Product Code Database
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".Thucydides, 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 Greece 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.L. de Blois, An Introduction to the Ancient World 99 Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics called him a populist.S. Muhlberger, Periclean Athens .S. Ruden, Lysistrata, 80. Pericles was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonidae 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.
According to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles' 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.Herodotus, VI, 131.Plutarch, Pericles, . 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' skull, which became a popular target of contemporary comedians (who called him "Squill-head", after the Drimia maritima or sea-onion).V.L. Ehrenberg, From Solon to Socrates, a239. 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).L. Cunningham & J. Reich, Culture and Values, 73.
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)Plutarch, Pericles, Plato, Alcibiades I, 118c 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.M. Mendelson, Many Sides, 1
Pericles' manner of thought and charisma may have possibly been in part products of Anaxagoras' 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' influence.Plutarch, Pericles, and Plato, Phaedrus, 270a
Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years.Plutarch, Pericles, 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.Plutarch, Pericles, Plutarch, Pericles,
In 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens' vital interests in Macedon.Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, Although Cimon was acquitted, this confrontation proved that Pericles' major political opponent was vulnerable.Plutarch, Cimon, XV
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' 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.L.J. Samons, What's Wrong with Democracy?, 80
In 461 BC, Pericles achieved the political elimination of this opponent using ostracism. The accusation was that Cimon betrayed his city by aiding Sparta.Plutarch, Cimon, XVI
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 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.Fornara-Samons, Athens from Cleisthenes to Pericles, 67–73 His most controversial measure, however, was a law of 451 BC limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides.R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History
Such measures impelled Pericles' 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.K. Paparrigopoulos, History of the Greek Nation, Ab, 145 Accordingly, he enacted legislation granting the lower classes access to the political system and the public offices, from which they had previously been barred.Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, and Politics, 1274a
According to Samons, Pericles believed that it was necessary to raise the Deme, in which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and the crucial element of Athenian military dominance.L.J. Samons, What's Wrong with Democracy?, 65 (The fleet, backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned almost entirely by members of the lower classes).Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 377–378
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' reforms were leading to the stalemate of populism. According to Paparrigopoulos, history vindicated Cimon, because Athens, after Pericles' 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' populist policies.
According to another historian, Justin Daniel King, radical democracy benefited people individually, but harmed the state.J.D. King, , 24–25 In contrast, Donald Kagan asserted that the democratic measures Pericles put into effect provided the basis for an unassailable political strength.D. Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, 79 After all, Cimon finally accepted the new democracy and did not oppose the citizenship law, after he returned from exile in 451 BC.D. Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, 135–136
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.Plutarch, Pericles, If it were actually made, this bargain would constitute a concession on Pericles' 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.J. M. Libourel, The Athenian Disaster in Egypt, 605–615 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,H. Aird, Pericles: The Rise and Fall of Athenian Democracy, 52 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.K.J. Beloch, Griechische Geschichte, II, 205
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.J. Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 359–361. 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.E. Badian, The Peace of Callias, 1–39.
John Fine, in contrast, suggests that the first peace between Athens and Persia was concluded in 450–449 BC, due to Pericles' calculation that ongoing conflict with Persia was undermining Athens' ability to spread its influence in Greece and the Aegean Sea. 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.D. Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, 108.
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' intentions remain unclear.Plutarch, Pericles, 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.Wade-Grey, The Question of Tribute in 449/8 B.C., 212–229. 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).T. Buckley, Aspects of Greek History 750–323 BC, 206.
During the Second Sacred War Pericles led the Athenian army against Delphi and reinstated Phocis in its sovereign rights on the oracle.Thucydides, and Plutarch, Pericles, 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.Plutarch, Pericles, 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.Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 368–369.
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.Thucydides, and Aristophanes, The Acharnians, 832 When Pericles was later audited for the handling of public money, an expenditure of 10 Greek talent 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.Plutarch, Pericles,
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 Oreus, 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.
The final steps in the shift to empire may have been triggered by Athens' 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.D. Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, 98 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.T. Buckley, Aspects of Greek History 750–323 BC, 204.
By 450–449 BC the revolts in Miletus and Erythrae were quelled and Athens restored its rule over its allies.R. Sealey, A History of the Greek City States, 700–338 BC, 275. 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.S. Hornblower, The Greek World 479–323 BC, 120.
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' friend, Phidias.J. M. Hurwit, The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles, 87 etc. 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.A. Vlachos, Thucydides' Bias, 62–63.
When the Athenians ordered the two sides to stop fighting and submit the case to arbitration in Athens, the Samians refused.Plutarch, Pericles, 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.Plutarch, Pericles, 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.R. Sealey, A History of the Greek City States, 310
Between 438 and 436 BC Pericles led Athens' fleet in Pontus and established friendly relations with the Greek cities of the region.C.J. Tuplin, Pontus and the Outside World, 28 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 Cleruchy, such as Andros, Naxos Island and Thurii (444 BC) as well as Amphipolis (437–436 BC).Plutarch, Pericles, and Plato, Gorgias, 455e
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.Plutarch, Pericles,
Aspasia, who was noted for her ability as a conversationalist and adviser, was accused of corrupting the women of Athens to satisfy Pericles' perversions.Suda, article Aspasia Plutarch, Pericles, N. Loraux, Aspasie, l'étrangère, l'intellectuelle, 133–164M. Henry, Prisoner of History, 138–139 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.K.J. Beloch, Die Attische Politik seit Perikles, 19–22 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.
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.Thucydides, At that time, the Athenians unhesitatingly followed Pericles' 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.Thucydides, 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".A.G. Platias-C. Koliopoulos, Thucydides on Strategy, 100–103. 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.A. Vlachos, Thucydides' Bias, 20 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' stance was the concern that revolts in the empire might spread if Athens showed itself weak.V.L. Ehrenberg, From Solon to Socrates, 264.
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.J. Ober, The Athenian Revolution, 72–85 Therefore, although they agreed to leave, many rural residents were far from happy with Pericles' decision.Thucydides, 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.Thucydides,
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.Thucydides, 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.D. Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 69 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.Thucydides, and Xenophon(?), Constitution of Athens, 2 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.Thucydides,
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.Plutarch, Pericles, XXXVI He himself died of the plague later in the year.
Just before his death, Pericles' 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".Plutarch, Pericles, 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' unique glory and grandeur.
Pausanias (c. 150 AD) records (I.29) seeing the tomb of Pericles along a road near the Academy.
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' socialites, her status as a non-Athenian led many to attack their relationship. Even Pericles' 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.Plutarch, Pericles, XXXII
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,Plutarch, Pericles, a striking decision considering that Pericles himself had proposed the law confining citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides.W. Smith, A History of Greece, 271
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' 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' 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". Plato, Gorgias Plutarch mentions other criticism of Pericles' 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.M.F. McGregor, Government in Athens, 122–123.J.S. Morrison-A. W. Gomme, Pericles Monarchos, 76–77. According to King, by increasing the power of the people, the Athenians left themselves with no authoritative leader. During the Peloponnesian War, Pericles' dependence on popular support to govern was obvious.
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.A.G. Platias-C. Koliopoulos, Thucydides on Strategy, 98–99. 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' 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.D. Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, 83 His strategy is said to have been "inherently unpopular", but Pericles managed to persuade the Athenian public to follow it.A.G. Platias-C. Koliopoulos, Thucydides on Strategy, 119–120. It is for that reason that Hans Delbrück called him one of the greatest statesmen and military leaders in history.H. Delbrück, History of the Art of War, I, 137 Although his countrymen engaged in several aggressive actions soon after his death,V.L. Ehrenberg, From Solon to Socrates, 278 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.B. X. de Wet, This So-Called Defensive Policy of Pericles, 103–119.
Critics of Pericles' 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.K. Paparrigopoulos, Aa, 241–242. 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.V.D. Hanson, Peloponnesian War, 58D. Kagan, Athenian Strategy in the Peloponnesian War, 54S. Strauss-J. Ober, The Anatomy of Error, 47 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.D. Kagan, The Archidamian War, 28, 41. Kagan estimates Pericles' 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.V.D. Hanson, Peloponnesian War, 74–75D. Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 61–62. Others, such as Donald W. Knight, conclude that the strategy was too defensive and would not succeed.D. Knight, Thucydides and the War Strategy of Pericles, 150–160.
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".A.G. Platias-C. Koliopoulos, Thucydides on Strategy, 138 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.L.J. Samons, What's Wrong with Democracy?, 131–132.
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' 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' 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".Diodorus, XII, 39 According to Plutarch, he avoided using gimmicks in his speeches, unlike the passionate Demosthenes, and always spoke in a calm and tranquil manner.Plutarch, Pericles, The biographer points out, however, that the poet Ion reported that Pericles' 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.Plato, Gorgias, 455d In Menexenus, however, Socrates (through Plato) casts aspersions on Pericles' 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.Plato, Menexenus, 236a He also attributes authorship of the Funeral Oration to Aspasia and attacks his contemporaries' veneration of Pericles.S. Sara Monoson, Plato's Democratic Entanglements, 182–186
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".Sir Richard C. Jebb, The Attic Orators
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.Aristophanes, Acharnians, 528–531 and Diodorus, XII, 40 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.Quintilian, Institutiones, XII, 9
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.Vincent Azoulay, 2014. Pericles of Athens, trans. Janet Lloyd. Princeton and Oxford, 107–108
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 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.Vincent Azoulay, 2014. Pericles of Athens, trans. Janet Lloyd. Princeton and Oxford, 108.
In politics, Victor L. Ehrenberg argues that a basic element of Pericles' legacy is Athenian imperialism, which denies true democracy and freedom to the people of all but the ruling state.V. L. Ehrenberg, From Solon to Socrates, 332 The promotion of such an arrogant imperialism is said to have ruined Athens.C.G. Starr, A History of the Ancient World, 306 Pericles and his "expansionary" policies have been at the center of arguments promoting democracy in oppressed countries.V.D. Hanson, Peloponnesian War, 584L. Miller, My Favorite War
Other analysts maintain an Athenian humanism illustrated in the Golden Age.E.J. Power, A Legacy of Learning, 52Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies The freedom of expression is regarded as the lasting legacy deriving from this period.R.A. Katula, A Synoptic History of Classical Rhetoric, 18 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.K. Mattson, Creating a Democratic Public, 32
In 1932, botanist Albert Charles Smith published Periclesia, a monotypic genus of from Ecuador belonging to the family Ericaceae and named after Pericles.
The exterior of the ETH Zurich University Archives has a wall painting with the face of Pericles, together with Homer and Aristotle.
Taylor Caldwell's 1974 novel Glory and the Lightning chronicles the lives of Pericles and Aspasia.
In the 2001 TV Movie Black River Pericles is the pseudonym used by the mysterious voice on the phone.
In the 2016 video game Civilization VI Pericles is one of the two playable leaders for the Greek civilization, the other being Gorgo.Official Sid Meier'
In the 2018 video game Assassin's Creed Odyssey Pericles's life as a politician and his death are both presented, although his death being from injuries sustained during a violent attack is not historically accurate.
/ref>
See also
Notes
Citations
Primary sources (Greek and Roman)
Secondary sources
A. W. Gomme9780198141983, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198141983
Malcolm F. McGregor (1987). 9780774802697, The University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 9780774802697
Koliopoulos Constantinos Platias Athanasios G. (2025). 9789608187160, Eurasia Publications. ISBN 9789608187160
Further reading
|
|
