a time when city was introducing profound changes into its
religious account of its origins--that is, autochthony--within a
context of strained diplomatic relations.
On the other hand, the ancient sources made it possible to glimpse the
personal relations that Pericles had developed with gods. These were
relations of proximity in the first place: he was sometimes depicted
as a protégé of goddess Athena, but in Attic comedies he was also
assimilated to god Zeus, in an analogy that was in no way flattering.
But then, there were also relations that emphasized distance: some
philosophical accounts presented him as a man close to the sophists or
even as a freethinker. Finally, there were relations involving
irreverence: some later and less trustworthy sources made much of
several trials for impiety in which those close to him were involved,
and this raises the question of religious tolerance in fifth-century
Athens and, in particular, how far individuals enjoyed freedom of
thought when faced with the civic community.
Legacy
========
Pericles's most visible legacy can be found in the literary and
artistic works of the Golden Age, much of which survive to this day.
The Acropolis, though in ruins, still stands and is a symbol of modern
Athens. Paparrigopoulos wrote that these masterpieces are "sufficient
to render the name of Greece immortal in our world".
In politics, Victor L. Ehrenberg argues that a basic element of
Pericles's legacy is Athenian imperialism, which denies true democracy
and freedom to the people of all but the ruling state. The promotion
of such an arrogant imperialism is said to have ruined Athens.
Pericles and his "expansionary" policies have been at the center of
arguments promoting democracy in oppressed countries.
Other analysts maintain an Athenian humanism illustrated in the Golden
Age. The freedom of expression is regarded as the lasting legacy
deriving from this period. Pericles is lauded as "the ideal type of
the perfect statesman in ancient Greece" and his Funeral Oration is
nowadays synonymous with the struggle for participatory democracy and
civic pride.
In 1932, botanist Albert Charles Smith published 'Periclesia', a
monotypic genus of flowering plants from Ecuador belonging to the
family Ericaceae and named after Pericles.
See also
======================================================================
* Art in ancient Greece
* Culture of Greece
* Sculpture of ancient Greece
* Timeline of ancient Greece
* Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Primary sources (Greek and Roman)
===================================
* Aristophanes, 'The Acharnians'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0023
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0240
(translation)]
* See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0057
Perseus Project].
* Aristotle, 'Politika (Politics)'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0057
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0058
(translation)]
* Cicero, 'De Oratore'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0120
Perseus Project].
* Diodorus Siculus, 'Library', 12th Book. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0083%3Abook%3D12%3Achapter%3D40%3Asection%3D1
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0084%3Abook%3D12%3Achapter%3D40%3Asection%3D1
(translation)]
* Herodotus, 'The Histories', VI. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0125%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D131%3Asection%3D2
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D131%3Asection%3D2
(translation)]
* Plato, 'Alcibiades I'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0175%3Atext%3DAlc.+1%3Asection%3D118c
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0176%3Atext%3DAlc.+1%3Asection%3D118c
(translation)] from
* Plato, 'Gorgias'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0177%3Atext%3DGorg.%3Asection%3D447a
Perseus Project],
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0177%3Atext%3DGorg.%3Asection%3D455d
455d],
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0177%3Atext%3DGorg.%3Asection%3D455e
455e],
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0177%3Atext%3DGorg.%3Asection%3D515e
515e]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0178%3Atext%3DGorg.%3Asection%3D447a
(translation)] from
* Plato, 'Menexenus'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0179%3Atext%3DMenex.%3Asection%3D236a
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0180%3Atext%3DMenex.%3Asection%3D236a
(translation)] from
* Plato, 'Phaedrus', See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0173%3Atext%3DPhaedrus%3Asection%3D270a
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0174%3Atext%3DPhaedrus%3Asection%3D270a
(translation)] from
* Plutarch, 'Cimon'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0069%3Achapter%3D17%3Asection%3D6
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0017%3Achapter%3D17%3Asection%3D6
(translation)]
* See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a2008.01.0072
Perseus Project]
* Quintilian, 'Institutiones'. See original text in
[
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/quintilian.html The Latin Library].
* , I-III. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0199%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D1
Perseus Project]
* Xenophon (?), 'Constitution of Athens'. See original text in
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0157%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D16
Perseus Project]
[
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0158%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D16
(translation)]
Secondary sources
===================
*
*
* Beloch, K.J. (1884). 'Die Attische Politik seit Perikles '. Leipzig
(in German).
* Beloch, K.J. (1893). 'Griechische Geschichte'. Volume II (in
German).
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Delbrück, Hans (1920): 'History of the Art of War', University of
Nebraska Press; Reprint edition, 1990. Translated by Walter, J.
Renfroe. Volume 1.
*
* Encyclopaedic Dictionary 'The Helios'. 'Volume VIII'. article: 'The
Funeral Speech over the Fallen'. 'Volume XV'. article: 'Pericles' (in
Greek).
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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* Kakridis, Ioannis Th. (1993). 'Interpretative Comments on the
Pericles' Funeral Oration'. Estia (in Greek).
*
* King, J.D. (2005). .
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*
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* Paparrigopoulos, Konstantinos (Karolidis, Pavlos) (1925), 'History
of the Hellenic Nation (Volume Ab)'. Eleftheroudakis (in Greek).
*
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*
*
*
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* Vlachos, Angelos (1992). 'Remarks on Thucydides' History of the
Peloponnesian War (Α΄-Δ΄). Volume I'. Estia (in Greek).
* Vlachos, Angelos (1974). 'Thucydides' bias'. Estia (in Greek).
*
*
*
Further reading
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* Gore Vidal, Creation (novel) for a fictional account of Pericles and
a Persian view of the wars.
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericles
